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Liam Ramos had just gotten home from preschool on January 20th when federal agents detained him and his father in their driveway and took them more than 1,000 miles away from their home.
Ask yourself: Does he look like a criminal? Does he look like a public safety threat to the United States of America?
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How could anyone make that argument with a straight face? Or accept it from a President who has shown this level of hostility and vitriol toward immigrants time and again?
And yet, this is exactly what Trump’s immigration crackdown looks like in practice: violent, inhumane, and indiscriminate. Rounding up thousands of innocent people. Mothers, children, U.S. citizens.
And it’s getting worse.
In February 2025, more than 3,000 immigrants with no criminal charges or convictions were detained by ICE. In January 2026, that number was more than 25,000.
The right-leaning Cato Institute has found that nearly three-quarters of those detained by ICE had no criminal conviction whatsoever — and of those who did, the most common were… traffic violations .
We now know of more than 100 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents, many of them unable to call their lawyers or loved ones.
Late last month, ICE agents broke down a U.S. citizen’s door without a warrant, dragged him outside in front of his four-year-old grandson, drove him to the middle of nowhere, forced him to stand undressed in the cold while they photographed him, and then dropped him off at his broken-down front door.
This is not about law enforcement. This is not about public safety. It is a campaign against people because of the color of their skin or where they are from.
In my 13 years in the Senate, I’ve heard politicians repeatedly talk about immigrants as a problem. It’s far rarer to hear anyone talk about immigrants as a strength. But my experience — from Richmond City Council to the U.S. Senate — makes it clear to me that immigrant communities are a strength.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t issues to resolve or reforms to be done. But it is long past time for leaders in this country to talk honestly about the contributions immigrants make and the damage caused by demonizing them.
Immigrants are not just part of our story — they are essential to our future.
Nationwide, immigrant families generated more than $236 billion in income in 2022 and paid nearly $66 billion in local, state, and federal taxes.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that immigration into our country will add nearly $9 trillion to the U.S. GDP over the next decade — if we don’t screw it up, that is.
More than 15% of U.S. residents today are immigrants, and here in Virginia, immigrants are a cornerstone of our success, contributing $104 billion annually to our Commonwealth’s economy.
Our state has gone from the bottom quarter to the top quarter of per-capita income — and the growth of immigrant communities is a major reason why!
Nearly a third of Main Street business owners are immigrants. 16% of our workforce. 34% percent of our chefs, 44% percent of our computer engineers, 46% of our agricultural workers.
More than a fifth of our healthcare workers are immigrant-trained — without them, many rural parts of Virginia would have no health providers at all.
Demeaning, attacking, and terrorizing these communities is not just morally wrong — it actively harms our country and our economy.
Between now and next Friday, the Senate will be negotiating a funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security amid this campaign of terror from the administration.
As we do, this much must be clear:
Any policy that begins with the assumption that immigrants are a problem or a threat — instead of recognizing that immigrants are part of the great success of this nation — is bankrupt morally, legally, and economically.
I’ll be working as hard as I can to get a bill for DHS funding that respects and recognizes the rights, values, and humanity of immigrants to this country.
More updates to come.
— Tim Kaine
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