Border Czar Tom Homan is putting Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on notice: refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents, and more ICE teams will be deployed into the state’s streets and neighborhoods.
Homan issued the warning Thursday in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, responding to Spanberger’s February executive directive that severed state agency cooperation with federal immigration officials.
“We’ll just send more teams into the streets, into the neighborhoods,” Homan said. “Because we’re going to do the job that President Trump promised, to make his country safer again, especially against illegal aliens that committed other crimes while they’re here.”
Spanberger, a Democrat, also rescinded a 287(g) program established by her Republican predecessor, Gov. Glenn Youngkin. That program had authorized local law enforcement to assist ICE in identifying and holding migrants with criminal records before they could be released into communities.
Homan called the policy of releasing criminal migrants without notifying ICE “ridiculous.”
“These people are in the country illegally, they commit a serious crime, public safety crime, and the local jurisdiction chooses to release them into the community rather than turning them over to ICE,” Homan said.
Homan also questioned Spanberger’s credibility on law enforcement. “She ran on a law enforcement position that she was a career law enforcement person. She is a much different person now since she’s in that governor’s slot,” he said.
Homan drew a contrast with West Virginia, which has cooperated fully with federal agents. Officials there have logged 650 arrests, and state leaders have said the turmoil seen in sanctuary cities is a choice, not an inevitability.
He pointed to Minnesota as another example of what cooperation can accomplish. “I wish she’d take a page out of the Minnesota chapter when the president sent me to Minneapolis to get more cooperation with the county jailers, which means less public safety threats in the communities,” Homan said.
The Department of Justice has active lawsuits pending against sanctuary jurisdictions. Homan said he believes those cases will ultimately succeed.
“ICE is not going to stop enforcing law,” Homan said. “I think sanctuary cities are illegal. The Department of Justice has got lawsuits pending against sanctuary jurisdictions. I think they’ll win them in the long run.”
He added that federal agents in jail facilities would mean fewer operations in public. “We’re out there trying to educate these sanctuary cities that if you let us in the jail, that means less of our agents are in the street.”
