Democrats have spent years letting criminals walk while prosecutors hand out slap on the wrist deals and suspended sentences.
Now Virginia's attorney general wants to stop law enforcement from doing their job.
What he is investigating him for will tell you everything you need to know about the Democrat Party.
Jay Jones Targets Greene County Sheriff Steven Smith for ICE Cooperation
On June 23, 2026, Sheriff Steven Smith's deputies lined the roads around Ruckersville, Virginia, alongside federal immigration agents.
They stopped vehicles and arrested 49 people in the largest joint ICE operation Greene County had ever run.
Seven days later, Virginia's new House Bill 1441 went into effect – banning exactly that kind of local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Smith's operation was legal when it happened.
Virginia Democrat Attorney General Jay Jones investigated him anyway.
His formal letter to Smith stated that "the Virginia Office of the Attorney General has opened an inquiry into the manner in which the Greene County Sheriff's Office is conducting traffic stops."
Former Virginia Republican Delegate Nick Freitas said what every law-abiding Virginian was thinking: "A Sheriff, being an elected official, was keeping to his oath to serve and protect the community."
Smith himself had already telegraphed his position when a Charlottesville attorney showed up to document the June operation firsthand.
"I don't care what the governor says," Smith told him.
Jay Jones Has Opposed ICE Enforcement Since His First Day as Virginia Attorney General
Jones took office in January 2026 and within weeks joined a coalition of Democrat attorneys general demanding ICE abandon its detention policies – insisting that detainees deserved more protection than the American communities they entered illegally.
Now he is using the power of the Virginia attorney general's office to punish a county sheriff – a constitutionally elected official who answers to voters, not to Jones – for running a legal operation against illegal aliens.
Before Jay Jones became Virginia's chief law enforcement officer, he sent text messages fantasizing about shooting a Republican.
In August 2022, Jones texted a fellow legislator about former Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
"Gilbert gets two bullets to the head," he wrote, according to messages first reported by National Review.
He then told that same colleague he wished Gilbert's children would "die in their mother's arms."
The messages were authenticated. Jones admitted sending them and said publicly he was "embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry."
Virginia voters elected him attorney general anyway in November 2025.
He assumed office in January 2026 – and has spent every month since working to protect illegal aliens from the law enforcement officers trying to remove them.
The man investigating Sheriff Smith for those 49 arrests is the same man who once ranked a Republican lawmaker beneath Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot on a list of people who deserved to live.
Democrats are fine with that.
Democrat Attorneys General Are Blocking ICE Cooperation Nationwide
New York Attorney General Letitia James went further this summer, ordering twelve law enforcement agencies across the state to sever their agreements with ICE and threatening legal consequences for any that refused.
One upstate New York sheriff told local media the mandate makes his county less safe, puts residents "in jeopardy," and pledged to keep working with ICE regardless.
The numbers are stark.
Formal cooperation agreements between local law enforcement and ICE – known as 287(g) agreements – exploded from 135 in January 2025 to more than 1,400 by early 2026.
Republican-led states drove that growth.
Democrat-led states responded by passing laws to reverse it and dispatching their attorneys general to make examples of the sheriffs who cooperated before those laws took effect.
Democrat politicians call it accountability. Every sheriff watching knows it's a warning shot.
Jay Jones made his priorities clear the moment he took office – and Sheriff Smith just found out exactly what they are.
Sources:
- Nick Minock, "Virginia AG Jay Jones Goes After Greene County Sheriff for ICE Cooperation," WVIR NBC29, August 21, 2026.
- "49 People Were Arrested in a Joint Operation Between the Greene County Sheriff and ICE," Charlottesville Tomorrow, July 8, 2026.
- "Disqualifying Conduct: Jay Jones Controversy Jolts Virginia's Pivotal 2025 Elections," Virginia Mercury, October 5, 2025.
- "Democrat Jay Jones Wins Virginia AG Race, Overcoming Backlash to His Violent Texts," NBC News, November 5, 2025.
- Nick Freitas (@NickJFreitas), X, August 21, 2026.
- "Sheriff Defends ICE Cooperation as N.Y. State AG's Deadline Looms," NY State of Politics, July 27, 2026.
- "Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones Shifts Office Priorities," Virginia Lawyers Weekly, March 9, 2026.
