Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger faces criticism after saying she won't honor an ICE detainer for the illegal alien accused of murdering a woman at a bus stop.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, allegedly stabbed to death Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop.
He previously faced "rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault, and pickpocketing" charges.
Jalloh, an illegal alien from Sierra Leone, entered the U.S. in 2012.
The government issued a final removal order in 2020!
Spanberger's office claimed the governor "firmly believes that violent criminals who are in the United States illegally should be deported by immigration enforcement."
The governor demanded that the Department of Homeland Security obtain a judicial warrant.
Bill Melugin reminded Spanberger that ICE only needs to receive a warrant if the illegal alien is a federal judge finds probable cause that they committed a federal crime.
Nick Minock of WJLA, who always does an excellent job, released a video:
So right now, ICE lodges detainers. Those are notices to local jails saying, "Hey, we want to come pick up this individual so we can proceed with immigration consequences." It might be deportation, might be something else, but Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is now requiring ICE to take the extra step to overcome an extra hurdle by going to a local criminal judge to get a criminal warrant, an order for the local sheriff to hand over this individual who has more than 40 charges against him, an arrest record of more than 30 arrests to get the local sheriff to hand over that individual to ICE. The Fairfax County Sheriff simply could choose to hand this person over to ICE, but Spanberger is saying that ICE should get a signed judicial warrant instead.
DHS accused Spanberger of protecting a murderer.
"ICE does NOT need judicial warrants to make arrests," DHS pointed out.
ICE lashed out at Spanberger, too:
After this criminal alien serves his sentence for MURDER, Governor Spanberger will release him back out onto Virginia's streets, saying that ICE needs a signed "judicial warrant" to detain him.
This is asinine and legally illiterate. ICE is empowered by federal law to detain illegal aliens, and state officials like Spanberger are REQUIRED to honor ICE detainers.
Only a month into being governor, and she's protecting illegal alien murderers. Disgusting.
Michael LaRosa, former spokesman for Jill Biden, couldn't even believe Spanberger's position.
"This is completely backwards, unacceptable, and tone deaf for a Democrat in today's political environment, unless you hail from the Mamdani wing of our party," LaRosa wrote on X.
LaRosa gave Democrats some advice: "Because right now, if this is true, it fuels a very concerning narrative about the Democratic Party at the wrong time and feels highly disqualifying for any future 2028 VP vetting. This stuff won't be forgotten (Willie Horton) in 3 years .... and thus far they haven't been very impressive with the reactive comms, allowing the GOP to brand her nationally, and way too soon in the two months she's served as Governor."
He's not wrong.