Caelan Bailey Published

Morrisey Urges Cooperation With Federal Immigration Enforcement


Through an executive order to state law enforcement and  a letter to local law enforcement on Thursday, Governor Patrick Morrisey ordered support for President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 “Securing Our Borders” executive order.

“West Virginia is going to partner with President Trump make sure that we’re going after this deadly issue as long as I’m in the governor’s mansion, to do everything we can to partner with them on these critical issues,” Morrisey said at a Thursday press conference.

Morrisey said 72 people in West Virginia had been identified by various law enforcement agencies as illegal immigrants as of Wednesday night – many of them already under arrest on other charges. He said 10 of those detained had been moved out to Kentucky by Thursday morning.

Morrisey said he did not have information on whether any detainees were under 18 years old.

The letter to local law enforcement, said Morrisey, intends to “protect the residents of our state” by working with federal agencies to “swiftly determine the precise location of illegal aliens and act decisively to detain, prosecute, and return them to their place of origin.”

“We are a small state far from the southern border,” the letter continues. “West Virginia undoubtedly has far more illegal migrants residing within our borders than we are presently aware of. That must change. And it will change—soon.”

Morrisey framed the announcement as an effort to curb the “flood of deadly fentanyl” distribution into the state, saying, “Illegal immigration issues go hand-in-hand with the drug epidemic in West Virginia.”

“I’ve always thought the last 12 years, there’s more we can do here in West Virginia,” Morrisey said. “I was Attorney General. I kept wanting to get access to data to learn more about the scope of the illegal immigration problem.”

Data from federal agencies shows most illegal drugs brought into the United States are transported by American citizens at legal ports of entry. 

“I know that it occurs in both areas, between and within the ports of entry, and so if you’re committing a crime, you’re equally culpable either way,” Morrisey said.

Morrisey did not provide new data from the governor’s office linking the enforcement push to fentanyl distribution.

“We’re going to be cracking down pretty hard on illegal immigration here in the state,” Morrisey said. [Voters] “sent President Trump to the White House, they sent me to the governor’s office to do exactly that.”