Virginia leaders respond after 14 people detained by ICE at Chesterfield courthouse

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Virginia leaders are responding after over a dozen people were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while attending court proceedings at the Chesterfield County Courthouse.

Over the course of three days, a total of 14 people were reportedly taken into custody by ICE agents while appearing at the courthouse for criminal charges they are facing, according to Sheriff Karl Leonard with the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office.

Six people were detained on Friday, June 20 and six more were detained on Monday, June 23. On Tuesday, June 24, ICE agents returned "with very little notice" and detained an additional two people, according to Leonard.

8News reached out to some Virginia leaders, asking for their reactions to these incidents.

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State Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) provided 8News with the following statement:

“Little information is known about what happened at Chesterfield County Courthouse, but Senator Kaine is aware of the reports of ICE detaining individuals there. He believes that it’s important for ICE officers to be clearly identifiable to the public as law enforcement to mitigate risk — including risk to themselves if people misunderstand what’s happening — and enhance safety.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) hosted an event Tuesday in honor of a Texas boy battling cancer. Following the ceremony, he and Attorney General Jason Miyares made time for the press to discuss various topics.

One reporter asked both state leaders about ICE's actions in Chesterfield. Youngkin provided the following statement in response:

"We have a statewide collaboration and partnership between [Virginia] State Police and ICE and the FBI and DEA, working to make sure that violent criminals who are here illegally are arrested. So the fact that there have been some arrests at the Chesterfield County Courthouse makes sense, because they [the immigrants] clearly have been arrested, they clearly are here illegally, and therefore that's part of our statewide effort. We've been working with counties constructively and I appreciate Chesterfield County working with our statewide task force to make sure that we're going to be able to keep Virginians safe. We are now through over 2,000 arrests as part of the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force. It's working. And most importantly, we're getting really tough bad guys off the street."

Miyares' statement, which he also provided during this interaction with the press, is as follows:

"[It's] what the governor said. These are overwhelming[ly] individuals of both one and two categories: one, they're here illegally, they've committed violent felonies. Or two -- [as] I would remind my friends in the press, there are 1.4 million illegal immigrants [who] have already had a deportation hearing. In other words, they've already been in front of a judge. A judge already heard their case, adjudicated the case, and said, 'You can't stay in this country.' And under the previous administration, despite that, nothing ever happened. So what you're seeing overwhelmingly are people [who] have already had their day in court. They're either a violent criminal or they've already had their day in court and they've been ordered to be deported. So I have a strong suspicion that's what's happening in Chesterfield."

Notably, authorities did not confirm that any of these people were attending court for immigration-related crimes. At this time, what has been shared is that their charges varied and were a mixture of misdemeanor and felony offenses.

The Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office said it is "not clear" how ICE determines when it should send agents to the courthouse to potentially detain individuals.

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“However, the list of defendants appearing in court on any given day is public information and easily accessible on the internet," the sheriff’s office said in a press release on Tuesday. "Once that list is accessed, it can be easily compared to any other list one may have to compare names.”