Virginia Governor Hopeful Promises to Handcuff ICE, Yet Police Nonprofit Backs Her - Huh?!?!

RICHMOND, VA- In what can be described as sheer defiance of the interests of its members, the Virginia Police Benevolent Association split its endorsements ahead of the upcoming November elections, throwing its support behind left-wing Democrat Abigail Spanberger instead of Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earl Sears, The Hill reports. 

To the contrary, the PBA endorsed Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid and incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, also a Republican. 

“Abigail Spanberger grew up in a law enforcement family and is a former federal law enforcement officer herself, so she understands the responsibility of putting on the badge,” PBA President Joe Woloszyn said in a statement. 

“As a Member of Congress, she repeatedly voted to increase funding for local police departments and sheriff’s offices–and she was relentless in pushing her bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act across the finish line to secure the earned benefits of thousands of Virginia’s retired police officers,” he continued. 

Aside from that, Spanberger is an avid partisan liberal who has vowed to overturn Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s directive requiring Virginia law enforcement to assist federal immigration authorities, a move state Republicans have called a dangerous move that will undermine public safety and make the state a “sanctuary state” for illegal aliens. 

Spanberger made that promise in August during an interview with The Mercury, where she stated that if elected, she would rescind Executive Order 47, which requires state and local police authorities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

Youngkin issued that directive in February, ordering the Virginia State Police to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in arresting illegal aliens. Youngkin also created a Homeland Security Task Force, which expanded coordination on gang and immigration enforcement. 

Spanberger has been painted as soft on crime and even voted against the Laken Riley Act in Congress, named for the young college nursing student raped and murdered by an illegal alien in Georgia. 

“Abigail Spanberger voted against the Laken Rile Act after Laken was murdered by an illegal immigrant,” Earle-Sears posted on X. “Now she says her first act as governor will be to stop State Police from helping ICE. Abigail puts criminals over Virginians. Every. Single. Time.” 

Spanberger’s statement was also slammed by Youngkin, who took to X and posted the following:

“In her very first act as governor, @SpanbergerForVA promises to turn Virginia into a sanctuary state for dangerous illegal immigrants,” Youngkin wrote. “@winwithwinsome promises to keep dangerous criminals off our streets. Could the choice be any more clear, Virginia? Your safety is on the ballot this November.” 

The PBA is clearly playing politics, since Spanberger has been leading polls for some time. However, by backing a partisan hack like Spanberger, they are putting political expediency ahead of the interests of their members and the safety of Virginians. 

The Virginia governor’s race has drawn a substantial amount of out-of-state money, with Spanberger getting $10.7 million in the second quarter. The Virginia Public Access Project reports Spanberger has raised $27 million since she launched her campaign in November 2023. 

In promising to overturn Youngkin’s directive to law enforcement, Spanberger makes the absurd claim that it diverts state resources from local policing and “erodes trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement,” which is a leftist talking point for opposing cooperation between local law enforcement and the feds. She said the commonwealth shouldn’t “politicize” immigration enforcement at the expense of community safety, The Virginia Mercury wrote. 

Republican Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore slammed Spanberger’s proposal to rescind Youngkin’s order, saying it “isn’t about compassion. It’s about weakening immigration enforcement and making Virginia less safe.” 

Continuing, Kilgore said that Youngkin’s order “gave our sheriffs and state police the tools they need to keep criminal illegal aliens off our streets. That’s not politics. That’s public safety.” 

Kilgore vowed that Republicans would block any such move. 

“A Republican House of Delegates will stop her. Republicans will always stand with the men and women protecting our communities.” 

Virginia Republicans hope that Spanberger’s tone deaf statement will come back to haunt her, much as a clumsy remark by then-Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe led to Youngkin’s unlikely win in what has become a primarily blue state.

Sean Spicer, former White House communications director during Trump 45, compared Spanberger’s faux pas to McCauliffe’s stumble, referring to it as her “Terry McAuliffe moment” on X. 

Spanberger downplays the adverse effect illegal criminal aliens have on communities and says immigration enforcement shouldn’t be about “tear[ing] families apart.” 

“The idea that we would take local police officers or local sheriff’s deputies in amid all the things they have to do, like community policing or staffing our jails or investigating real crimes, so that they can go and tear families apart...that is a misuse of those resources,” Spanberger said. 

“Real crimes?” Like the rape and murder of a young college student by a criminal illegal alien? Like the rape and murder of a young 12-year-old girl in Houston, Texas, by several criminal illegal aliens? Like the murder of a mother jogging in Maryland who was raped and beaten by a criminal illegal alien? Those kinds of “real crimes?” 

Spanberger has called immigration enforcement a distraction. 

MS-13 has established strongholds in Virginia, and for the Virginia Police Benevolent Association to throw their endorsement behind someone like Spanberger boggles the mind. If Spanberger somehow does prevail, and when a Virginia police officer is murdered by one of these criminal illegal aliens that Spanberger claims don’t commit “real crimes,” the leadership of the Virginia PBA will have blood on their hands. 

They should be embarrassed.