tags: Facts

Virginia Fact Sheet

by AV Press Releases on

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  1. The presence of ICE agents and its tactics in Virginia to pursue the Trump administration’s mass deportation operation is making Virginian communities live in fear and making them less safe.
  2. People are being detained by ICE, regardless of their immigration status and citizenship.
  3. Removing immigrant workers would strip $6.7 billion from Virginia’s economy. Immigrants make up 24% of entrepreneurs, 22.9% of STEM workers, and 13.9% of nurses in the state.

 

  • Economic cost of mass deportation in Virginia
    1. Trump’s mass deportation machine will hurt Virginia’s economy. Impacts to the three sectors heavily relying on immigration workers — construction, transportation/warehousing and professional/scientific — will increase the cost of living for everyone.
    2. Virginia could lose up to $6.7 billion dollars in its economy, not including state and local tax contributions.
      • Currently, there are around 789k immigrant workers in Virginia, which is about 17% of the total labor force in Virginia.
      • The immigrant households in Virginia earn $64.8 billion and have an enormous spending power of $46.5 billion.
      • The same immigrant households paid $18.3 billion in total in taxes. $12.1 billion went to federal taxes and $6.2 billion went to state and local taxes.
      • There are an estimated 75,000 immigrant construction workers in Virginia, making up a quarter of the 300,000 estimated construction workers in the commonwealth. 23% of the workers in the transportation/warehouse industry are immigrants while 6% of workers in the professional/scientific/admin/waste industry are immigrants.

 

  • Human cost of mass deportation in Virginia
    1. Mass deportation in Virginia will further undermine fundamental rights, create chaos and make cities less safe. As the following examples show, regardless of immigration status, everyone is at risk.
      • Silviano Mora Vera, a father and U visa holder in Richmond, was detained after he walked his son, Guillermo, to the bus stop. “Guillermo said he told the ICE agents his father was living in the US legally, but agents had already placed him in the back of an SUV.” The son was then told that his father’s visa paperwork and Social security card “didn’t matter” when he brought it to the ICE Richmond Field Office. That was the last time he saw his father in person.
      • Jensy Machado, a naturalized U.S. citizen in Virginia and a Trump voter, was arrested on the way to work with two of his co-workers. ICE agents surrounded his pickup truck with “guns in their hands” and were looking for a man that was not him. The ICE agents did not ask for identification, and immediately assumed that he was not a citizen by asking his legal status and how he entered the U.S. Machado recalls that when he stated he was a U.S. citizen, the agent “looked at his other partner like, you know, smiling, like saying, ‘can you believe this guy? Because he asked the other guy, ‘do you believe him?’” ICE agents freed him after they took a look at his REAL ID.
      • Armand Momand, a student at J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico, was detained despite having a legal U.S. immigration status under his father, who received a Special Immigration Visa for Afghans. This special visa was given to Afghan allies who helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan fight against the Taliban terrorists.
      • An ICE raid in Southwood Apartments located in South Richmond struck fear into the local community. One mom whose son was detained by ICE agents is now scared and worried to leave her home because of this raid. She even called 911 seeking help and said “a detective would come and help because I didn’t know who had taken my son…What if he had been kidnapped?”

 

  • Abuse of Power in Virginia
    1. The Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order directing local law enforcement to work with federal agents on mass deportation terrorizes local communities, violates rights and democratic norms, making us all less safe.
      • Virginia has the fourth-highest number of signed or pending 287(g) agreements, which are enforcement agreements between ICE and state and local law enforcement, making it one of the top states to prioritize mass deportation after Texas, Florida, and Georgia.
      • An increasing number of ICE agents in plainclothes and masks are detaining people in Virginia courthouses. Nicole Martin, President of the Chesterfield County NAACP, warns that the Chesterfield county courthouse raids aren’t only negatively affecting immigrants but also victims of domestic violence. She says, “Imagine being a victim of domestic violence, showing up to court to seek a protective order, and instead being detained by ICE. Or think of a key witness in a criminal case who now refuses to testify out of fear of deportation.” Albemarle County courthouses are facing the same fate. Albemarle Commonwealth County Attorney Jim Hingley said that these arrests “would constitute a grave danger to our community.”
      • In a dangerous escalation, even private bondsmen are making arrests. A plain-clothes man knocked on an Arlington County family’s door late at night to make an immigration arrest, leaving them fearing for their lives. The man was later identified as a bondsman. ICE denied using a bondsman, but the order the bondsman showed the family indicated that it was “authorized by Steven Newman, who is listed as a deportation officer on the DHS website.”