ACLU of Virginia sues ICE over detention of immigrant children with legal protections

Civil liberties group says minors granted or seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status are being unlawfully jailed in Virginia, echoing broader national battles over youth immigration detention.

BY: MARKUS SCHMIDT
OCTOBER 2, 2025
4:54 PM

The ACLU of Virginia has filed a class action lawsuit accusing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of unlawfully detaining young people in the commonwealth who already have, or are in the process of obtaining, legal protections that Congress created to shield them from deportation.

The case, Sarmiento et al. v. Crawford et al., was submitted Thursday in the Alexandria division of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia. The lawsuit names four plaintiffs — all minors who have applied for or been granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) — and seeks relief for others in the same situation.

The ACLU argues ICE has flouted federal law by treating these youth as ordinary noncitizens subject to mandatory detention, locking them in facilities such as the ones in Farmville or Caroline, and denying them bond hearings.

“How could ICE possibly justify picking up orphaned children and then warehousing them in a detention center?” ACLU-VA Legal Director Eden Heilman said in a statement. “A court ruled they cannot safely return to their home countries, that they have nowhere else to go, and that they have every legal right to be in the United States.”

Sophia Gregg, ACLU-VA Senior Immigrants’ Rights Attorney, added: “Our clients are following the rules they’ve been given to obtain citizenship. Unfortunately, ICE is not.”

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MARKUS SCHMIDT
Markus is an award-winning journalist who covers Virginia politics from the state Capitol in Richmond. His coverage area includes the General Assembly, the executive branch and elections in Virginia.

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