Illegal Immigrant Crimes a Key Issue Facing Virginians as Nov. Elections Approach: Analyst

Virginia's state elections are in less than two weeks and there are major races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, all seats in the House of Delegates, and many local offices across the Commonwealth. Virginia's elections are often considered as early indicators of public opinion on the presidential administration, and we and we'll be checking which way the wind is blowing in that state now that President Trump's second term is well underway. Joining us for insight is Virginia voter and senior investigator with Restoration of America, Victoria Manning. Victoria, good to have you with us today. Thank you for joining us. What are the most important issues facing Virginiaians today? Now, one of the big issues that is facing Virginiaians um and as well as the rest of America as you've just been reporting are illegal alien crimes. And that's something that I've just reported on this week. And I discovered in my own city of Virginia Beach in just the last two months, um, we've had 29 illegal aliens arrested for crimes ranging from theft and DUI to child rape and murder. Um, and this is something that Virginiaians are very concerned about and are paying a lot of attention to. Um, Governor Yncan issued an executive order earlier this year directing the Virginia State Police and local law enforcement officials to cooperate with ICE and to get these illegal alien criminals off our streets. Um, so far since February, over 5600 illegal alien criminals have been arrested. And in terms of the election, how are you hoping that might be this issue might be addressed? >> So, one one big issue is in the House of Delegates. Um the power currently resides with the Democrats, but it but it's a very close um House of Delegates and we've got some seats that could flip from Democrat to Republican, including one of those here in Virginia Beach. Um, I reached out to Democrat delegate Michael Fagens, um, who represents part of Virginia Beach because many of these crimes have been taking place in his district. For example, there was an 11-year-old little girl who was raped by an illegal alien. He snuck into her bedroom three different times and raped her. He was just convicted um, just a couple of weeks ago here in Virginia in in Virginia Beach. And you know, Delegate Fagens is silent on this. He's not speaking up about it. I did speak with his opponent, uh, Tim Anderson, who's running against him, and he's very concerned about these potential sanctuary policies that, um, Governor, uh, candidate Abigail Spanberger has said she will implement. She has said she will resend Governor Yncan's um, policy that cooperates with ICE. And what do you think uh Virginiaians are thinking on this topic? Is that going to be enough? Is there enough awareness about it? Is it going to sway them to vote in a particular direction? What what are the trends showing at the moment? >> You know, Virginiaians are definitely opposed to sanctuary cities. uh majority of the sheriffs across our state do cooperate with ICE, but you do have cities uh crimeridden cities like Richmond, Virginia who don't cooperate with ICE and they're harboring these illegal aliens. And I think Virginiaians are starting to see that and I do think that um it is a factor in the upcoming election and could potentially sway um the House of Delegates race um to the side of the Republicans. you've been investigating this topic and you, as you mentioned, you live right there um in the state and have experienced some of the um distressing symptoms of the policies that you've described. What do you think, if anything, is missing from the conversation in these elections coming up that may need more space and airtime in the public sphere? >> Yeah, so it's happening in everyone's backyard. Virginia Beach is a safe city. And just a couple of weeks ago, I was running some errands not too far from my home and it was a Saturday morning and I not noticed that the police were there and had taped off a shopping center. Um, and I found out a few hours later that they had um that there had been an illegal alien murder um that had happened in that parking lot. An illegal alien murdered a man. Um, I was going out to dinner in that shopping center that very evening. Um, so these crimes are just striking close to home. It's happening all across our state. I think the um open border policies of the Democrats over the last four years um are going to continue to impact our nation um for years to come. And we do need strong leaders who are going to stand up and um take action like Governor Yncan did in ex issuing his executive order. And pivoting a little here to the race for the attorney general and something that's recently shaken up that race. Violent texts from the candidate Jay Jones recently surfacing directed at the former speaker of the house Todd Gilbert and his family. Is the controversy spilling over to the governor's race? And how do you see it at this point in time um as the election approaches? Yeah, I definitely do think it's spilling over into the governor's race and other races because not one Democrat has called for him to step down from the race and I think that is impacting them. Um I was the first to report recently that there is um an open investigation into Jay Jones. um he was required to do some community service for that reckless driving ticket that he got in New Kent County and um he they are investigating whether or not he appropriate appropriately uh pleaded that community service. Um I have u evidence that perhaps he did not. He completed his community service part of it with his own political action committee which is typically forbidden. Um and so there is an open investigation into that. So that in combined with his violent texts um definitely we see Attorney General Jason Marez um speeding ahead in that race. And I do think that that is spilling over into some of the House of Delegates races as well as um the governor's race. >> And any thoughts on Lieutenant Governor and and how the governor's race more generally is going? >> Yeah, so Lieutenant Governor race is really exciting to watch. Um John Reid, the Republican candidate, has been trying to get his opponent, uh the Democrat candidate, Hashme, to debate him and she is just absolutely refusing to debate. He actually held an AI debate a couple of days ago. It's interesting to watch. If you go to your his website, you'll see that um HashMe refused to show up. So um he had a debate essentially with a computer. And so that was interesting to watch. Um and uh those numbers are very close in that race. Currently um many polls are h have those um that race tied. >> And what will you be watching for in the candidates as election day closes in? >> You know the the candidates their u event schedule is very full. just saw a schedule for Lieutenant Governor uh Winsmerl Sears who h has a very full schedule traveling the entire state trying to meet voters and get out into communities and really trying to get um their base out to make sure that they vote um if they haven't already voted. Getting them out. A lot of the um early voting satellite sites are opening up this weekend across the state. So, I think all of the candidates are going to be focused on getting their voters out to the polls. Well, >> it's been great to have your insights today, Victoria Manning of Restoration of America. Good to have you with us. >> Thank you for having me.