Originally published by Fox News | By Peter Pinedo | April 6, 2026
Democratic leaders in Virginia’s most populous county face criticism over an ongoing “epidemic” of violence by illegal immigrants that has left 13 dead in a major American suburb near the nation’s capital.
Seven illegal immigrants have been arrested in Fairfax County, a suburb of Washington, D.C., in recent years for violent attacks ranging from infanticide to a machete killing and gang activity.
Critics of Fairfax County leaders say they are prioritizing criminal illegal immigrants over Americans’ safety by maintaining sanctuary-type policies that limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Virginia’s new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger faces criticism for a day-one executive order that reversed the state’s policy of cooperating with ICE.
Katie Gorka, chair of the Fairfax County GOP, referred to the spate of violence as an “epidemic” ravaging her community. She blamed local Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and the Democratic-controlled Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
ICE has lodged a detainer with the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for Misael Lopez Gomez, 28, charged with murder and felony child abuse for allegedly killing his 3-month-old daughter. The child was in Lopez Gomez’s care at a home in Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia. Detectives and hospital staff observed evidence consistent with abuse. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called Lopez Gomez a “cold blooded killer” and “monster.” DHS said Lopez Gomez crossed the border illegally in New Mexico in July 2023, under the Biden administration.
ICE lodged a detainer request for Anibal Armando Chavarria Muy, 38, following his arrest in connection with a fatal stabbing. Chavarria Muy is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing at a home in Bailey’s Crossroads. Officers found a man with multiple stab wounds who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
According to DHS, Chavarria Muy is in the U.S. illegally and entered the country at an unknown place and time.
Fairfax County Police arrested and charged Abdul Jalloh, 32, with second-degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of 41-year-old Virginia woman Stephanie Minter. The incident occurred at a bus stop in the Hybla Valley neighborhood in Fairfax County on February 23. Officers found her with multiple stab wounds in her upper body.
Surveillance footage captured Jalloh and Minter exiting a bus at the stop where she was killed. He is also charged with larceny that occurred the day after the fatal stabbing.
According to DHS, Jalloh is an illegal alien from Sierra Leone who entered the U.S. illegally under the Obama administration in 2012. Before his arrest for murder, Jalloh had been arrested more than 30 times and faced charges including rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pickpocketing.
On December 19, DHS said it “vehemently condemns Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies” after Salvadoran illegal immigrant Marvin Fernando Morales Ortez, 23, was charged with second-degree murder for a fatal shooting the day after local authorities released him after declining to honor a detainer request.
DHS said ICE had lodged a detainer request for Morales Ortez after he was arrested for assault and brandishing a firearm on September 14. Morales Ortez had prior arrests for aggravated assault of a police officer, larceny and disorderly conduct.
Morales Ortez was charged with second-degree murder in connection with a fatal shooting at a home in Reston, Virginia, which is in Fairfax County. He illegally entered the U.S. in September 2016 near Hidalgo, Texas. DHS said he was released into the country by the Obama administration and that in 2022, the Biden administration dismissed his immigration proceedings and marked him as a non-enforcement priority.
Maldin Anibal Guzman, 27, a Honduran illegal immigrant, was convicted of second-degree murder by mob in connection with a July 2024 killing in Oakton, within Fairfax County. Guzman was given a plea deal by Descano’s office, allowing him to serve only five years in prison.
Guzman entered the country illegally through the Texas border under the first Trump administration in 2018. ICE lodged multiple detainers for Guzman with the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office that were not honored, allowing Guzman back into the community before the mob murder.
Elmer De Jesus Alas Candray, 28–29, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant and member of the MS-13 gang, was convicted of six murders, including conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise; five counts each of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and murder in aid of racketeering; and three counts of using a firearm during a violent crime resulting in death.
Five of the murders took place in Fairfax County from 2018 to 2022. The killings were carried out by Candray and co-conspirators using pistols and machetes. One of the killings, which took place in Reston in 2020, involved Candray and co-conspirators luring a young woman under false pretenses and taking turns shooting her in the face.
In Herndon, a community in Fairfax County, Jose Iraheta Palacios, another Salvadoran illegal immigrant MS-13 member nicknamed “Little Crazy,” murdered his girlfriend, Claudia Menjivar, and two children, ages 9 and 10, before jumping to his own death in June 2021.
Palacios had previously pleaded guilty in Fairfax County Circuit Court in 2015 to human trafficking, gang recruitment of a juvenile and three counts of gang participation and was sentenced to nine years. That sentence would have kept him behind bars until 2024, but a judge suspended the sentence, allowing Iraheta Palacios to serve just two years in state prison. He was deported, though later made it back into the U.S.
Officers encountered Iraheta Palacios around 6 a.m. on June 19, 2021, sitting on top of a parking garage on Democracy Drive in Reston Town Center in Herndon, Virginia, and threatening to jump. An affidavit and police radio transmission revealed he told officers he killed his girlfriend, Claudia Menjivar, and her children after arguing over infidelity.
Officers attempted to talk Iraheta Palacios off the ledge for nearly an hour before he ultimately jumped and died from the fall.
Commenting on a post showing the mugshots of the illegal immigrant murderers, the Virginia GOP wrote: “These are the criminals that Virginia Democrats care about more than your family’s safety.”
Gorka asserted that the county is “experiencing an epidemic of crime because of Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s unwillingness to prosecute violent offenders.”
She stated: “Under Descano, felony convictions, trials and guilty verdicts have dropped sharply, which means repeat offenders are out on our streets. This is compounded by the fact that Fairfax County’s ‘Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy,’ adopted by the Democratic-majority Board of Supervisors, functionally makes Fairfax a sanctuary county.”
According to Gorka, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office under Democratic Sheriff Stacey Kincaid has declined more than 1,150 detainers in roughly two and a half years.
She said that former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, had “partially addressed” the problem through an executive order requiring law enforcement cooperation with ICE before Spanberger rescinded the order.
Gorka told Fox News Digital: “Virginia Democrats prioritize criminals over victims, illegal aliens over citizens, and Fairfax County citizens have had enough.”
Laura Birnbaum, a spokesperson for Descano’s office, stated she could not comment on recent cases involving Lopez Gomez, Chavarria Muy, Jalloh and Morales Ortez, “since they all have pending criminal cases our office is actively prosecuting.”
Regarding Guzman’s case, Birnbaum said the plea agreement was “the only way to ensure that the defendants were incarcerated for this brutal murder,” citing lack of DNA or physical evidence and witnesses who “were terrified to come forward or assist with prosecution.”
She emphasized that Candray’s convictions were federal and “our office did not handle them.” Regarding Palacios, Birnbaum noted he “died by suicide during this incident” and “there’s no criminal case because he died.”
Allyson Conroy, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, stated the office “does not obstruct or prevent ICE from acting on their civil detainers nor does the office ‘decline’ detainers.”
Conroy said the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office is “committed to the safety and security of our diverse community.” She explained that “the law requires that whenever an undocumented person is booked into the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center (ADC), ICE is notified that person has been taken into custody. Federal authorities may enforce their civil process and assume custody of a person once a judge orders that person to be released.”