Virginia Dems push anti-ICE bills days after Spanberger rejects detainer for illegal immigrant murder suspect
Democrats in the Virginia state legislature took steps to advance laws aimed at restricting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts and cooperation with local police just days after Democrat Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said a warrantless ICE detainer would not be sufficient to hand a criminal illegal alien suspected murderer with over 30 criminal charges to his name over to federal officials.
Several of the Senate and House Democrats who took procedural steps and voted in favor of the anti-ICE bills this week include Democrats whose districts are either inside, or partially inside Fairfax County, where Stephanie Minter was murdered by Abdul Jalloh, an illegal alien from Sierre Leone, who police had warned Democrat Commonwealth's Attorney for Fairfax County, Steve Descano, needed to remain behind bars due to his violent record.
However, Jalloh was let back onto the streets, and he subsequently murdered Minter. Now, Spanberger is forcing ICE to get a warrant in order to hand him over. Meanwhile, a similar event in Fairfax County several weeks ago, after Descano's office let a criminal illegal alien with an ICE detainer out of jail, who then days later killed a man.
"The tone deafness is unbelievable," Sean Kennedy, Virginians for Safe Communities president, told Fox News Digital. Del. Thomas Garrett, R-56, also called out Democrats this week for officials' failure to heed warnings to keep Jalloh behind bars, noting he had over 150 interactions with law enforcement and over 30 charges to his name, many of which were subsequently dropped.
Garrett also pointed out how on DA Descano's website it indicates "wherever possible" he will make charging or plea decisions "that limit or avoid immigration consequences."
Yesterday, "18 Delegates who represent Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria voted to make it harder, not easier, harder, to turn over not illegals, but violent criminal illegals to ICE," Garrett said in an impassioned floor speech this week, according to North Virginia news station, WJLA. "Gas-light much? They told us we were bad for not joining them in voting that way."
Many of these bills were released shortly after Gov. Spanberger took office in January.
Among a slate of bills advanced this week, via a litany of procedural votes, which would restrict ICE enforcement operations, include HB 1441. HB 1441, introduced shortly after Gov. Spanberger took office, would require certain conditions that make it more difficult for ICE to lodge adequate detainer requests to hold criminal illegal aliens. Other bills advanced this week include proposals banning ICE from making arrests in courthouses or within 40-feet of a place that serves as a voting location. Another bill would ban ICE officials from wearing face coverings.
"Most of these people hate Steve Descano, but they're all playing on the same team," Kennedy said, referring to some of the Fairfax County-area Democrats who took steps to advance anti-ICE bills just days after Minter's murder.
Fox News Digital reached out to several Virginia Democratic legislators, both in the House and Senate, who took steps to advance anti-ICE bills this week. Virginia State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell's office suggested that their proposed bill aimed at requiring a higher bar for ICE detainers will subsequently prioritize deporting more violent illegal aliens.
"Our pending legislation is attempting to focus ICE on the President's campaign promise to focus on capturing and deporting violent undocumented immigrants like Abdul Jalloh who was in ICE custody in 2018 and has been eligible for deportation for 10 years," Surovell's office said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Perhaps you should ask ICE why they didn't deport him the first time Trump's ICE had him in 2018 or even issue a detainer for him the 8 times he was arrested since 2023?"
But Republican state legislators in Virginia have shown they have a different take.
"Just weeks after Gov. Spanberger chose to end the Commonwealth's cooperation with federal immigration authorities, a woman is dead," Del. Delores Oates, R-31, said on the Virginia House floor this week, according to a recording posted online by a Northern Virginia news station, WJLA.
Oates was referring to Spanberger's executive decision to end 287(g) programs which allowed local police and federal immigration officials to easily cooperate. "That's not a coincidence, that's a consequence."
"I've heard my colleagues across the aisle say they don't want ICE making arrests in public places," Oates continued. "Well, fine. Then let's do the responsible thing – work with federal authorities to detain and remove violent criminals while they're already in custody. That is safer for our communities. It's safer for law enforcement. And it's far more the responsible approach."