Spanberger rallies Latino voters in Alexandria amid growing distrust of government, deportation fears

The impacts of the Trump administration’s mass deportation program mean fewer Latinos are showing up to their jobs while those who do risk being assaulted at work.

Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger on Thursday held a “Latinos for Spanberger” rally at Los Tios Grill in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, where she focused on issues facing Latinos. 

Spanberger was joined by labor icon Dolores Huerta, US Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, who Spanberger served with when they were both members of the US House of Representatives; Virginia Del. Alfonso Lopez, (D-Arlington), and Alexandria City Council Member Canek Aguirre.

Spanberger, who was in Alexandria as part of an ongoing bus tour heading into Election Day on Tuesday, highlighted the major points of the platform she’s been running on to become Virginia’s next governor. She wants to make Virginia more affordable and push back on Trump administration policies, particularly his attacks on the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who live in the commonwealth.  

Calling herself a “law and order Democrat,” Spanberger criticized the Trump administration for its brutal and cruel attacks on Latino communities as part of its mass deportation program. She also spoke for about four minutes in fluent Spanish about her respect for the Latino community. 

“It is not law and order to have your citizens, your community members, live in fear,” Spanberger, a former CIA officer, said. “That is the type of behavior that I have seen in other countries.”

The fear of being targeted for deportation, regardless of one’s legal status in this country, has led to fewer Latinos showing up to work and going out to buy things. Some children from Latino families have also stopped showing up to school and expressed concerns about the safety of their parents. 

Aguirre, the Alexandria City Council Member, shared a story about a group of construction workers taking a break from a job in the Chirilagua neighborhood of Alexandria when masked agents forced them into vans and took them away. The agents left behind these workers’ items in plain sight, Aguirre said, as a tactic to target whoever came to collect their things. The agents conducted the raid when school was letting out, meaning school children could have seen what happened. 

“Now, look, I agree, if we’re going to be deporting criminals, let’s deport criminals, but let’s not terrorize communities,” Aguirre said. 

Trump’s immigration policy is being supported by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has ordered Virginia law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That makes Virginia’s roads less safe for Latinos who are scared of being unfairly targeted, said Freddy Mejia, the policy director at The Commonwealth Institute, who spoke to Dogwood at the Spanberger event.

Latinos play important roles in construction, the food industry, and in childcare jobs, all areas that need more workers and investment, not less, Mejia said.

“If we have less immigrants, and in particular Latinos, being able to go into those workforce areas, that means rising costs for everyone,” Mejia said in an interview. 

There have been multiple ICE raids in Fairfax County, which only makes outreach on job fairs and workforce resources all the more difficult, County Supervisor Andres Jimenez said in a phone interview. Latinos have to live with two competing pressures as their distrust of the government and law enforcement grows: the fear of being targeted for deportation every time they’re in public and the need to go to work to earn a living, Jimenez said. 

“All of this obviously leads to economic downfall,” Jimenez said. “It leads to a lack of job hunting, an inability for folks to feel safe when they go out and try to find the resources that they may need to actually provide for their families and for their community as well.”