DHS Says That It Won't Follow Virginia’s Dangerous Unmasking Policy for ICE

Praise the Lord, the Trump administration is finally standing up to an unlawful and dangerous piece of Democrat lawfare.

The U.S. Justice Department announced on June 11 a complaint to challenge Virginia Democrats’ requirements to identify and unmask federal immigration officers, amid a massive rise in violence against them. “Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe, and they do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties," said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. "Virginia’s anti-law enforcement policies regulate the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents. These laws cannot stand.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agrees, which is why, no matter what the result of the DOJ complaint, federal immigration officers will not be putting themselves in even more danger of violence. “We will NOT comply with [Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s] unconstitutional mask ban,” DHS replied to the DOJ on June 12.

The DHS clarification continued, “Our law enforcement officers are facing a coordinated campaign of violence including a more than 1,300% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats. Our officers wear masks to protect themselves and their families. Thank you to @TheJusticeDept for continuing to stand with the heroic men and women of our law enforcement.”

The Delaney Hall ICE facility is in New Jersey, not Virginia, but it gives the perfect example of why it is too dangerous for federal immigration officers to expose their identity. The wacko in the video below is now facing federal charges:

Leftist rioter screams at ICE agent: “I have your face, motherf*****! Your whole f****** family is dead! Your kids. Your wife. All dead!” pic.twitter.com/IOuKp9juRk
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 28, 2026

And of course, Virginia Democrats are simply protecting violent foreign criminals. Northern Virginia has been a hotspot for illegal alien crime.

For example, last year, an illegal alien murdered a man in Reston only a day after Fairfax County authorities released him. Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano had not only dropped previous murder charges against El Salvadoran serial criminal Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez, but he also defied an ICE detainer request to do so.

Early in 2026, surveillance camera footage caught Sierra Leone national Abdul Jalloh stabbing Stephanie Minter to death at a bus stop. Spanberger then refused to hand Jalloh over to ICE, choosing, in violation of federal law, to protect the illegal alien murderer rather than see him face ultimate justice. “Get a judicial warrant,” she snarked smugly in response to DHS.

Spanberger and her fellow Democrats don’t care how many Virginians become victims of murder or rape or robbery so long as they can continue to undermine Trump administration policy and keep illegal aliens in the state. They want to prevent immigration officers from wearing masks and force them to identify themselves precisely so that violent activists can harass the officers and their families and try to terrorize them into not enforcing federal law.

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