RICHMOND, Va. — Immigration and crime are two of the most important issues to voters right now. And when events cause those two topics to overlap, you can expect heated opinions and misinformation.
A video posted online by a candidate for governor went viral after it was reposted on X, formerly known as Twitter. In the video, Merle Rutledge claims a bill passed through the Virginia legislature that would let non-citizens become police officers. Approximately 2,400 people have shared it and more than 130,000 have viewed it.
“I wanted to know who was responsible for this piece of trash legislation," he said in the video, "that was going to tell the migrants at the border, ‘get ready to arrest Americans in the country legally.’”
QUESTION
Did the Virginia legislature pass a bill that would let migrants who just entered the United States become law enforcement officers?
SOURCES
ANSWER
The video misrepresents what the legislature attempted to do before the bill was vetoed.
WHAT WE FOUND
Rutledge, a Republican from Chesapeake, ran for Governor in 2021 and for State Senator in 2023. He has announced that he plans to run for Governor again in 2025.
In the video, he was referring to SB 69, a bill authored by State Sen. Jeremy McPike (D-Woodbridge). The bill would have allowed people granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status to become law enforcement officers in Virginia.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, allows some people who entered the country as undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States for at least two years. Among the criteria for consideration, the individuals must have been younger than 16 years old when they arrived in the U.S. and must have been born after June 16, 1981. If approved, those individuals are also eligible to work in the country legally.
To be a police officer in Virginia, state law says one must be at least 18 years old, a citizen of the U.S., able to pass a background check, have at least a high school education or pass an equivalency exam, and more. SB 69 would have rewritten the requirements to allow anyone authorized to work in the U.S. to become an officer, rather than only citizens.
Because of the state's age requirement to become an officer and the federal age requirement to qualify for DACA status, the bill would have required newly eligible officers to have been in the U.S. for at least two years.
The bill passed the House of Delegates and Senate, but Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed it. "As noted by supporters of the legislation, the Department of Criminal Justice Service can currently offer waivers for noncitizens who are permanent residents to serve as law enforcement officers on a case-by-case basis," Gov. Youngkin wrote in his veto letter. "This bill would run counter to this appropriate working practice by allowing non-citizens who are not permanent residents and are not eligible to become citizens to be certified as law enforcement officers."
If Governor Youngkin had okayed it, Virginia would have followed California and Illinois, which previously passed similar laws.
