Virginia Democrats, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, are again refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who want to deport a violent illegal immigrant who recently murdered a Fairfax County mother in cold blood. This is not the first time anti-ICE Democrats have gotten innocent people killed, and it won’t be the last unless they reverse themselves and start cooperating with federal immigration law enforcement officials.
Sierra Leone national Abdul Jalloh illegally entered the United States in 2012. In the decade and more he’s been in the country, he has racked up more than 30 arrests, including for assault, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, drug possession, firing a weapon, identity theft, larceny, pick pocketing, rape, and trespassing.
Most recently, in 2023, Jalloh was convicted of stabbing a man in a Fairfax County 7-Eleven parking lot while trying to steal his cellphone. Jalloh had been arrested on charges of stabbing three times before, but this one produced his first conviction, and he served two years in prison before being released by Fairfax County officials, who failed to notify ICE that a violent, convicted immigrant was being let out to mingle with the public.
Jalloh was arrested twice more by Fairfax County officials, triggering a probation violation, but instead of putting Jalloh in jail, Democratic prosecutors not only suspended his sentence but also ended his probation. At any point along this timeline, after the first post-conviction arrest, or the second, or after prosecutors ended his probation and suspended his sentence, Fairfax County officials could have notified ICE that a violent illegal immigrant was in custody and could be picked up for deportation.
Freed yet again by soft-on-crime anti-ICE Democrats, Jalloh was identified by surveillance getting off a bus on Richmond Highway with 41-year-old mother Stephanie Minter last week. Minter’s body was later found stabbed multiple times at the Richmond Highway bus stop. Jalloh was arrested later that day by police for shoplifting and was quickly identified as Minter’s murderer.
It is hoped that with the surveillance video, prosecutors will be able to secure a murder conviction, but given District Attorney Steve Descano’s established record of letting violent criminals, especially violent illegal immigrants, go free, that is far from certain. Even if Jalloh is convicted, anti-ICE Democrats can be expected to release him eventually without notifying ICE.Â
Asked whether Spanbergeer intended to release Jalloh again without informing ICE, the governor’s office said she would demand a judicial warrant before turning Jalloh over to federal law enforcement. This is not how federal immigration law enforcement works. Jalloh did not commit a federal crime when he murdered Minter. While he did commit a federal crime when he entered the country illegally in 2012, the statute of limitations on that crime has long passed. There is no basis for a federal warrant for his arrest.
Unlawful presence in the U.S., as Democrats love to point out, is not a crime by itself. It is a civil infraction, so ICE needs only an administrative warrant to enforce it. Such warrants should be more than enough for state and local governments, such as Virginia and Fairfax County, to honor, so that dangerous illegal immigrants such as Jollah are not released back onto the streets.Â
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Last December, Fairfax County officials released illegal immigrant Marvin Morales-Ortez from custody without holding him for deportation. Morales-Ortez, a citizen of El Salvador, had been arrested seven times by Fairfax County before he was arrested last year for brandishing a gun and assaulting someone. Again, Descano chose not to prosecute Morales-Ortez, and he was released. Less than 24 hours later, he was arrested again, this time for shooting a Reston man to death.
How many more Virginians must be murdered before Democrats, including Spanberger, reverse their policies and cooperate with federal officials to keep violent illegal immigrants off our streets?