In the News

Lyra Bordelon | Staunton News Leader 

Sixth District Representative Ben Cline signed onto a letter critical of Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s recent executive order rescinding state law enforcement cooperation with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Spanberger’s Jan. 17 executive order directed Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Virginia Department of Wildlife, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to terminate “any and all” section 287(g) agreements the agencies have with ICE.  The order argued the agreements “improperly ceded discretion and authority over Virginia law enforcement to federal authorities” and that “Virginia law enforcement will continue to exercise available authority under a valid judicial warrant.”

The letter called on Spanberger to restore former governor Glenn Youngkin’s 2025 executive order directing Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections to sign Section 287(g) agreements with ICE. Spanberger’s executive order rescinded Youngkin’s.

“These recent actions are inconsistent with your previous support for law enforcement,” reads the letter. “During your campaign for Governor of Virginia, you ran on the promise to empower law enforcement and protect Virginians from violent crime. Your recent executive actions do not reflect that commitment to protection.”

Spanberger, in a press release following the executive order, argued the opposite.

The letter was also signed by Ninth District Representative H. Morgan Griffith, Second District Representative Jen A. Kiggans, First District Representative Robert Wittman and Fifth District Representative John J. McGuire III. The full letter can be found on Cline's Facebook page.

According to the letter, there are 361,000 unauthorized immigrants in Virginia with 4,264 “illegal immigrants” arrested during the first seven months of 2025.

The press release celebrated an operation in Northern Virginia which saw the arrest of 30 “gang members” of MS-13, Mexican Pride and Southside Locos. ICE itself issued a press release on the arrests, cited by the Congressional letter, explaining “of the 30 arrests, 26 individuals were arrested on administrative immigration violations and nine were arrested for criminal offenses and face prosecution for various federal, state and local crimes including re-entry after deportation, assault, grand larceny, destruction of property and carrying a concealed weapon.”

The letter also echoes a press release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Spanberger's executive order. According to DHS press release, Edwin Antonio Hernandez Hernandez of El Salvador entered the United States at age 15 in 2015. He was arrested in Virginia by U.S. Border Patrol, and an immigration judge ordered his removal in 2017. While in custody, Hernandez began the asylum process. He also allegedly admitted to being an MS-13 member and confessed to murdering five people in El Salvador.

“Numerous violent criminals such as Edwin Antonio Hernandez, a man responsible for five murders in El Salvador, have been taken off Virginia’s streets,” reads the letter. “With the absence of cooperation between state and federal law enforcement agencies, apprehending violent individuals such as Hernandez will be more difficult and dangerous to achieve.”

Read the story here.