‘I don’t believe it’: McClellan challenges Youngkin on immigrant arrest claims

U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, is pushing back against Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent claims that all 2,500 immigrants detained in statewide operations since March were violent offenders, saying Monday she doesn’t believe it — and won’t — until the administration provides proof.

“Until you show me that all 2,500, all of their cases, what they were convicted of … you are innocent until proven guilty,” McClellan told The Mercury after meeting with courthouse staff, advocates and attorneys at the Chesterfield County Courthouse, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have conducted ongoing raids. 

McClellan stopped short of directly accusing Youngkin of lying, but she made clear her doubts. 

“I would say officials in the Trump administration are not telling the truth in 100% of the cases,” she said. “I think the governor either is not doing his due diligence to ask the right questions and is just parroting what he has been told — at best.”

McClellan’s comments came as part of a broader rebuke of current immigration enforcement tactics in Virginia — including federal-only ICE operations like the courthouse raids and the parallel efforts of Youngkin’s Virginia Homeland Security Task Force. 

“I heard stories today about people who were detained when they came for their arraignment, so they haven’t been convicted and they haven’t had their trial,” she said. “I want details. And until the administration provides them, because … we know they have lied in certain instances, I won’t believe what the governor has to say.”

While the Chesterfield arrests are not part of the task force, McClellan linked them as symptoms of a state and federal immigration system that she said increasingly violates due process and fosters fear among communities of color.

'We don't know how many'

Last week, the Richmond Democrat introduced legislation, H.R. 4703, that would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to track and publicly report every instance where U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents are detained or deported for immigration enforcement purposes. While the bill’s full text is not yet available, McClellan said its goal is to create transparency and prevent wrongful removals.

“We know that citizens and people lawfully present have been detained and deported, primarily because of the great reporting from the press,” she said. “But we don’t know how many, we don’t know all the circumstances, so this is part of my oversight responsibilities.”

On Monday, McClellan visited the Chesterfield courthouse at the invitation of Circuit Court Clerk Amanda Pohl, who said she was alarmed by what the courthouse staff has witnessed over the last month.

“We are not getting any of the names, we’re not getting anything like that,” Pohl said of the individuals detained inside the courthouse. “What we’re seeing at the General District Court is that people are coming in for traffic violations, for minor offenses. They’re trying to have their day in court, and ICE is taking them.”

Pohl said that at least 16 people were detained by ICE agents during a single week in June, and that federal activity at the courthouse has continued since then — though more sporadically. 

“We saw somebody come in, who had a charge. His case was continued. He had no other prior convictions, and he was still taken by ICE. He didn’t even get to have his day in court, and he was still taken from his family,” she said. “From what I understand, that gentleman was deported very quickly.”

A spokesman for ICE on Monday did not respond to a request for comment about the agency’s ongoing operations in Chesterfield.

Being an undocumented immigrant is not a crime.
And the dehumanization that this administration is doing — trying to paint with a broad brush every undocumented immigrant, and U.S. citizens, that they are hardened criminals — is wrong and is un-American.
– U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond

Youngkin: 'They should be arrested'

Youngkin has repeatedly stood by the arrests carried out by ICE and those under the Homeland Security Task Force — a state initiative created earlier this year to work in coordination with federal partners, including ICE — and has insisted that all detainees are dangerous criminals.

“They should be arrested,” the governor said earlier this month, defending the task force’s mission. “These are folks that are here illegally and they’ve committed crimes.”

But McClellan said the absence of supporting data makes such blanket characterizations irresponsible and dangerous.

“Nobody knows the details around it,” she said. “That is creating fear that we have seen among communities of color, particularly in the Spanish-speaking community or anybody who’s brown.”

Virginia Attorney General Miyares, who has championed the task force and joined Youngkin in calling for tougher immigration enforcement, last week declined to provide evidence backing up the administration’s “violent offender” claims when asked by The Mercury.

McClellan said what’s happening in Chesterfield and across the state goes far beyond any single program — and is undermining trust in law enforcement and the courts. 

“We’re seeing people who aren’t showing up to get marriage licenses, who aren’t showing up to report crimes, to press charges, to testify, because they’re afraid, ‘Am I going to be disappeared even though I’ve done nothing wrong?’” she said. “It is not making our communities safe. It’s having the opposite effect.”

McClellan said she’s heard from translators who are now afraid to appear in court, and domestic violence advocates who say victims are staying silent out of fear. 

“It’s hard enough to get someone to step forward who has been domestically or sexually abused,” she said. “I’m hearing instances of all of that in the Richmond region, and it is concerning.”

McClellan also raised alarm over ICE agents reportedly wearing face coverings and refusing to identify themselves. 

“All law enforcement agents, including immigration agents, need to be able to show their face and their badge or their identification,” she said. “If you can’t see their face, you don’t have their identification, you can’t hold them accountable, and that person cannot enforce their own civil rights. And that is dangerous.”

McClellan: 'Being an undocumented immigrant is not a crime'

While the Chesterfield raids are not tied to Youngkin’s task force, McClellan said the impact is the same — a culture of fear driven by racial profiling and mass enforcement, not public safety.

“There are people who have been in this country, in some cases for decades, who may have been lawfully present when they first got here, or who may be on a path to citizenship,” she said. “There are refugees from Afghanistan who worked with the U.S. government. There are many reasons why someone may lack documentation today. That doesn’t make them criminals.”

McClellan emphasized that immigration violations are civil offenses — not crimes — and said conflating them with criminal law is misleading. 

“Being an undocumented immigrant is not a crime,” she said. “And the dehumanization that this administration is doing — trying to paint with a broad brush every undocumented immigrant, and U.S. citizens, that they are hardened criminals — is wrong and is un-American.”

Recent analysis by Stateline adds further context to McClellan’s concerns: Fewer than half of the nearly 112,000 ICE arrests made nationwide between Jan. 20 and late June were of convicted criminals — just 40 % — far lower than the 53% rate during the same period under the Biden administration. 

The share of those arrested with violent crime convictions shrank from 10% to 7%, while arrests tied to drug convictions fell from 9% to 5%. 

At the same time, the number of detainees without any criminal record nearly tripled, rising from roughly 47% to 60% of ICE arrests, most commonly for minor traffic or immigration violations. McClellan’s demands for data and due process protections align with these national trends, as critics argue the enforcement push increasingly sweeps up individuals who lack serious criminal histories.

Pohl said she invited several local officials, nonprofit leaders and attorneys to Monday’s meeting, including Sheriff Karl Leonard, who runs the Chesterfield County jail. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get a response,” she said. “But I’m sure he has other obligations.”

Pohl also emphasized that her office does not coordinate with ICE or the Sheriff’s department and is not participating in enforcement. “Sheriff Leonard and I do not collaborate around this issue … but we have made it very clear: We’re not assisting ICE,” she said.

Leonard also did not respond to requests for comment Monday. 

For McClellan, the current moment echoes dark chapters of American history. 

“This is very reminiscent, to me, of the backlash to Reconstruction, when Confederate iconography was placed at courthouses in an effort to intimidate certain communities,” she said. “That intimidation is happening here too, to brown people. It is wrong. It is very reminiscent of what we saw in Nazi Germany.”

As Virginia’s first Black congresswoman and a longtime civil rights attorney, McClellan said her concerns are rooted in protecting the constitutional rights of all residents.

“I think there are ways that we can invest in processing immigration cases in a much better way,” she said. “But I think the way not to do it is to dehumanize people. And what the Trump administration is doing is dehumanizing the immigrant community, whether they are citizens or not, including children. And that is wrong.”

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