Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones is drawing fire over two disputes involving the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda — a civil rights investigation into a rural sheriff’s traffic-stop practices amid his cooperation with ICE. and a legal challenge involving federal access to commercial driver records. Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore told Fox News Digital that the two disputes reflect what he characterized as a broader unwillingness by Virginia’s Democratic leadership to cooperate with President Donald Trump. His criticism came as Jones announced a probe into Greene County Sheriff Steve Smith.
"That's just this whole administration's modus operandi, to put it bluntly, they are so mad at Trump, they want to make sure they don't want to cooperate with Trump in any area whatsoever, and they want make it unsafe for Virginians," Kilgore, R-Gate City, told Fox News Digital in an interview. FIRST ON FOX: DOJ SUES SPANBERGER’S VIRGINIA OVER LAWS KNEECAPPING FEDERAL AGENTS AS MASK WAR ESCALATES The criticism comes as Jones’ Office of Civil Rights notified Smith that it launched an investigation into allegations involving the Greene County Sheriff’s Office’s traffic-stop practices and cooperation with federal immigration authorities. "I applaud the Greene County sheriff for working with ICE to make that we don't have illegals on our roads, illegals out here committing crimes and things of that nature, unlike our attorney general, who's the chief law enforcement officer of our state out here picking fights with sheriffs over illegal immigrants," Kilgore said.
The dispute comes amid a broader shift in Virginia’s immigration enforcement policy under Spanberger On her first day in office, Spanberger — who endorsed Jones — rescinded former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order encouraging ICE cooperation. She later signed a law on April 22 sponsored by Del.
Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, restricting state and local participation in federal civil immigration enforcement. ICE RESUMES NATIONWIDE TRAFFIC STOPS UNDER NEW POLICY REQUIRING BODY CAMERAS "[My office] has reviewed allegations that GCSO may be conducting traffic stops in violation of state law and the Constitution," Jones’ Office of Civil Rights wrote to Smith while demanding records concerning immigration enforcement policies, training materials and interagency agreements. Smith’s deputies have participated in several operations with ICE — notable for a small, rural county located along major transportation routes.
A June operation near the intersection of U.S. 29 and U.S. 33 resulted in 49 people being detained by ICE. U.S. 29 connects Washington, D.C., with Charlottesville and points south, while U.S. 33 connects Richmond with western Virginia. A Honduran man identified by DHS as an MS-13 gang member was among 26 people arrested during another operation in nearby Ruckersville in May.
"Tell me what kind of message that's sending to the citizens of Virginia — that it's more important for me to protect illegal folks who are here illegally than to protect our citizens here," Kilgore said. Smith had previously defended his operations in comments to Charlottesville media, saying his deputies apply reasonable suspicion — "the same as we do for all vehicles" — as the standard for initiating traffic stops. Local activists accused deputies of profiling, while Smith said speeding, failure to maintain a lane and running red lights most often prompt traffic stops.
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