Immigrants' Rights

ACLU of Virginia has been working for more than fifty years to make liberty, justice, equity, inclusion, and dignity a reality for all people in the Commonwealth – regardless of their immigration status.

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What you need to know

One in four Virginians are immigrants or the children of immigrants according to Voices for Virginia’s Children.

Virginia’s immigrant population has more than tripled over the past 30 years according to VCU.

More than 75% of immigrants in Virginia have been in the U.S. for more than a decade according to The Commonwealth Institute.

ACLU of Virginia has been working for more than fifty years to make liberty, justice, equity, inclusion, and dignity a reality for all people in the Commonwealth – regardless of their immigration status.

That’s why we launched a new Immigrants’ Rights Project in 2023. Since then, we’ve worked with brave, determined partners and clients on the ground to secure key rights for immigrants who call the Commonwealth home:

 

  • We sued ICE in a first-of-its-kind class-action lawsuit and won the release of dozens of immigrants whom the agency was arbitrarily detaining even after they had won their immigration cases, paving the way for the release of more immigrants in the future
  • We got a Know Your Rights resource into the hands of immigrant communities across the Commonwealth with instructions for what to do when faced with law enforcement or ICE
  • We defended an immigrant survivor of domestic abuse, ensuring she has a pathway to citizenship through a special visa for survivors of crime, and requiring Roanoke Police Department to certify relief for all qualifying noncitizen survivors going forward

People who are immigrants often face dire consequences and are denied their fundamental rights if they come into contact with law enforcement, because many local police departments coordinate with federal agencies. Even without being accused of a crime, people can be held in immigration detention facilities in conditions identical to prisons. And instead of being released to their families and communities after an arrest, they're often transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and fast-tracked for deportation.

We have a long way to go, and small changes won’t cut it. We need to eliminate abusive and dangerous conditions at immigration detention centers and end the jail-to-deportation pipeline in Virginia before the Commonwealth can truly be safe for us all.

MAKE A DONATION or VOLUNTEER today to protect immigrants who call Virginia home.

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The Latest

Press Release
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Proposing to ban ‘sanctuary cities’ is out of touch with Virginia, home to 1 million immigrants

“The Youngkin administration’s proposal to force Virginia police to do the federal government’s job at Virginians’ expense doesn’t stand a chance," said ACLU-VA Senior Immigrants' Rights Attorney Sophia Gregg.
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights
Press Release
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Georgetown scholar to remain free after appeals court rejects Trump admin bid to re-detain him

“The Trump administration is trying to silence speech it doesn’t agree with by targeting people like Dr. Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil, but ideas are not illegal,” said ACU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer.
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights, First Amendment Rights
Court Cases: Khan Suri v. Trump, et al.
Press Release
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ICE can’t be allowed to corrupt Virginia’s judicial system

"Virginians who rely on the protection of the courts will be forced to go without it if ICE's presence means Virginia courthouses are no longer safe. We won’t let our judicial system be corrupted into a despotic mechanism for masked men to ‘disappear’ Virginians," said ACLU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer.
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights
Press Release
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Virginia’s governor and attorney general are wrong to support President Trump’s unlawful deployment of the military in Los Angeles

“It is shameful that Virginia’s governor would make comments – and Virginia’s attorney general would sign on to a letter – extoling the president’s unlawful deployment of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles," said ACLU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer.
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights
Court Case
Aug 28, 2024

Trabelsi v. Crawford et al.

Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian national who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges last year, filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia challenging his prolonged unlawful detention and inhumane treatment by the United States. Mr. Trabelsi is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the University of Chicago Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, the ACLU of Virginia, and Professor Jonathan Hafetz of Seton Hall Law School.
Court Case
Mar 11, 2024

Jane Doe v. Roanoke Police Department

On March 12, 2024, ACLU of Virginia filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit on behalf of an immigrant survivor of domestic violence whose request for a U visa certification the Roanoke Police Department is refusing to certify in open defiance of state law.
Court Case
Jun 26, 2025

Khan Suri v. Trump, et al.

Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown professor and postdoctoral scholar on religion and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia, is legally in the U.S. on a research scholar and professor visa. He is an Indian national who lives with his U.S. citizen wife and three children in Rosslyn, Virginia. When he arrived home on the evening of Monday, March 17 following a traditional Ramadan meal celebration, he was taken into custody by masked federal agents without being charged with or accused of any crime. In just over 72 hours, he was shuffled to multiple immigration detention centers, ultimately landing in Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where he was detained until his release on bond on May 14.
Court Case
Oct 06, 2023

Eduardo Guerrero Ortiz v. Davis et al.

The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition and the ACLU of Virginia are suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Henry County Sheriff’s Office, for detaining Mr. Eduardo Guerrero Ortiz under the color of federal immigration law for seven months at the Henry County Adult Detention Center without charge.