Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger denounces Donald Trump's immigration policy in Democrats' State of the Union response

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger gave the Democratic Party response following Donald Trump's State of the Union speech.

Immigration helped carry Trump to victory in 2024 and it has long been a signature issue for him, but he barely discussed the aggressive and highly consequential steps he took to reshape the immigration system during his fist year in office.

He didn't talk about key initiatives under his $170-billion immigration enforcement package that Congress approved: vastly expanding immigration detention, doubling the size of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and building more border wall. He didn't talk about major policy changes like attempting to end birthright citizenship, denying bond to people who are in immigration custody, suspending asylum at the border and revoking legal status for hundreds of thousands of people who are in the United States on humanitarian grounds.

And he didn't discuss his mass deportation campaign - just weeks after Minnesota's largest cities turned into battlegrounds between immigration officers and protesters and resulted in U.S. officials fatally shooting two U.S. citizens.

The flood of immigration agents into cities like Minneapolis is unnecessary, wasteful and spreads fear, Spanberger said.

"Every minute spent sowing fear is a minute not spent investigating murders, crimes against children, or the criminals defrauding seniors of their life savings," she said. "Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed, not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities."

"Our president has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities, where they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who aspire to be Americans."

Spanberger is criticizing how Trump's mass deportation agenda is being carried out in places like Chicago and Minneapolis.

Her comments come just a day after a whistleblower told Congress about how new ICE recruits are being trained and the problems with that training.

Ryan Schwank accused the Department of Homeland Security of dismantling the training program for new deportation officers and lying about what they were doing.

DHS has said that there's been no compromise or corner cutting when it comes to preparing new deportation officers.

"Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? We all know the answer is no"

Throughout her Democratic response to Trump's address, Spanberger posed a series of questions to Americans, asking whether they feel life has improved since he returned to office.

The Democrat, who flipped a Republican-held office last year, is hoping voters across the country will share that assessment when they head to the polls in November.

Spanberger is arguing in her Democratic rebuttal that costs remain high for many Americans more than a year into his second term.

Her message, that families are still struggling under Trump's policies, is one Democrats plan to carry nationwide ahead of the midterm elections. Party leaders point to Spanberger's double-digit victory in Virginia last November as validation of a disciplined, cost-focused campaign they now hope to replicate across the country.