Now, it’s true that Spanberger has declared opposition to “sanctuary cities,” which shield the undocumented. But in practice, by supporting the repeal of Youngkin’s law enforcement directive—and criticizing arrests of noncriminal undocumented immigrants as undermining public safety—Spanberger positioned herself directly in opposition to Trump’s mass deportation regime. That’s exactly why Republicans attacked Spanberger, slamming her for supposedly coddling criminal undocumented migrants.
That’s not all. As a member of Congress, Spanberger voted against the Laken Riley Act, which mandates the federal detention of undocumented immigrants accused of even minor crimes, in flagrant violation of due process. She defended this vote during the campaign.
Despite these positions, Spanberger won by 15 points, a huge gain over four years earlier, and erased the GOP’s advantage with non-college voters. Indeed, as E.J. Dionne notes, Spanberger dramatically overperformed in lots of rural Virginia counties too. Notably, many of those southwest counties are in Appalachian Trump country. Spanberger called for reforms that would invest in a secure border and tighten asylum eligibility while creating broad new pathways for legal immigration into the country—yet did remarkably well in those places.
