Four Things Glenn Youngkin Should Do In Virginia On The Immigration Front

Republican Glenn Youngkin received final Tuesday’s gubernatorial race in Virginia, defeating former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe. The GOP has additionally retaken the Virginia Home of Delegates, though the Democrats will proceed to carry a slim edge within the state senate (which isn’t up for reelection till November 2023).

The Youngkin victory, in addition to quite a few Republican wins all through the nation (and by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s extraordinarily skinny edge in in any other case blue New Jersey, particularly in comparison with 2017) undoubtedly displays voter frustration with President Joe Biden particularly, and the Democrats usually – on every little thing from immigration and the border disaster to Afghanistan, COVID-19, the economic system, and divisive, anti-American curricula being pushed in public training.

Though immigration was not a serious subject of debate throughout the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial race – in some ways being eclipsed by points resembling parental rights in training or COVID-19 vaccine mandates – it nonetheless stays a key problem for voters.

Listed below are 4 issues that Governor-elect Youngkin – as soon as he’s sworn in as governor in January – ought to do to arrest and reverse the Outdated Dominion’s leftward lunge in the direction of anti-immigration-enforcement, pro-mass-migration radicalism beneath Democrat rule:

Crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions. Though Virginia as a complete is, fortunately, not a sanctuary state, a few of its most left-leaning cities and counties do observe these lawless and reckless insurance policies which desire to launch unlawful alien criminals again onto the streets quite than cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Such jurisdictions embody Richmond, Charlottesville, Alexandria, and Fairfax and Arlington Counties. The expansion of the brutal MS-13 gang – which consists largely of unlawful alien Central American youths – within the suburban areas surrounding Washington, D.C., reveals that sanctuary insurance policies are usually not simply a problem of immigration enforcement (or, quite, lack thereof) but in addition an necessary public security downside. Given his dedication to regulation and order, Mr. Youngkin must push again towards sanctuary lawlessness.

Repeal in-state tuition and monetary support to unlawful aliens. Upon taking the 2 homes of the Virginia legislature, the Democrats and outgoing governor Ralph Northam seized the chance to push by means of in-state tuition and state monetary support eligibility for unlawful aliens. Jason Miyares – then a delegate, and now the incoming Lawyer Common (and first Latino to ever maintain that place within the Commonwealth) – is on document for opposing the pro-illegal-alien statute, stating that “the youngsters of these paying the taxes which are subsidizing these schools, they need to be the primary in line … I can’t think about a toddler being denied an opportunity to go to their dream college due to the laws.” Miyares was precisely proper. Hopefully, the Youngkin administration will battle to repeal these unhealthy legal guidelines.

Cancel driver’s licenses for unlawful aliens. Giving driver’s licenses to unauthorized overseas nationals was one other a part of the Democratic pro-illegal-alien legislative offensive beneath Gov. Northam. The issue isn’t simply that this foolhardy coverage goes immediately towards the spirit of federal immigration regulation by making it simpler for individuals who don’t have any proper to be in america to proceed residing and dealing right here unlawfully. There are additionally severe public security considerations. As one FAIR weblog indicated, “[c]riminal aliens can garner a type of identification beneath a false id to protect themselves from authorities and presumably commit additional crimes. Moreover, such measures probably open avenues for overseas nationals from terror-prone nations to make use of driver’s licenses to enter airports or federal buildings and commit acts of terrorism.” That is one more case of anti-immigration-enforcement madness that have to be rolled again.

Give Virginia communities a say on refugee resettlement. Again in late November 2019, Ralph Northam volunteered to have Virginia absorb extra refugees, thereby voicing his opposition to President Trump’s government order, which acknowledged that the federal authorities wouldn’t resettle refugees in locations wherein both the state or native governments objected. The EO was a rejection of the Obama coverage of using roughshod over the objections of governors and native governments to mass refugee resettlement throughout the 2015-2016 Syrian disaster. Given the Biden administration’s plan to resettle tens of 1000’s of Afghan refugees and evacuees all through the nation – coupled with vetting points and prison habits (see right here and right here) by a number of the new arrivals – the brand new governor must be sober and prudent in regards to the potential risks and will arise for the rights of Virginians to object to what’s by all accounts a rushed and ham-handed course of. On the finish of the day, it’s atypical residents – not virtue-signaling politicians – who pay the worth of refugees/evacuees gone rogue.

Virginia, like each
different state, is paying the worth for the reckless and unpopular immigration
insurance policies of the Biden administration. That’s the reason good management on the state
stage is so necessary. And Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin could have a possibility,
beginning in January, to place his state on a sane path relating to
immigration.