A judge paused a key part of Virginia\u2019s new restrictions on local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, handing Gov. Abigail Spanberger\u2019s administration a major legal setback as a similar fight plays out in neighboring Maryland.<\/p>\n
George H.W. Bush-appointed Judge Robert Payne on Monday blocked a key piece of a law signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger that heavily restricts interagency cooperation and would have required local sheriffs to modify or dissolve their individual policies, known as 287(g) agreements, by a Tuesday deadline.<\/p>\n
Payne ruled the federal government is likely to prevail on several claims in its lawsuit against Virginia, finding “the Virginia 287(g) Law violates the Contracts Clause [of the] U.S. Constitution because it is a \u2018substantial impairment\u2019 of the existing contracts between the federal government and Virginia localities.”<\/p>\n
Payne did not strike down the law but paused its implementation as the feds\u2019 case against Richmond proceeds.<\/p>\n
FIRST ON FOX: DOJ SUES SPANBERGER\u2019S VIRGINIA OVER LAWS KNEECAPPING FEDERAL AGENTS AS MASK WAR ESCALATES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n He also found that Virginia\u2019s law wrongly attempts to “regulate conduct of federal law enforcement in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”<\/p>\n “At this point, saying \u2018I told you so\u2019 seems almost pointless,” Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, told Fox News Digital when responding to the news.<\/p>\n LEGAL EXPERT UNLEASHES ON SPANBERGER’S NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER TARGETING ICE: ‘POLITICAL THEATER’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Kilgore said Republicans repeatedly warned Spanberger\u2019s administration that its limits on cooperation with ICE<\/a> would waste taxpayer money and run into these kinds of legal problems.<\/p>\n “States cannot tell the federal government how to do its job. But Democrats refused to listen,” Kilgore said.<\/p>\n In that regard, Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., drafted a bill at the federal level aimed directly at Spanberger\u2019s law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cline\u2019s 287(g) Cooperation Act<\/a> would require state and local law enforcement to enter into interagency agreements with ICE as a condition of receiving federal Community-Oriented Policing (COPS) grants.<\/p>\n Additionally, all five of Virginia\u2019s Republican members of Congress wrote Spanberger earlier this year urging her not to undo former Gov. Glenn Youngkin\u2019s statewide directive of Richmond-Washington cooperation on the immigration enforcement front.<\/p>\n The major setback to Democrats\u2019 plans came as neighboring Maryland found itself in a similar legal fight, though a judge has not yet ruled in that case.<\/p>\n HOCHUL REMAINS DEFIANT AFTER SHERIFFS SUE OVER LAW BANNING COOPERATION WITH ICE: ‘BRING IT ON’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Gov. Wes Moore allowed a similar bill to become law earlier this year that would prevent most cooperation between local sheriffs and ICE<\/a>. Despite Maryland being one of the bluest states in the union, the majority of its counties are geographically red.<\/p>\n That dynamic revealed itself as 17 of its 24 sheriffs, led by Harford County\u2019s Jeffrey Gahler, Wicomico County\u2019s Mike Lewis and Frederick County\u2019s Charles Jenkins launched a lawsuit against the law<\/a>.<\/p>\n “They want to do everything they can to handcuff law enforcement, handcuff sheriffs across the state,” Jenkins said in March.<\/p>\n Sen. Clarence Lam, D-Elkridge, a bill sponsor, argued the measure ensures local jails won\u2019t be used as a “front door to the federal government\u2019s oftentimes deportation pipeline,” according to Maryland Matters.<\/p>\n Lam\u2019s Community Trust Act requires a court order to provide immigration-related information and to transfer inmates based on immigration status, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Moore did not sign the legislation, but it became law after he notified Senate President Bill Ferguson IV, D-Baltimore, of his decision after the bill passed 32-15.<\/p>\n Gahler\u2019s coalition later sued, setting up a potentially similar battle in Greenbelt federal court to the one making a splash across the Potomac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A judge paused a key part of Virginia\u2019s new restrictions on local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, handing Gov. Abigail Spanberger\u2019s administration a major legal setback as a similar fight plays out in neighboring Maryland. George H.W. Bush-appointed Judge Robert Payne on Monday blocked a key piece of a law signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}