America is a nation of immigrants predicated upon the rule of law. As a first-generation American and attorney general for the Commonwealth of Virginia, I am grateful and mindful of both on a daily basis.
Public safety rests on the faithful application of federal and state law. Our Constitution vests broad immigration authority at the federal level while reserving authority over state crimes to state and local prosecutors. In the case of illegal immigrant Denis Romero, this partnership was sacrificed to an extreme political ideology that victimized Virginians and continues to place our communities at risk.
The unsettling reality in Fairfax County is that local residents are being actively put in jeopardy by the reckless policies of Sheriff Stacey Ann Kincaid and Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, not just because the two of them cannot separate their ideology from reality. Their insistence on being social workers rather than law enforcement professionals, combined with their refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, is actively hurting real people.
Let’s be clear about what happened in Herndon regarding the case of Denis Humberto Navarette Romero, a 31-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras whose interactions with law enforcement range from swimming naked in the fountain in front of the National Museum of the American Indian to allegedly fondling a 14-year-old girl.
In June 2022, Romero attacked two police officers after he was questioned for an alleged sexual assault in Fairfax County. In Virginia, assault and battery against a law enforcement officer is a felony subject to a mandatory term of six months in jail requiring the local sheriff to notify federal immigration enforcement of a noncitizen’s immigration status. In this case, while it is not clear whether Kincaid provided this notice, it is clear that she has a very public policy of not cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on detainers.
Moreover, for reasons still unclear, Descano reduced those felony charges to simple misdemeanors. Weeks later, Romero was arrested again for smoking marijuana in public behind a Herndon fast-food restaurant. Five days after that, Romero was arrested on charges of trespassing and public drunkenness in front of a Herndon convenience store.
In June 2023, Romero fought two police officers as he was relieving himself against the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Two days later, Romero was arrested yet again after another sexual assault. One year later, Romero exposed himself to a woman walking her dog on a Fairfax County trail.
One begins to see a pattern. After over two dozen interactions with law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions, Romero evaded accountability, allegedly resulting in an innocent woman being pulled off a trail in Herndon and being brutally raped by a man who should never have been in the country in the first place.
Forget the social justice abstractions for just a moment. Romero’s alleged victim played by all the rules, did everything to keep herself safe, believed she was safe, and had her faith betrayed by certain elected officials who would rather play social worker rather than protect Virginians and enforce the law.
Public safety is the first duty of government. As attorney general and the top law enforcement officer in the commonwealth, my job is to keep Virginia families safe. Doing so requires cooperation among law enforcement and prosecutors to faithfully apply the law.
Unfortunately, in Fairfax County, such instances are not a mere failure of policy, but rather a policy of failure designed to sow confusion among law enforcement, federal authorities, and prosecutors who put criminals first and victims last.
When law enforcement professionals are pitted against one another and when prosecutors and sheriffs play politics over public safety, these become the conditions that allow innocent people to get hurt.
Moreover, when noncitizens commit felonies only to have those charges reduced to simple misdemeanors, when federal immigration authorities are not notified, when multiple instances of violence and assault are insufficiently prosecuted, and when Fairfax County jails do not alert ICE before releasing violent criminals back into our communities, our public safety stands at risk and accountability is in order.
Yet in Fairfax County, local leaders seem more willing to preside over these and other failures than to stop preventable violent crimes.
Progressives are free to mock and ridicule voter concerns about public safety, but not before I and many others get to respond in kind. Local officials in Fairfax County are free to continue to put lives in danger for personal political expediency, but such a move remains a callous and cruel way to do business that should be held to account.
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If Fairfax County’s local leaders are too busy to pay attention, it is no consolation to the victims. If they are unaware, then they simply aren’t doing their jobs.
Our citizens deserve an explanation. Our communities deserve action. More than this, our commonwealth deserves better. These criminal-first, victim-last policies must end.
Jason Miyares is the attorney general of Virginia.