RICHMOND, Va. — In 2018, the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Richmond allowed a Honduran woman with an ICE deportation order to seek sanctuary at their church.
Six years later, the church on Blanton Avenue told CBS 6 their congregation is not planning to allow undocumented individuals to seek sanctuary from the threat of deportation.
“This needs to be a decision made by the congregation; we are a community of about 650 people, so this is no small undertaking,” Margaret Reynolds Rush, congregational administrator with the First Unitarian Universalist Church, said in a statement.
However, Rush doesn’t cite President Donald Trump nor the recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directive to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to increase deportations as a reason for the change.
DHS said in a January 21 statement that "criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest."
“At the moment, no member has approached our leadership about offering it again. We learned quite a bit the first time around, and it was a significant undertaking for many people, including members of other local churches,” Rush explained. “I can't say the topic won't come up again, but at the moment, we aren't talking about it specifically.”
CBS 6’s Brendan King asked Richmond Mayor Dr. Danny Avula about rumors of an increased ICE presence in the city.
“I've heard some of these and seen some of that on social media. I have not heard of any validated ICE presence. I've heard a lot of concerns that when police are showing up, doing their day-to-day job, that is being misconstrued as ICE, but we'll continue to look into it and make sure that people know when we actually do have a confirmation of ICE presence on the ground,” Avula said on Monday.
An immigration lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia says that despite growing concerns about the presence of ICE agents in Virginia, the group has not confirmed anything at this time.
"I don't think that we can say there's been any substantial increase in ICE presence or enforcement in Virginia," said Sophia Gregg, a senior immigrant rights attorney with the ACLU of Virginia.
On Sunday, ICE announced it made 956 arrests nationwide on that one day.
"What we don't want people to do is preemptively fear that ICE is going to go into schools or that ICE is going to go into hospitals," Gregg said.
CBS 6 reached out directly to ICE to confirm reports of an increased ICE presence in Central Virginia or possible raids and has not heard back at this time.
Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras sent a message to families encouraging them to continue sending their children to school, maintaining that it would follow state and federal protocols when it comes to privacy.
We also reached out to Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office and received the following statement from Press Secretary Christian Martinez:
Governor Youngkin supports President Trump’s efforts to deport violent criminals who are here illegally. The governor made clear in December that Virginia is not a sanctuary state and that localities that refuse to cooperate with the federal government to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes should lose their funding.
How have the recent deportation actions impacted your community? Email the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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