CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Recent ICE actions, in conjunction with the Greene County Sheriff’s Department, have raised concerns for state legislators, who have questions about both the methods and motivations behind the operations.

“I’m disappointed,” Sen. Creigh Deeds told Cville Right Now. “Certainly, we all want people who come into this country to come in legally, but the people that are here are for the most part here to fill a need, and that’s work. They’re also here to advance their families, give their families a chance.”

Speaking ahead of Friday’s 50th anniversary of Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, Deeds and Del. Katrina Callsen both told Cville Right Now that the enforcement actions appear to be more politically motivated than rooted in sound police work.

“It’s been frustrating, to be honest,” Callsen said. “That’s coming down from the federal government. and there’s only but so much we can do.”

Deeds said: “It’s very distressing that those sorts of actions seem to be driven by a need for publicity and to feed a mass rather than actually solve a problem.”

On June 23, ICE – working with Greene County – arrested 49 undocumented immigrants. An ICE spokesperson told Cville Right Now the detainees “were transported to ICE facilities for further processing and will receive due process. They will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

The spokesperson did not answer when asked for the identity of those arrested, what charges the people were facing or where specifically they were being held. ICE referred Cville Right Now to its detainee locator website which requires either a person’s ICE A-number or their full name, birthdate and country of birth to search the database.

The June arrests were the second large-scale operation locally. On May 14, ICE and the Greene County Sheriffs arrested 26 undocumented people in Ruckersville, including one man ICE believes was an MS-13 gang member from Honduras.

Under Sheriff Steve Smith, Greene County is one of 28 Virginia law enforcement agencies part of the DHS’s 287(g) program where local entities work in partnership with ICE, a list that also includes sheriff’s offices in Buckingham and Shenandoah County.

Nationally, 181 agencies across 39 states are currently part of the program, according to the DHS.

The June action came just before an executive order from Gov. Abigail Spanberger went into effect July 1 barring Virginia state law enforcement agencies from collaborating with federal agencies on immigration actions. Local agencies are unaffected by the law.

“Partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the resources we need to arrest illegal aliens across the country,” the ICE spokesperson said. “When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities.”

Callsen said, for now, she’s helping to connect those impacted by ICE with lawyers who can advise them.

“Just trying to make sure people have due process and representation as they’re interacting with ICE,” Callsen said.