Virginia reacts to ICE funding surge under Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The promise of more funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is receiving both support and resistance across Virginia.
President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," signed into law on the Fourth of July, includes increased funding for ICE, according to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) political science professor John Aughenbaugh.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as a broad public policy category, is going to see an increase over the next three and a half years of $170 billion in spending,” Aughenbaugh said.
Aughenbaugh said the money will be used to fund a border wall, build new and expand old detention centers and hire thousands of new ICE officers. Roughly $45 billion is set aside specifically to expand detention centers.
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In Virginia, there are two major detention centers: one in the Farmville area of Prince Edward County and another in Caroline County.
"We are now through over 2,000 arrests," Gov. Glenn Youngkin said previously when discussing ICE enforcement across America. "It’s working. And most importantly, we’re getting really tough, bad guys off the street."
Youngkin said cooperating with ICE to "get violent criminals who are here illegally off our streets" is something he supports -- but advocates say the action reaches far beyond criminals.
“They’re going into courts, they’re going into high school graduations to find these people,” said Violeta Vega, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “These are beloved neighbors, these mothers and fathers ... these aren’t places where you find criminals.”
Vega’s group protested the legislation over the Fourth of July weekend. She warned that Virginia has already become a “hotbed” for ICE activity.
Still, Aughenbaugh said implementation won’t be immediate.
“It’s going to take two to three years,” he said. "We're talking about spending billions of dollars to add more personnel [to] ICE or Border Patrol. It may take the remainder of the Trump administration to spend all that money."
