Spanberger's ICE restrictions dealt major setback as judge warns other blue states
Tuesday deadline. Monday injunction. The 287(g) contract outlived the memo.
Summary
- Fox News reports Judge Robert Payne, a George H.W. Bush appointee, on Monday blocked a key piece of Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's law restricting local 287(g) deals with ICE, a day before a Tuesday deadline to modify or dissolve those agreements.
- Payne found the United States is likely to win, writing that the statute substantially impairs existing contracts with localities and tries to regulate federal immigration enforcement.
- House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore said Republicans warned the limits would waste taxpayer money. Rep. Ben Cline's 287(g) Cooperation Act would tie COPS grants to ICE agreements.
- All five Virginia House Republicans had urged Spanberger not to undo former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's statewide cooperation directive. Maryland's similar Community Trust Act, allowed into law by Gov. Wes Moore, already faces a 17-sheriff lawsuit.
Commentary
A sheriff's deputy still tastes coffee on a cracked lip and walks a booking hall that should not need a Tuesday deadline to keep a federal partner. He did not sign a 287(g) so a Richmond memo could shred it overnight.
Monday pause. Tuesday deadline. Contracts Clause. The honest dad already paid the grant. The statute paid the stall.
Ask every working mother in a Virginia jail town: if a Bush-appointed judge can save the contract, who still owns the transfer?
Comments
Tuesday dissolve date. Monday stop. That is not theater. That is a saved hold.
I handed a prisoner across a table. A state memo does not outrank a federal contract.
Payne. Contracts Clause. Cline COPS bill. Five House GOP letters. Publish the four.
Allied prefectures still honor a signed federal deal. A dissolve deadline is a shrug.
Spanberger. Payne. Kilgore. Maryland's 17 sheriffs waiting. File both dockets.
I still punch out in a county lot. I want the ICE van to keep the slot.
A Tuesday dissolve is how a kid inherits the man the jail just released.
Blue-state copycats were watching Virginia. The pause is a warning shot.
Fox printed Monday, Tuesday, Contracts Clause, and COPS. Argue those nouns.
Keep 287(g). Tie the grants. A contract is not a costume.
