Sens. Kaine and Warner react to Trump's deportation plans
On day one, President-elect Donald Trump plans to launch the largest deportation operation in U.S. American history, but Virginia's U.S. Senators are still unclear of how the plan will impact undocumented immigrants in the Commonwealth and beyond.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has long prioritized immigrants with criminal records.
However, Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, has said he anticipates collateral arrests as a part of their new plan. This means, undocumented immigrants who are caught up in ICE sweeps can be detained even if they have not been accused or charged of other crimes.
"Lets see what President Trump proposes," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said. "He often talks about things and doesn't do them, or does a half version of them, or does some subset of them. We don't really know."
Kaine also said the incoming administration's deportation proposal is riddled with logistical issues and questions.
"How do you create the detention space?" he asked. "How do you pay for the deportation itself? There's no details connected to any of this."
During Trump's first administration, Sen. Kaine took issue with what many believe was his first wave of ICE sweeps. In February 2017 at least 683 immigrants were detained in the DMV region in the first days that Trump took office.
ICE said they targeted undocumented immigrants facing criminal charges.
Advocacy groups and immigrants in the impacted communities tell a different story. Some people like Bailey's Crossroads resident Ingrid says she knows people without criminal records who were detained and deported as federal officials were executing warrants for people with convictions.
In a February 2017 letter to ICE officials, Kaine called for answers following the detention of six Latino men outside of Alexandria's Rising Hope Mission Church's hypothermia shelter. Kaine referenced members of the congregation that believed the church had been targed by ICE.
"To do that kind of thing outside of a homeless shelter, and especially a homeless shelter outside of a church, terribly cruel," Kaine said Thursday when recalling the incident. "And I stood with our community against those behaviors in 2017, and I'm going to do it again."
CASA, the largest immigrant advocacy group in the DMV region says they are providing vulnerable immigrant communities with targeted resources amid ICE raid concerns. Some of those resources include 'Know-Your-Rights' workshops.
"Everyone has these rights regardless of their immigration status, the first one being, you have the right to remain silent," CASA' Legal Director, Ama Frimpong told WUSA9.
Another advocacy group based in Northern Virginia told WUSA9, they were not sharing the details about their plan because they are concerned their members might be targeted.
"Part of what President Trump is threatening is to deport people who have overstayed their welcome or committed crimes," Sen. Mark Warner told reporters on Thursday. "People who have already been adjudicated, I understand."
Warner took aim at the Biden administration's handling of the border saying the president waited too long to address those issues, but he also commended the administration for extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for beneficiaries from El Salvador, Venezuela, Sudan and Ukraine.
"They don't face undo pressure around whatever President Trump will do with deportations." he added.
Warner urged his colleagues in Congress to approve a bipartisan immigration legislation after early a year ago, Republicans struck down a plan. President Biden blamed Trump's pressure over Republicans for killing that deal.