CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Governor Abigail Spanberger’s executive directive to end multiple Virginia state agencies’ agreement with federal immigration enforcement is drawing mixed reactions across the Commonwealth.Executive Directive 1, which Spanberger announced to a group of law enforcement officials Wednesday, terminates 287(g) agreements between ICE and the Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Virginia Department of Wildlife, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. After a review of the agreements, Spanberger says her team found that they “improperly cede accountability and discretion over Virginia law enforcement to the federal government by requiring that Virginia law enforcement agents work “under the supervision or direction of” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).“As governor, I think that members of the Virginia State Police and members of the Virginia Department of Corrections should be working under and at the direction and supervision of the leadership of their agencies,” Spanberger said. The move rescinds former Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 47, which formed a statewide task force and directed local law enforcement agencies to assist in immigration enforcement and requested that localities “fully cooperate with” ICE.Republicans are not happy with Spanberger’s action - including Representative John McGuire, who represents Virginia’s 5th Congressional District.“I think it’s going to put the lives of American citizens, Virginia citizens in more danger,” McGuire said. “It tells me and it tells Virginia that she cares more about criminals than keeping Virginia, law abiding citizens safe.”Spanberger’s directive specifies that agencies will continue to cooperate with local, state, and federal partners under a valid judicial warrant. Still, McGuire says it goes too far and will interrupt what he says is critical coordination among federal, state, and local law enforcement.“The Governor is the leader of Virginia, and when they have that command signal, that you don’t need to cooperate with federal officers, what do you think people are gonna think?” McGuire said. “These decisions, they’re backwards, they’re wrong, they’re dangerous, and I hope she reconsiders.”Alex Kornya, the Director of Litigation with the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, disagrees. Kornya and his associates at the Center have published a new report, called “Unmasking ICE’S Collusion with Law Enforcement in Virginia,” with roughly a year of investigation.“These agreements are not conducive to public safety, they divert resources away from state and local concerns” Kornya said. “The more that local and state law enforcement is focusing on priorities that are established outside of local communities and outside of the state, the further and further away we get from enforcing the actual public safety issues that local law enforcement and communities who depend on them actually need.”Spanberger’s Executive Directive only applies to state law enforcement agencies’ 287(g) agreements, not those that local law enforcement agencies have joined. Several counties’ sheriff’s offices across the state remain in direct collaboration with ICE, including in Greene County.“It’s a well-run program,” Greene County Sheriff Steve Smith told 29News. “ICE are our brothers in law enforcement, and we’re gonna help them do whatever we can. It’s a way for us to help enforce the law to keep the citizens safe. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be involved in it.”Sheriff Smith says that since the Office signed the 287(g) agreement in June, 11 officers, including himself, have completed the online ICE training modules and received at least a passing grade on the subsequent examination.“We receive credentials that we are part of the ICE team, and we can assist them, and detain people for them, and it just gives us another tool that when people are breaking the law,” Smith said. “Some of the people, they get caught, they go to court, some of them get caught, they get shipped back out to their country.”As part of that agreement, Smith also told 29News that the Sheriff’s Office has received about $137,000 from ICE for the purpose of buying a fully equipped police vehicle, as well as other law enforcement equipment. He expects the Sheriff’s Office will receive more money from the federal government each quarter.29News asked when specifically the Greene County Sheriff’s Office will detain someone; for example, if that individual has been pulled over for speeding.“If we have an encounter with anyone, we will check them out to make sure they’re here legally,” Smith said. “And if they’re not, we’ll run them through the program, and if they have warrants for them, or if they’re wanted by ICE, then we detain them for ICE. If not, we issue them a summons and let them go. We don’t go to people’s houses and knock on the doors and say are you here legally or not, we don’t do that. We go after the criminals.”Charlottesville, on the other hand, is a very different story. Police Chief Michael Kochis has been adamant that his department will not join any 287(g) agreement, reiterating that to 29News on Thursday. Though he says Charlottesville Police will not interfere or attempt to impede federal immigration enforcement, his officers won’t participate, either.“It’s not our job,” Kochis said. “It’s really that simple...My biggest fear as a police chief is that there is someone in the community that is the victim of a crime and they are either hesitating or don’t call us because they don’t know who’s going to show up at the front door.”Kochis, who attended the law enforcement meeting at which Spanberger announced the directive, says he appreciates her guidance on the issue, even if it is only at the state level.“It allows us to really focus on building trust in our communities between law enforcement and the communities we serve, and let’s be honest, what we’re seeing in Minneapolis is not that,” Kochis said. And when stuff like that happens, while it may be in Minneapolis and not Charlottesville, it still impacts us."That impact was the impetus behind Charlottesville City Council passing a resolution this week to condemn federal immigration enforcement efforts and set guidelines for local ICE cooperation. In response to the escalation of the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis, in which federal agents shot and killed two protestors, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Charlottesville’s mayor wrote a letter to Virginia’s Senators, Spanberger, and McGuire.“Recent events in Minneapolis, where two United States citizens were fatally shot during a federal immigration enforcement operation, have shaken communities across the country and raised urgent questions about the tactics, decision-making, and accountability structures surrounding federal enforcement,” Mayor Juandiego Wade writes. “Federal enforcement that is perceived as unaccountable or unnecessarily aggressive undermines trust, weakens community cooperation, and ultimately makes all of us less safe. We believe that clear standards, meaningful oversight, and transparency serve both the public and the dedicated professionals tasked with enforcing the law.”29News asked McGuire, a recipient of Charlottesville City Council’s letter, how he intends to respond.“I think we have to support our law enforcement officers,” McGuire said. “Some people risk their time, some people risk their money. These men and women, we wouldn’t have a country without them. They leave their home, and risk their life, and sometimes give their life for our safety, and we have to support them.”While Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Democrats and other officials across the nation, have condemned the Department of Homeland Security for the fatal shootings of protestors, with a growing list of people calling for Secretary Kristi Noem’s resignation or impeachment, McGuire says he believes much of the blame should be assigned to Governor Tim Walz for showing “poor leadership.”“No one wants anyone killed, no one wants anyone shot, but those officers should not have been put in that position,” McGuire said. “A good leader should de-escalate and not add fuel to the fire.”With Spanberger’s termination of the state 287(g) agreement and Charlottesville’s stand against ICE, there has been some concern about retribution.29News asked Kochis if he believes there will be any sort of federal response or crackdown similar to what occurred in Minneapolis.“I don’t know,” Kochis said. “Here’s what I will tell you, spending time around the Governor...she just gets it. She understands local law enforcement. She understands the importance of building trust in our communities. And I don’t think there was anything in any executive order or anything like that that flies in the face of that.”Kornya with the Legal Aid Justice Center says only time will tell.“Will it put a target on our back?” Kornya said. “It’s really hard to say, but I think across the country, more and more communities are standing up...and I think that communities in Virginia need to join that growing group.”While Spanberger cannot eliminate local 287(g) agreements, legislation advancing through the Virginia General Assembly could. HB1438 would terminate all ICE agreements in the state.Though the localities that are part of those agreements, including Greene County, say they’re crucial to keeping communities safe, Kornya says it’s the opposite.“They’ve got it exactly backwards,” he told 29News. “I think that this narrative that the people who are being targeted in these enforcement surges are all violent criminals is just not what we see every day with our clients and with the communities that we serve. There are dozens, hundreds of stories that we are personally aware of people who have been caught up in these enforcement surges that have no criminal history whatsoever, perhaps minor criminal history, and this idea that this is a public safety issue is exactly the opposite.”Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.Copyright 2026 WVIR. All rights reserved.