Virginia Democrats advance restrictions on immigration officers, including mask ban

Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly have advanced three bills to restrict federal immigration authorities while operating in the commonwealth, including a ban on masks for officers.

The bills are making their way through the General Assembly as Democrats in Washington are making similar demands on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as a condition for their support of Department of Homeland Security funding.

The new legislation in Virginia goes further than Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s revocation of her Republican predecessor’s Executive Order 47, ending Virginia’s participation in the federal immigration enforcement.

Executive Order 47 deputized local law enforcement as ICE agents while performing their official duties.

The ACLU praised the new bills, authored by Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, a Fairfax County Democrat, whose party controls both chambers of the General Assembly.

“For the past year, the Trump administration has made Virginia the epicenter of its brutal anti-immigrant agenda, but today lawmakers showed that the Commonwealth can push back against ICE,” ACLU of Virginia Policy Director Chris Kaiser said. “This legislation will protect our communities, restore trust in Virginia law enforcement, and send a clear message that Virginia will not play a part in ICE’s violent campaign to tear families apart.”

The Washington Times reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Virginia Republicans for comment.

The first bill would prohibit certain state and federal law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings while performing their official duties.

Exceptions to this prohibition include protection against disease, infection and exposure to toxic substances, and facial coverings worn by any law enforcement officer assigned to a special weapons and tactics team while engaged in the performance of official duties with such a team.

Law-enforcement officers who violate the mask prohibition would be subject to disciplinary action. It would create a Class 1 misdemeanor for any law-enforcement officer who wears a facial covering in violation of the provisions of the bill, unless the law-enforcement agency has adopted a written policy on restrictions on the use of facial coverings.

The legislation also instructs the state Department of Criminal Justice Services to create a model policy for and restrictions on the use of facial coverings by law-enforcement officers.

Additionally, the bill says sovereign immunity shall not be a defense to civil liability for such “tortious conduct.”

Finally, the legislation creates a civil cause of action for any person injured as a result of “tortious conduct by a law-enforcement officer who knowingly and intentionally wears a facial covering in violation of the provisions of the bill.”

Another piece of legislation headed to Virginia’s State Senate limits immigration arrests at local courthouses.

The bill says anyone required to attend court, including their family members and witnesses, shall be protected from civil arrest at a courthouse or in transit.

Additionally, the bill requires that any judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing a civil arrest be reviewed by a designated judicial officer or attorney before the arrest can be performed.

Finally, the bill provides that any person who conducts a civil arrest, or facilitates or assists in the performance of a civil arrest, in violation of the bill’s provisions “shall be punished with contempt of court.”

A third bill in the General Assembly says that no agency in Virginia can authorize any law enforcement officer or employee to perform the duties of an immigration officer, unless such an agreement covering certain conditions is in writing.