U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne in Richmond, VA, placed a temporary injunction on a key part of a law that limits cooperation with ICE.
Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed SB 783 and HB 1441 in May, which banned state and local law enforcement from entering into any agreements under Section 287(g) of federal immigration law.
The law also would force law enforcement to end any existing agreements with ICE.
The Washington Post reported that 28 Virginia law enforcement entities “have existing contracts with ICE.”
The DOJ sued Virginia in June.
“Virginia seeks to override Congress’s enactments that provide that ICE may enter into agreements with States and localities in which ICE trains local officers in immigration enforcement matters and provides them with the authority to conduct such matters under the color of Federal law,” the DOJ wrote in the lawsuit.
Payne determined that Virginia could not interfere with any existing agreements between law enforcement and ICE.
The judge wrote that the federal government will likely prevail in its lawsuit against Virginia for numerous reasons.
First, Payne concluded that the law violates the Constitution’s Contracts Clause.
The Virginia law “is a ‘substantial impairment’ of the existing contracts between the federal government and Virginia localities.”
Payne also decided the government would prevail with its Supremacy Clause claim because the law “directly regulates the conduct of federal law enforcement in the enforcement of the federal immigration laws, thereby violating the intergovernmental immunity doctrine.”
Payne wrote that the injunction is necessary since the government would likely suffer irreparable injury since the law impairs the “valid contract rights and existing 287 (g) agreements.” There currently is “no remedy at law for that impairment.”
The temporary injunction also is in the public interest.
However, Payne did not touch one part of the law. Virginia can still prevent “localities or local law enforcement officers, which, who have not previously entered into 287 agreements from entering into 287(g) agreements for the first time.”
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