Northern Virginia congressional candidates are facing off on the future of immigration enforcement, a proposed triumphal arch and the role of AI and data centers.
The issues all took center stage in a Sept. 8 candidate forum sponsored by the Arlington County Civic Federation, where Rep. Don Beyer (D-8) faced three challengers.
Beyer gave the most blunt response to a question about the future of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We need to shut down ICE,” he said.
The agency’s culture is “irretrievably destroyed,” Beyer added.
His challengers offered differing takes on the agency and its management. Republican Tony Sabio attempted a middle-ground approach.
“We have to have accountability … but we cannot throw a whole system out,” he said.
“I don’t think that I’d defund ICE,” said Shelly Arnoldi, the Libertarian candidate.
Arnoldi said she would like to see many of those without legal status depart the U.S.
“Anyone that’s here illegally should return [to their home], especially those who are taking free stuff,” she said.
Tim Sharman, an independent, said, “ICE needs to be reconstituted.”
Each candidate had only a minute to answer the question, which was paired with a second one: How did candidates feel about President Donald Trump’s planned memorial arch near Arlington National Cemetery?
Beyer called the arch “stupid.” Sharman called it “absurd” and “a giant waste of money.” Arnoldi said she would vote to “stop funding all the monuments,” along with the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian.
Republican Sabio didn’t answer the arch question head-on. He spoke more generally of government funding: “If it doesn’t return investment to the people, I will not support it,” he said.
Responding to a question focused on artificial intelligence and the data centers needed to power its growth, candidates also split.
All voiced concern, but several added there shouldn’t be rushed efforts to corral them at the expense of the good they can provide.
“I understand there’s a risk, there’s nefarious actors, [but] we should not be scared of technology,” Sabio said.
Beyer, too, said AI had the potential to be a net plus, pointing to healthcare advances already in the pipeline.
“There’s a lot of good that can come from it,” he said.
But with public opinion souring on the data centers required to power AI programming, candidates either added caveats to their support, or expressed the desire to pull back.
“Halt things right now, until we know what’s going on,” Arnoldi said of the proliferation of data centers across Northern Virginia and the nation.
As for artificial intelligence? “AI has been rolled out too quickly,” she said. “I don’t trust our government to control it.”
Sharman feared impacts on the nation’s workforce if AI causes mass displacement in significant industries.
On data centers, he said he did not want a one-size-fits-all policy handed down from the federal government.
“It needs to be a local decision,” Sharman said.
In the 40-minute debate, candidates also tackled the increasingly controversial use of Flock license-plate readers and whether Beyer’s experience should be enough to merit him a new two-year term.
The 8th District includes all of Arlington, portions of eastern Fairfax County, and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. Beyer, a former lieutenant governor, was elected in 2014, succeeding Jim Moran, and fended off four challengers in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary.
The inner suburbs of Northern Virginia are Democratic bastions, but Civic Federation president Nicholas Giacobbe said political forums were an opportunity for the public to hear from all candidates seeking their vote.
“There are a lot of different opinions, lots of different positions,” he said of the field of contenders gathered on Sept. 8.
