Workers and members of Service Employees International Union Virginia 512 protesting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Richmond on January 23, 2026. (Michael O'Connor/Dogwood)
The demonstrators wanted ICE agents out of their communities; accountability for agents who have violated civil rights; an end to racial profiling; and for elected officials to fight back.
Virginia union members led a rally and march in downtown Richmond on Friday as part of a national day of protest against abductions and killings by agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is eyeing expanding its operations in the region.
The demonstrators wanted ICE agents out of their communities; accountability for agents who have violated civil rights; an end to racial profiling; and for elected officials to fight back.
”Right now we’re seeing—not only the escalations that we’ve been seeing here in Richmond with ICE presence just increased this past week—but we’re also seeing it just happen around the country,” said Violeta Vega, a Richmond home care worker and member with Service Employees International Union Virginia 512.
While Vega led demonstrators in chants of “ICE Out!” outside the federal courthouse on East Main Street, officials in Hanover County are weighing how to respond to ICE’s plans to buy a property there to support its operations.
Hanover leaders announced yesterday that the county had been contacted by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about “its intent to purchase and operate a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in a warehouse located on Lakeridge Parkway.”
Hanover intends to respond within 30 days. When the county’s supervisors meet on Wednesday they will consider next steps, the county said.
The Richmonder reported that DHS is eying the warehouse as a possible site for a processing facility that could hold up to 1,500 people.
Vega said the possibility of an ICE facility getting built in Hanover was “absurd” and called on people to let their representatives know they opposed the project.
“We want ICE out not only of Hanover, out of Virginia and out of everywhere,” Vega said.
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