The Tahirih Justice Center has five offices across the country, including one in Falls Church, VA. While the National Guard typically provides support in response to emergencies such as disaster response, search and rescue, and public health efforts, assigning Virginia National Guard troops to immigration enforcement duties — which is reportedly Governor Youngkin’s plan — is a misguided approach that militarizes a humanitarian and federal legal issue. Deploying the Virginia National Guard to immigration enforcement duties creates a climate of fear and hostility rather than help and compassion. Such action also risks violating the due process rights of immigrants in Virginia and will only escalate tensions. The deployment of the Guard to support efforts to apprehend and detain Virginians is particularly harmful to immigrant crime victims including survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking, who are already expressing high levels of fear and anxiety about engaging with law enforcement. By pulling the Guard away from their core duties, it leaves all Virginians at increased risk.
In response to Governor Youngkin’s plan, Tahirih’s Public Policy Manager Alex Goyette states
“Forcing servicemembers of the Virginia National Guard to aid the deportation process of their own neighbors, often in ways that violate their constitutional right to due process, is abhorrent and in violation of the Guards’ sworn oath to defend the Constitution. This move undermines the safety of communities across the Commonwealth, and particularly the safety of immigrant survivors of violence who have reported that their legal status is being used as a tool of power, control, and coercion by their abusers as well as harm doers that are impersonating law enforcement to rape and assault immigrant women. There is no role for the Virginia National Guard to enforce federal immigration law.”
