This article originally appeared here, at vpm.org
About 60 Virginia National Guard members will be deployed around the state as early as September to support immigration enforcement agents.
According to a Aug. 8 statement from VNG, the guardsmen will be tasked with providing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with administrative and logistics support, which includes answering phones, data entry and biometric collection.
“VNG planners have been in direct coordination with ICE officials in Virginia to develop a support plan and implementation timeline based on the specific needs of operations,” said A. A. “Cotton” Puryear, spokesperson for VNG.
VNG personnel will not be responsible for ICE enforcement functions, which includes making arrests.
In July, the US Department of Defense changed service members’ duty status to Title 32, in the hope to position around 1,700 National Guard members to assist ICE. At least six Republican-led states have authorized and expressed support for this mission, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
At their assigned locations, the guardsmen will remain under Youngkin’s control and direction.
Immigrant advocacy groups, including Ayuda — which provides legal, social and language access services to low-income immigrants in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. — have condemned Youngkin’s plan.
“No matter how it is framed, allocating resources to aid federal detention and deportation operations harms Virginia immigrants and communities alike,” Ayuda said in an Aug. 5 statement.
Training and processing is set to start at the end of August and VNG personnel are expected to report for duty by early September.