Just over a year ago, Virginia closed four prisons run by the state.
Part of President Donald Trump’s budget bill included billions in new funds for detaining those taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And in some places, that’s meant reopening old facilities.
“At the end of the day, the federal dollars are there for a reason. And if we have facilities that can go to work, we should make them available,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said when asked if the four prisons Virginia closed last summer should be turned into ICE detention facilities.
The state prisons were closed due to staffing issues and a decrease of the number of people incarcerated in the Commonwealth.
The Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill almost tripled ICE’s budget, including $45 billion for new ICE detention facilities. A handful of closed, privately run prisons in other states have since been reopened for ICE. While Youngkin thinks deportations to other countries might reduce the need for detainment, he’s not one to shy away from opportunity.
Republican Delegate Otto Wachsmann had the Sussex II state prison in his district. In an email he told Radio IQ he’d need to see a proposal and have conversations with both the Virginia Department of Corrections and those in the locality before reopening its doors for immigration purposes.
But Democratic Senator Lashrecse Aird, whose district also held Sussex II, was less enthralled by the idea.
“There’s no way we should try and take, or replace, a facility that was for incarceration now with those they’re attempting to deport," Aird told Radio IQ Monday. "That would be a mistake. That would take Virginia backwards.”
Details on how that $45 billion could trickle down into new detention facilities are still being worked out.
Youngkin made the comments in a news conference at Virginia State Police headquarters just outside of Richmond last week. He’d just met a new class of 100 troopers-in-training.
Much like the issues that lead to the state prison closures, Virginia’s law enforcement agencies are struggling to stay staffed. Despite the 100 new trainees, VSP is still down over 250 troopers.
The billions given to ICE also aims to add another 10,000 enforcers to that federal agency. But VSP Superintendent Colonel Matthew Hanley told Radio IQ he wasn’t worried about losing existing officers to ICE.
“We don’t lose that many folks, and I believe we’re doing such cool stuff in the State Police right now, it’s a good place to work,” Hanley said. “There’s bound to be a few folks, especially if the feds throw enough money at, some people might take advantage of it.”
And Hanley said there could be other opportunities for VSP hiring as Trump chips away at the federal workforce.
“With the downsizing of the federal government we’re hoping to see the opposite, where we attract some of that talent to State Police,” he said.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
