Salem defensive back Jayden Wood returns an interception during Friday's game against Franklin County in Rocky Mount.
Salem defensive back Jayden Wood returns an interception during Friday's game against Franklin County in Rocky Mount.
Crime-courts
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Local immigration arrests, like ones in Franklin County, allowed to continue
On the morning of April 18, Agustin Ramirez Reyna was pulled over by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy and charged with failing to have his vehicle inspected.
Long before the traffic infraction was dismissed two months later, it had been overshadowed by a more serious allegation: Ramirez Reyna was not a legal citizen of the United States.
He is now facing deportation.
The Mexican native’s apprehension was part of a federal program that allows local law enforcement officers to act as agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a practice that a judge let stand last week while a legal battle plays out.
How local law enforcement coordinates with ICE
The U.S. Department of Justice is challenging a law passed earlier this year by Virginia’s General Assembly that places restrictions on the voluntary contracts between ICE and law enforcement agencies, known as 287(g) agreements.
Ruling that DOJ will likely prevail in its lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Robert Payne granted the government’s request for a preliminary injunction that forestalled provisions that would have taken effect Sept. 1.
The ruling means that arrests like Ramirez Reyna’s will likely continue.
“The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office remains an active participant in the 287(g) program,” Sgt. Megan Huston wrote in a recent email to The Roanoke Times.
Over the past year, about 55 undocumented immigrants have been stopped for traffic offenses in the county and then turned over to ICE, which in turn has transferred them to an immigrant detention center to face deportation hearings, according to documents obtained through open-record requests.
Twenty-six sheriff’s offices and police departments in Virginia have opted to join the 287(g) program, Payne wrote in his opinion. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is the only one in the Roanoke and New River valleys, after Craig County withdrew from its agreement earlier this year.
About a half-dozen deputies were certified to make arrests after receiving training from ICE. Their immigration work is usually performed during their on-duty hours with the county.
Although arrests by state authorities represent an infinitely tiny fraction of ICE’s nationwide total — President Donald Trump has set a goal of 2,000 arrests per day as part of his immigration crackdown — critics say the program diverts resources away from the primary mission of local law enforcement.
“We are very concerned that existing 287(g) agreements will be allowed to continue,” the Legal Aid Justice Center, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit with a mission that includes advocating for immigrants, said in a statement following Payne’s decision.
“These agreements entangle local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement, which undermines the trust communities need to report crimes and cooperate with investigations,” the statement read.
Protesters in Richmond hold a sign reading “Destroy ICE” during a “No Kings Day” rally on June 14, 2025.
Who is Ramirez Reyna?
The story of how Agustin Ramirez Reyna came to America — and how he may be forced to return to Mexico — is detailed in court papers filed by the Legal Aid Justice Center.
In early 2023, he made his way into the country to find a better life and an income that let him send money back to his mother.
After crossing the border without encountering immigration officials, he eventually came to live in Rocky Mount, where he found work as a roofer.
Ramirez Reyna, 36, began dating a woman who is a U.S. citizen. They were married in October 2023, and two years later had a son. Earlier this year, he began the process of adjusting his status as an immigrant through his marriage.
On the morning of April 18, he was driving with his family to visit friends when he passed a sheriff’s deputy’s car heading in the other direction on Scuffling Hill Road.
The sheriff’s deputy made a U-turn and followed Ramirez Reyna to his friend’s house before activating his flashing lights and informing him that he was being stopped for having expired inspection stickers.
“The officer then asked Mr. Ramirez Reyna if he was legal or illegal,” Alex Kornya, an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center who represents him, would later write in court papers. “His wife told the officer that they were in the process of adjusting his status.”
After making a call to an ICE official who confirmed that Ramirez Reyna was in the country illegally, the deputy paced him in handcuffs and took him to the Western Virginia Regional Jail.
Although Ramirez Reyna had no criminal record, Kornya wrote in court records, he was then transferred to an immigration detention center in Farmville, where he was held without bond to face deportation.
Immigrants like Ramirez Reyna had long been considered eligible for bond pending their hearings in immigration court, Kornya said.
“Then the new administration, roughly a year ago, did this 180-degree turn and by recharacterizing some definitions under the Immigration and Nationality Act, effectively denied almost anyone who would be subject to detention the opportunity for bond,” the attorney said in a recent interview.
Kornya then filed what’s called a habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, seeking permission from a federal judge for his client to be released.
In a June 2 order, Judge Leonie Brinkema found that because Ramirez Reyna had been in the U.S. for about three years without any criminal charges filed against him, his “continued detention is unlawful ... and violates his right to due process.”
Brinkema ordered that he be released immediately pending a hearing before an immigration judge.
Ramirez Reyna is currently free. He declined, through his attorney, to be interviewed last week, citing his pending deportation case.
State lawmakers try to act
Concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration policies led the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to pass a law earlier this year that limits — but does not forbid — the 287(g) agreements between ICE and local law enforcement agencies.
The law required the contracts to be voided, effective Sept. 1, unless they included about a dozen new provisions.
Among them: Requiring ICE agents to wear uniforms that clearly identify them; barring immigration enforcement at any school, church or courthouse; prohibiting surveillance technology in most cases; and agreeing that any shooting by an ICE official would be investigated by state police.
The law was prompted in part by heated controversy over the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis.
Shortly before the statute took effect, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, claimed that it violated the Constitution by asserting its authority over that of the federal government in immigration matters.
Virginia sought to void the contracts unless, in exchange, it could control the operations of ICE agents within its borders, the lawsuit stated.
“Such a bargain is no bargain at all, and the law demanding it is unconstitutional,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerard Mene wrote in the 47-page filing.
Before granting DOJ’s request for a preliminary injunction, which puts the law on hold pending a trial, Payne was required to find that the federal government was likely to win on the merits of its lawsuit.
The judge did so in an opinion filed Thursday in Richmond’s federal court.
“States are not entitled to themselves control or regulate the federal enforcement of laws, no matter how strongly (or rightly) they disagree with the means the government uses to enforce federal law,” Payne wrote.
“In other words, what would become of a dual system of sovereignty if States were free to do as Virginia has done here?” his opinion concluded.
“No doubt, it would endure, but, without doubt, it would be altered.”
Laurence Hammack (540) 981-3239
Government-politics
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FRANKLIN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Franklin County moves ahead to replace Mike Meredith, despite crowd's disapproval
The Franklin County Board of Supervisors announced five applicants for the board's Boone District seat during a special meeting Thursday, while those in attendance questioned if it was truly vacant.
The special meeting lasted less than 10 minutes before the board adjourned into closed session to discuss the list of eligible candidates that was finalized the day before. They include Bonnie Law, Lauren Walke, Dawn McCray, Thad Montgomery and Peter Miham.
McCray and Montgomery are both former Boone District representatives on the Franklin County School Board. Miham is a retired U.S. Navy veteran, Walke is a self-employed president of the Boones Mill Elementary PTO and Law is a retired health insurance agent.
The Franklin County Board of Supervisors held a special meeting Thursday to discuss candidates to fill the vacant Boone District seat.
Chris Dadak, county attorney for the evening, reviewed the process of selecting a new Boone seat at the meeting. The process started Aug. 18 when then-Supervisor Mike Meredith announced his resignation from the dais, giving the board 45 days to choose a new representative.
"It is the opinion of the county attorney that the Boone District supervisor seat is vacant," Dadak said.
Dadak continued that the board will conduct closed session interviews over the next week with each of the candidates. A second special meeting is scheduled for Friday, when the board will vote to appoint a new Boone District representative.
Union Hall District representative Dan Quinn asked for Dadak to comment on an email recently sent to the board by Meredith, who announced he would like to retain his seat. Dadak said discussion of the email would be best served in closed-door session, which led to vocal disapproval from the crowd of nearly 50 people in the boardroom supporting Meredith.
Meredith sent an email to supervisors last Monday, two weeks after his resignation during last month's board of supervisors meeting. In the email he stated his intention to remain in office and complete his term as supervisor.
Meredith
The resignation stemmed from a closed session discussion where Meredith claims he was asked to step down by one or more of the supervisors following his public disclosure days before that a proposed data center project in the county was not moving forward.
Meredith stated in his email to supervisors that his oral statement to resign "never became legally complete" as no motion, resolution or recorded vote was taken in open session.
A crowd of nearly 50 residents continued to discuss the decisions of supervisors after they left the boardroom and entered into closed session. Many vocally stated they wanted former Boone District representative Mike Meredith to continue serving.
When supervisors left the boardroom to enter into closed session, the crowd continued discussions without them. Several believed Meredith still had a right to serve on the board while others questioned why the process was moving so fast.
"It's on record that lawyer Chris Dadak said they have 45 days," Laura Cater said to the audience. "It is documented in the meeting that they want to get it done in 27 days. So they have time to push pause to maybe not create a lawsuit and actually be transparent about what they are doing, why they are doing it, versus what this is."
Christine Sizemore with the Franklin County Community Coalition also addressed the crowd stating supervisors should try to do more to be transparent with county residents. She claimed supervisors are keeping too many secrets.
"I think the bigger problem is, supervisors can ask an attorney what they can legally disclose or they can sit and keep hiding behind legal nondisclosure and see how much they can withhold," Sizemore said. "So far it appears that there has not been a lot of inquiries into what they can talk to the citizens about. Everything gets defaulted to closed session and that is the problem."
Jason Dunovant (540) 981-3324
Related
Boone District representative Mike Meredith informs a crowd of more than 200 Franklin County residents Sunday that a proposed data center know…
Crime-courts
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Families get $800,000-plus in Franklin County housing discrimination case
Checks for more than $800,000 were awarded last Wednesday to two families who were barred from a Smith Mountain Lake campground because one of their members was Black.
Meanwhile, the former owner of Lazy Cove Campground in Penhook is serving a 30-day jail sentence, after a judge recently found her in contempt of court for refusing to pay the damages awarded last year by a Franklin County jury.
Regina Turner, 75, was ordered to pay punitive and compensatory damages to the families in what Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said was the largest fair housing payout to individual complainants ever obtained by his office.
Turner
“Every Virginian deserves access to safe and affordable housing, and they deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity,” Jones said in a news release from his office.
Attorney General Jay Jones speaks at a news conference in June.
Turner, who had run the campground for decades, evicted both couples after learning that one of them had encouraged their friends — an interracial married couple with a young son — to lease a spot next to their lakefront lot.
The wife, who is white, negotiated the lease with Turner.
But after learning that the wife’s husband was Black, Turner immediately kicked out both families — openly stating that she would not have rented to them had she known, according to the attorney general’s office.
After deliberating for less than two hours, a Franklin County Circuit Court jury awarded the families $100,000 each for their losses as well as the humiliation and emotional toll they endured.
The jury imposed an additional $550,000 in punitive damages to punish Turner’s “egregious actions and serve as a deterrent against future discrimination,” the office said when the verdict was delivered in February 2025.
After Turner refused to pay the damages and failed to follow multiple court orders, she was found in contempt Aug. 12 and escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
The state foreclosed on the 18-acre campground to collect the jury’s verdict. The property sold for a little more than $1 million. Each family received $417,287.67, the full amount of damages, plus interest.
Jones presented them with checks Wednesday during an event at his Richmond office.
Laurence Hammack (540) 981-3239
Elections
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Rep. Morgan Griffith turns down debates with 9th District challenger Powers
The incumbent says no.
After being challenged by his Democratic opponent to public debates in the race for Virginia's heavily-Republican 9th District, eight-term GOP congressman Morgan Griffith has declined.
Griffith
"I do not need a jointly negotiated format to tell voters what I believe. They already know," Griffith wrote Friday in a letter to Joy Powers, which his campaign also shared with The Roanoke Times. "I would rather spend the fall listening to them and fighting for them than trading rehearsed lines with you on a stage."
Griffith also said in his letter: "I have spent years in this district, in person, answering to the people who sent me to Congress — not in carefully staged forums built around a single vote taken out of context."
Powers, a 34-year-old cattle farmer from Bedford County who is new to politics, is seeking to unseat Griffith, a 68-year-old attorney and former state lawmaker from Salem, in the district that includes most of Southwest Virginia outside Roanoke.
It stretches from Bedford County in the northeast to the state's southwestern corner.
Virginia's 9th congressional district extends from Virginia's most southwestern corner north around Roanoke and Salem through Craig County and to the skirts of Lynchburg.
The 9th is also Virginia's most conservative congressional district. Griffith won the 2024 election by 45 percentage points.
Powers
In a press release Friday responding to Griffith's letter and decision, Powers said that if the congressman "were actually listening" to voters, "he would know they have questions."
"After 16 years in Washington, he should be able to stand in front of the people he represents and answer for his record," Powers said. "A debate is not a favor to me. It is something he and I owe to the people asking us to represent them."
Powers made her challenge in a letter to Griffith on Aug. 24. She proposed three debates: one in far Southwest Virginia, one in the New River Valley and one on the eastern edge of the district.
When asked about the proposed debates during a Virginia Tech event on Aug. 28, the congressman said "one of the problems" is that Powers' challenge lacked specifics.
"Where are they going to be? Who is the moderator going to be? What's the format? What's going to happen? I mean, all of this has to be negotiated," he said then.
In Powers' challenge, she said the "two campaigns should jointly agree on hosts, venues, moderators, and format, with questions coming directly from voters across the Ninth District."
While Griffith's campaign was still considering her challenge, Powers said she didn't anticipate he would accept but would be thrilled to be wrong.
"Congressman Griffith can reconsider at any time," Powers said in her press release after he declined. "I'm ready."
Ben Orner (540) 981-3400
