A federal judge blocked Virginia from enforcing major restrictions on immigration cooperation signed by Governor Abigail Spanberger, ruling Monday that the state law likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s Contract Clause and Supremacy Clause.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne in Richmond issued a preliminary injunction preventing Virginia from applying the restrictions against federal immigration officers and from interfering with existing Section 287(g) agreements, which allow ICE to authorize trained state and local officers to perform federal immigration enforcement duties.
The law, which Spanberger signed in April 2026 and which took effect July 1, required existing 287(g) agreements to be rewritten by September 1 with a dozen conditions—including restrictions on enforcement at schools, courthouses, and polling places, advance identification of federal agents, and judicial warrant requirements for home entries. Agreements that were not modified would have been considered void and unenforceable.
Payne found the federal government likely to prevail on its claim that the law created a “substantial impairment” of existing contracts and was not reasonably tailored to a legitimate public purpose. The judge also concluded the state law “directly regulates the conduct of federal law enforcement” in violation of the Supremacy Clause, an area of federal authority.
However, Payne left one significant restriction in place: localities and law enforcement agencies that have never participated in the 287(g) program remain prohibited from entering such agreements for the first time.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said Tuesday his office would immediately seek to stay the ruling and appeal the injunction. Jones argued the decision misinterprets both contract law and the state’s authority over its local governments, noting that the conditions apply to Virginia’s localities rather than directly to ICE. He invoked Dillon’s Rule, a legal doctrine holding that the state legislature has authority to modify or withdraw localities’ power to enter contracts.
“The General Assembly was well within its legal authority to pass this law,” Jones said in a statement, arguing that Virginia’s “resource-constrained localities and law enforcement agencies are not devoting critical resources toward carrying out responsibilities that rest solely with the federal government.”
The legal dispute unfolds as federal immigration enforcement accelerates in Virginia and neighboring Maryland. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported that a sweeping ICE operation resulted in 1,328 arrests across the two states between August 1 and August 14, with detainees including people with convictions or prior arrests for sexual battery, kidnapping, driving while intoxicated, identity theft, robbery, murder, and rape.
Spanberger has taken several steps since entering office in January to distance state agencies from federal civil immigration enforcement. In February, she directed state law enforcement agencies to terminate their 287(g) agreements. Her Executive Order 16, issued in May, directed state agencies to develop guidance for encounters with federal immigration officers at schools, hospitals, courthouses, and polling places, and prohibited nonpublic state property from being used as a staging area for federal civil immigration enforcement.
The Legal Aid Justice Center, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Virginia, said it was “very concerned” that existing 287(g) agreements would be allowed to continue, arguing that such agreements “entangle local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement, which undermines the trust communities need to report crimes.” The organization welcomed the portion of the ruling preventing new agreements but urged the state to appeal.
The injunction remains in place while the case proceeds or until the court orders otherwise. Payne directed the parties to contact the court to schedule further proceedings and ordered the state to distribute Monday’s ruling to commonwealth’s attorneys across Virginia.
Sources
- Virginia Mercury — detailed account of the preliminary injunction, Judge Payne’s reasoning on Contract Clause and Supremacy Clause grounds, and Attorney General Jay Jones’s response and planned appeal
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security — ICE operation statistics (1,328 arrests in Virginia and Maryland, August 1-14, 2026) and characterization of detainees
- Law360 — confirmation of Judge Robert Payne’s preliminary injunction and the federal government’s motion
