Draw the Line, Virginia: Say No to DHS Abuse and Those Who Condone It

By Michelle Moore, Bridge2Blue (grassroots Indivisible group in Virginia)

Recently, Trump administration officials announced the end of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Operation Metro Surge, an aggressive immigration operation that left people injured, wrongfully detained, schools and businesses disrupted, and two U.S. citizens, Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, dead. The Trump administration framed the withdrawal as “de-escalation”.

It is not.

In fact, while national attention has focused on Minneapolis, DHS – including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – has quietly redeployed officers, rented office and warehouse space, and expanded operations in cities and towns across the country, including Virginia. This is not a drawdown; it is a buildup.

At the same time, DHS is rapidly expanding its technical surveillance capabilities. Using its vast budget, the Agency is collecting and analyzing personal data, including information on U.S. citizens – from motor vehicles, utility companies, social media platforms, and even welfare records of unaccompanied children.

It is deploying facial recognition technology and sweeping up data indiscriminately: tracking motorists, monitoring children and parents entering and leaving schools, surveilling crowds and bystanders, accessing school security cameras, license plate scanners and cellphone location data. And, recently, the IRS admitted to mistakenly sharing with DHS the personal information of thousands of taxpayers.

DHS is expanding its presence and technical surveillance capabilities, not along the borders and ports of entry, but in cities across the U.S. and in Virginia.

Virginia Republicans Funded Weaponization of Federal Power

On January 22, 2026, Virginia Republican U.S. Representatives Jennifer Kiggans (VA-2), Rob Wittman (VA-1), Ben Cline (VA-6), Morgan Griffith (VA-9), and John McGuire (VA-5) – voted to continue DHS funding for 2026 without imposing reforms or accountability for the agency’s violent and lethal tactics.

They cast that vote even after ICE agents shot Renee Good, an U.S. citizen, multiple times at close range. Even after DHS agents broke into the home of another U.S. citizen without a warrant and mistakenly arrested him at gunpoint. And even after DHS officers shot a woman multiple times during a traffic stop and fired projectiles at clergy leading prayers and at peaceful protestors. Two days after the vote, DHS officers shot Alex Pretti, a U.S, citizen, in the back while he lay face down on the pavement.

Despite mounting evidence of unlawful data-sharing, warrantless searches, abusive detention tactics, and dangerous encounters with the public, these Representatives chose to continue funding DHS. In doing so, they prioritized expanding DHS forces and power over healthcare, education, and school and other nutrition programs that directly benefit Virginians.

Dangerous Assault on Constitutional Protections

The operation launched in Minneapolis—hundreds of miles from the border—involved roughly 3,000 DHS agents, a force comparable to multiple military battalions. But unlike trained military units, these heavily armed, some newly hired, DHS agents conduct large-scale operations in residential neighborhoods, city streets, and in front of schools and churches.  DHS has already been cited in courts for unlawful and abusive practices.

And you don’t need to be a legal expert to see the potential for abuse. Breaking into homes without warrants, stopping and interrogating individuals without cause, detaining people without due process, and conducting warrantless surveillance are an assault on Fourth Amendment rights.  The intimidation and assault of peaceful protesters, journalists, clergy, and community members are direct attacks on the First Amendment.

Every member of Congress swears an oath under Article VI to uphold the Constitution.  Yet Virginia’s Republican representatives voted to fund DHS without restrictions, even as evidence mounts that the agency’s actions threaten both public safety and to the very constitutional rights these representatives pledged to protect.

Virginians Can Decide

Our tax dollars have been used to underwrite a massive DHS budget — diverting resources from health centers, school funding, and family and elderly assistance that directly benefit Virginians. Instead of investing in our communities, these representatives chose to fund a growing federal force that has traumatized children and injured, surveilled, detained, and killed people — including U.S. citizens – across the country.  And there is so much more that we do not see.

This is not a political debate. It is a question of power and accountability. In the Commonwealth, we have a choice. We can reject representatives who finance reckless, unchecked federal force. We can demand transparency, oversight, and enforceable constitutional limits.

We must act. Call their offices – Jennifer Kiggans (VA-2), Rob Wittman (VA-1), Ben Cline (VA-6), Morgan Griffith (VA-9), and John McGuire (VA-5) – and ask them to justify their votes. Organize in your communities.

We can make it unmistakably clear – now and at the ballot box – that we will hold these Republican representatives accountable. Virginians will not tolerate DHS abuse, we will not accept ICE violence in our neighborhoods, and we will not vote for those who do.