EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER FORTY-FIVE (2025)
DECLARATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY DUE TO SEVERE WINTER WEATHER SYSTEMS
Importance of the Issue
The Virginia Emergency Operations Center has been actively monitoring the movement of several winter weather systems heading toward Virginia, with the anticipated arrival of the most severe impacts Monday evening into the morning of Tuesday, February 11, 2025. The National Weather Service forecasts are predicting areas of accumulating snow, freezing rain, ice, and excessive rainfall that could cause flooding, power outages, and hazardous travel conditions. Accordingly, the pre-positioning of response assets and supplies will be necessary to assist our local and state partners. The Virginia Emergency Support Team will activate for this incident.
The health and general welfare of the citizens of the Commonwealth require that state action be taken to help alleviate the conditions caused by these systems. The effects of these storms constitute a disaster wherein human life and public and private property are imperiled, as described in § 44-146.16 of the Code of Virginia (the Code). Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Article V, Section 7 of the Constitution of Virginia, by §§ 44-146.17 and 44-75.1 of the Code, as Governor and Director of Emergency Management and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth's Armed Forces, I proclaim a state of emergency. Accordingly, I direct state and local governments to render appropriate assistance to prepare for this event, to alleviate any conditions resulting from the situation, and to implement recovery and mitigation operations and activities so as to return impacted areas to pre-event conditions as much as possible. Emergency services shall be conducted in accordance with § 44-146.13 et seq. of the Code.
Following a declaration of a local emergency pursuant to § 44-146.21 of the Code, if a local governing body determines that evacuation is deemed necessary for the preservation of life or other emergency mitigation, response or recovery, pursuant to § 44-146.17(A)(1) of the Code, I direct the evacuation of all or part of the populace therein from such areas and upon such timetable as the local governing body, in coordination with the Virginia Emergency Operations Center (VEOC), acting on behalf of the State Coordinator of Emergency Management, shall determine. Notwithstanding the foregoing, I reserve the right to direct and compel evacuation from the same and different areas and determine a different timetable both where local governing bodies have made such a determination and where local governing bodies have not made such a determination. Violations of any order to citizens to evacuate shall constitute a violation of this Executive Order and are punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
This Executive Order also covers preparatory actions for this event that began on February 9, 2025.
Directive
In order to marshal all public resources and appropriate preparedness, response, and recovery measures, I order the following actions:
1. Implementation by state agencies of the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Operations Plan, as amended, along with other appropriate state plans.
2. Activation of the Virginia Emergency Operations Center and the Virginia Emergency Support Team, as directed by the State Coordinator of Emergency Management, to coordinate the provision of assistance to state, local, and tribal governments and to facilitate emergency services assignments to other agencies; activation of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact § 44-146.28:1 of the Code, as needed.
3. Authorization for the heads of executive branch agencies, on behalf of their regulatory boards as appropriate, and with the concurrence of their Cabinet Secretary, to waive any state requirement or regulation, and enter into contracts without regard to normal procedures or formalities, and without regard to application or permit fees or royalties. All waivers issued by agencies shall be posted on their websites.
4. Activation of § 59.1-525 et seq. of the Code related to price gouging.
5. Authorization of a maximum of $1,000,000 in state sum sufficient funds for state and local government mission assignments and state response and recovery operations authorized and coordinated through the Virginia Department of Emergency Management allowable by The Stafford Act, 42 U.S.C. § 5121 et seq. Included in this authorization is $500,000 for the Department of Military Affairs.
6. Activation of the Virginia National Guard to State Active Duty.
Effective Date of this Executive Order
This Executive Order shall be effective February 10, 2025, and shall remain in full force and effect for 30 days pursuant to § 44-146.17(A)(1) of the Code, unless sooner amended or rescinded by further executive order.
Termination of this Executive Order is not intended to terminate any federal type benefits granted or to be granted due to injury or death as a result of service under this Executive Order.
Given under my hand and under the Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia, this 10th day of February 2025.
/s/ Glenn Youngkin, Governor
EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER FORTY-SIX (2025)
BANNING THE USE OF DEEPSEEK ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON STATE GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY
By virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the Commonwealth, I hereby issue this Executive Order to guard the security of the Commonwealth's information technology infrastructure and the sensitive data it protects by banning the use of DeepSeek on government-owned or government-leased devices or over government-owned or government-maintained networks.
Importance of the Initiative
Information technology infrastructure is an integral part of the routine operations of state government and a critical component of serving the citizens of the Commonwealth. Safeguarding that infrastructure and the vital data it contains about the people of Virginia, including personally identifiable information, tax data, health records, and intellectual property, necessitates the restriction of applications that can be installed or websites that can be accessed on government-owned or leased technology.
On December 16, 2022, I issued Executive Order 24, which banned the download or use of any applications developed by ByteDance Limited or Tencent Holdings Limited or any visit to the TikTok or the WeChat website on any government-issued devices and the access of those applications and websites through wireless networks owned, operated or maintained by the Commonwealth, with limited exceptions for law enforcement use.1
Today, DeepSeek, an artificial intelligence large language model natural language processing chatbot developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd., raises significant security and privacy concerns that call for similar restrictions on Commonwealth of Virginia devices. According to the Associated Press, security researchers have discovered that the DeepSeek application contains code capable of transmitting user login information to China Mobile, a state- owned telecommunications company banned from operating in the U.S. due to national security concerns. This raises the possibility of user data being accessed by the Chinese government.2
Security researchers have identified that DeepSeek's application for the Apple iOS iPhone operating system disables "App Transport Security," allowing the transmission of unencrypted data over the internet, which could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information.3
Analyses by security experts reveal that DeepSeek lacks robust security measures, making it susceptible to "jailbreaking" attacks, meaning users can get around the security measures and ethical guardrails in place on the chatbot. According to Cisco Systems, in tests, the model failed to block harmful prompts, resulting in a 100 percent attack success rate. This vulnerability could be exploited to generate malicious content.4
Furthermore, an investigation by Wiz Research uncovered that DeepSeek had an exposed database containing over a million lines of sensitive information, including chat histories and internal system details.5
Directive
Accordingly, pursuant to the authority vested in me as Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth and pursuant to Article V of the Constitution of Virginia and § 2.2-103 of the Code of Virginia, I hereby direct and order that no employee or contract employee of any agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall download or use the DeepSeek AI application or any other application developed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd., hereafter referred to as "DeepSeek," on any government-issued devices, including state-issued cell phones, laptops, or other devices capable of connecting to the internet except for public safety purposes as certified by the Secretary of Public Safety & Homeland Security.
Further, no person or entity contracting with the Commonwealth, including but not limited to all agencies, boards, commissions, institutions of higher education, or authorities, or agents thereof, may download or use the DeepSeek AI application or any other application developed by DeepSeek on state-owned or leased equipment.
Any employee of the Commonwealth, or person or entity contracting with the Commonwealth, who has already downloaded the DeepSeek AI application, or any other application developed by DeepSeek to any government-issued devices as listed above is hereby directed to remove, delete, and uninstall these applications by February 12, 2025.
Finally, no person shall download or use the DeepSeek AI application, or any other application developed by DeepSeek, through Commonwealth owned, operated, or maintained wireless networks.
This Order applies to all Executive Offices, Secretariat Offices, and Executive Branch Agencies. Other units or entities of state government shall comply with this directive in the manner which best suits their information technology capability and network security parameters.
Accordingly, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency is directed to restrict access to these websites and applications in accordance with this Executive Order.
An authorized information technology officer or chief administrative officer for all Executive Branch Agencies shall send written confirmation and report of compliance with this directive to the Secretary of Administration by February 18, 2025.
Effective Date
This Executive Order shall be effective upon its signing and shall remain in force and effect unless amended or rescinded by further executive order or directive. Given under my hand and under the Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia, this 11th day of February, 2025.
/s/ Glenn Youngkin, Governor
------------------------------------------------------
1 EO-24 - Banning the Use of Certain Applications and Websites on State Government Technology
2 Byron Tau, Researchers Link DeepSeek's Blockbuster Chatbot to Chinese Telecom Banned from Doing Business in US, The Associated Press, Feb. 5, 2025, available at https://apnews.com/article/deepseek china -generative-ai-intemet-security-concerns-c52562f8c4760a81c476bc5fbdebad0.
3 Brian Krebs, Experts Flag Security, Privacy Risks in DeepSeek AI App, Krebs on Security, Feb. 6, 2025, available at https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/experts-flag-security-privacy-risks-in-deepseek-ai-app.
4 Paul Kassianik and Amin Karhasi, Evaluating Security Risk in DeepSeek and Othre Frontier Reasoning Models, Cisco Blogs, Jan. 31, 2025, available at https://blog.cisco.com/security/evaluating-security-risk-in-deepseek-and-other-frontier-reasoning-models.
5 Gal Nagli, Wiz Research Uncovers Exposed DeepSeek Database Leaking Sensitive Information, Including Chat History, Wiz.io Blog, Jan. 29, 2025, available at https://www.wiz.io/blog/wiz-research-uncovers-exposed-deepseek-database-leak.
EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER FORTY-SEVEN (2025)
KEEPING VIRGINIANS SAFE FROM DANGEROUS CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
By virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the Commonwealth, I hereby issue this Executive Order to improve the safety of all Virginians by maximizing our collaboration with the federal government to enforce immigration law in the Commonwealth of Virginia and using all available methods to facilitate the arrest and deportation of inadmissible and removable criminal illegal immigrants.
Importance of Initiative
In February 2024, an Old Dominion University student was killed in a car crash by an illegal immigrant who previously had multiple run-ins with the law, having previously been ordered deported six years earlier. That same month, an illegal immigrant sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Campbell County. In November 2024, a woman was attacked and raped by an illegal immigrant from Honduras while hiking along a trail in Herndon. Reports indicate that the man had 29 encounters with police dating back to 2017, ranging from drug possession to indecent exposure and public nudity. These stories echo others from across the country where illegal immigrants have committed additional heinous crimes: Laken Riley, murdered in Georgia; Rachel Morin, a mom of five from Maryland brutally murdered; and Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old assaulted and murdered in Texas. In all cases, the tragedy is compounded by the fact that the perpetrator of the crime should not be in the country at all.
Virginia is not a sanctuary state. A commitment to public safety demands that the Commonwealth recognize that the nexus between illegal immigration and dangerous criminal activity is real, particularly in an era marked by rising transnational criminal organizations, criminal street gangs, human trafficking, the distribution of illegal narcotics including fentanyl, and crimes of violence linked to these clear and emerging threats.
As of February 27, 2025, 946 inmates in the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) system had an open immigration detainer. These detainers are not issued lightly; they indicate that federal immigration authorities have flagged these individuals due to their involvement in serious criminal activities. Notably, nine out of every ten of these detainees are for violent criminals. Among them, four out of ten have been identified as rapists and sexual assailants, and two out of ten are classified as murderers. Such figures provide a sobering reminder of the potential dangers associated with allowing individuals who commit egregious crimes to be in our country illegally.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added Section 287(g) to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 287(g) authorizes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to advance enforcement of federal immigration laws. Further, Section 287(g) agreements delegate to federally trained and certified state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight.
Delegation of authority under Section 287(g) agreements promotes the identification, arrest, and removal of criminal illegal immigrants who are subject to removal from the United States, thereby protecting the homeland from individuals who undermine the safety of our nation's communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.
Various forms of Section 287(g) agreements exist. They include:
• The Jail Enforcement Model, which is designed to identify and process removable immigrants who are incarcerated in state or local correctional facilities; and
• The Task Force Model, which serves as a force multiplier for law enforcement agencies to enforce limited immigration authority with ICE oversight during their routine police duties.
On January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. This EO requires ICE, through Section 287(g) agreements or otherwise and to the maximum extent permitted by law, to authorize state and local law enforcement officials, as the Secretary of Homeland Security determines are qualified and appropriate, under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The nexus between illegal immigration and dangerous criminal activity is real. Establishing Section 287(g) agreements with the Virginia State Police (VSP) and VADOC will bridge the gap between state and local policing and federal immigration policies—a role that has become ever more critical given rising concerns over criminal activity linked to transnational criminal organizations and gangs.
Formal Section 287(g) partnerships between VSP and VADOC will not only reinforce Virginia's commitment to justice and the rule of law but also enhance our ability to preempt the reentry of dangerous offenders into our communities and facilitate their removal from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America. Although VADOC already cooperates with ICE, this informal cooperation, while commendable, remains reactive in nature. Section 287(g) agreements enable our state and local law enforcement agencies to take more proactive measures in protecting Virginians and to address criminal immigration matters at the source.
Directive
Accordingly, pursuant to the authority vested in me in Article V of the Constitution of Virginia and as the Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth, and pursuant to § 2.2-103 of the Code of Virginia, I hereby,
1. Direct the Virginia State Police (VSP) to enter into a 287(g) Task Force Model Memorandum of Understanding with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This agreement will provide for a Section 287(g) VSP Task Force of federally deputized officers to assist in the identification and apprehension of criminal illegal immigrants who pose a risk to public safety throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.
2. Direct the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) to enter into a Section 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model Memorandum of Understanding with ICE. This agreement will provide for a Section 287(g) VADOC Jail Enforcement Model Program to leverage multiple detention and processing facilities throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and train corrections officers to be assigned as Designated Immigration Officers (DIOs).
3. Instruct the Secretary of Public Safety & Homeland Security to contact every Director, Sheriff, or other official in charge of a local or regional jail in the Commonwealth of Virginia and request a certification confirming their full cooperation with ICE in all Enforcement and Removal Operations and stating that they will cooperate with the Section 287(g) VSP Task Force.
Effective Date
This Executive Order shall be effective upon its signing and shall remain in force and effect unless amended or rescinded by further executive order or directive. Given under my hand and under the Seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia, this 27th day of February 2025.
/s/ Glenn Youngkin, Governor