Sapphira Mohammed, Copy Editor
Residents are reacting to reported plans by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to lease a building for expanded operations in Chesterfield County near several minority neighborhoods and institutions of higher education.
ICE’s search for office space in the Richmond area has been public knowledge since September, but the exact location was not identified until a Feb. 10 article by WIRED revealed planned sites nationwide, obtained from federal records.
Per the records obtained by WIRED, the agency is planning to lease The Moorefield, a series of office complexes located at 808 Moorefield Park Dr.
SFpartners, the company that owns the buildings Moorefield I, II & III, said that was untrue in a phone call with The CT. They declined to elaborate.
The Moorefield is on the same street as the Virginia School for Nurse Aides, who said they had no idea that ICE had plans to lease office space near them. Brightpoint, a community college in the Midlothian area, also said they were unaware of the plans. Both schools declined to comment further on the matter.
The office of the Virginia Community College System, which is a four-minute drive from the buildings, also declined a request for comment by The CT.
Thomas Dale High School arts teacher and Brightpoint educator Les Harper said that while he believes that the high school wouldn’t let ICE through their doors, he would be disappointed with the county if they were to build a facility in the area. Born and raised in Chesterfield, Harper advocates for people protesting against the potential facility.
“You’re seeing the things that have happened with the shootings — it’s just despicable,” Harper said. “It’s terrible and unnecessary. The people who are being deported, if you are someone [who] believed that it was only going to be the worst of the worst being deported, that certainly has not been the case. It is being twisted into something that is reminiscent of police forces in the past.”
Chesterfield County’s population was an estimated 46.6% non-white, with 12.6% being Hispanic or Latino in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2023, foreign-born residents made up 9.37% of the population, according to Data USA.
First-generation American and YouTuber Saji Sharma moved to Richmond in 2021 to study business marketing at VCU. His younger brother, a first-year student at VCU, expressed his fears about ICE to Sharma.
“We were in the car and he was just kind of displaying signs of concern, like ‘are we going to move at some point? Are we going to have to leave the country?’ I remember having to tell him, ‘I mean, you know it is bad, but we aren’t necessarily immigrants, we don’t have to be as concerned.’ But hearing that ICE is leasing a space near us, that is very scary,” Sharma said.
This news also comes shortly after Hanover County’s planned ICE facility was canceled by the Canadian company that owned the space in late January, according to CBS 6. The Hanover County Board of Supervisors was already in opposition of the then-planned facility as it would put strain on the county financially as well as “place unplanned demands on county services, including public safety.”
Graduate student Eduardo Zelaya is the Virginia Organizing director of We Are CASA, a national organization that advocates for low-income and immigrant families. He said ICE’s plan to lease in Chesterfield disrupts the trust and increases uncertainty towards the government.
“They’re not setting the example of the American dream that we all dream of before we came to this country,” Zelaya said. “That doesn’t represent America.”
A third-year psychology student at the University of Virginia and lifelong Chesterfield resident, who would like to remain anonymous, said ICE coming in could potentially shake their favorite aspect of the Richmond area — the hospitality and welcoming environment of the community.
“I think that it would just be chaos if they were to actually come and that they would not produce any good with coming into the Chesterfield area,” they said.
Chesterfield County declined a request for a comment by the CT regarding ICE, and found no communications between ICE and the requested county administrators following a Freedom of Information Act request.