Immigrants’ Fears Run Rampant in RVA

VPM | By Rich Meagher

Published April 30, 2025 at 7:57 PM EDT

It seems like every day brings new national news stories about deportations, ICE raids, or student visas being revoked. This is fueling fear not just in the immigrant community, but even among people here in the country legally.
Rich talks to an advocate who serves RVA’s Latino community, as well as an attorney who represents Virginia immigrants. How is this immigration crackdown affecting people in Virginia and Richmond? Listen and subscribe to RVA’s Got Issues wherever you get your podcasts.

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Rich Meagher

Richard J. Meagher [pronounced MARR] is Professor of Political Science, Director of Social Entrepreneurship at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, and the host of RVA's Got Issues.

Meagher is an expert observer of local and state politics in Richmond and has been featured everywhere from print to television to radio. He is a political analyst for WRIC 8 News, and his commentary and opinion have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and his own RVAPolitics site.

He is also a Faculty Fellow for Brandeis University’s Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT), a national program engaging undergraduates in state-level legislative change. Meagher's 2020 book, Local Politics Matters, argues for the importance of participation in city and county politics.

In 2023, he launched the Virginia Amendments Project, a resource for scholars and citizens about amendments to the Constitution of Virginia.

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