FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — ICE confirms to 7News that one of the men that the Fairfax County Police Department arrested in connection to a murder in Oakton, Virginia last weekend is a Honduran in the U.S. illegally.

This isn’t the first time he was arrested in Fairfax County.

ICE told 7News that the Fairfax County Police Department previously arrested Maudin Anibal Guzman-Videz on March 17 and charged him with malicious assault for severely injuring a victim, along with other charges, and he did not appear in court.

ICE said Fairfax County police, once again, arrested Guzman on June 28 and charged him with malicious wounding.

ICE said they issued multiple immigration detainers against Guzman, but the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office refused to honor the ICE immigration detainers.

“Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that protects the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws,” said ERO Washington, D.C. spokesperson James Covington. “Entering the United States without authorization is a violation of federal law, and those who do so may be subject to administrative arrest, and in some cases, criminal prosecution.”

The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office told 7News there have been 725 “undocumented individuals” in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center in the last 12 months.

Some of those inmates have committed violent crimes and child sex crimes, yet the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office refuses to honor ICE immigration detainers. In the past 12 months, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office has only transferred three of the 725 “undocumented individuals” to ICE.

The rest of the inmates are often released back into Fairfax County and not deported.

In a letter Thursday morning, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid explained she requires a judicial warrant to transfer inmates to ICE. Read the full letter below:

Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said his office honors ICE detainers even without a judicial warrant.

“We need to make sure that we’re not keeping these people in our community that can do further harm,” Chapman told 7News Reporter Nick Minock. “It makes no sense to me to allow these people to stay in the area and then commit another crime if we know for a fact that they’re violent and that they’re here illegally.”

As a result, ICE has deported close to 100 illegal immigrants who were in Loudoun County over the past two years, according to the sheriff’s office.

Around 10% or more of inmates in the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center happen to be in the U.S. illegally, and of those, 55% are from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or Mexico, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Chapman said the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office immediately notifies ICE when deputies arrest non-U.S. citizens who are in the U.S. illegally.

“When we arrest somebody, we immediately run them to see whether they’re here illegally or not,” Chapman told 7News. “And if in fact they are and we notify ICE, then ICE has to make some determination whether or not it’s somebody they want to detain – whether it’s somebody they want to come and pick up. We notify ICE as to when that person might appear before a magistrate, when they might appear before a judge and how much time they have to actually get out there and pick them up.”

“Our job is to keep people safe,” Chapman added.

Fairfax County Sheriff Kincaid, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, Chair Jeff McKay, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors have been pushing for sanctuary county policies.

In January 2021, Chair McKay and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors passed a policy that does not allow county employees to share residents’ citizen status so undocumented immigrants can feel free to access county services. It’s called the Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy. As a result of that policy, the Fairfax County Police Department does not ask people — who they have arrested — for their citizen status. And FCPD doesn’t share citizen status information with federal immigration officials even if undocumented immigrants have been arrested by FCPD for violent crimes.

Descano has also said he will not cooperate with ICE nor will he notify or alert immigration officials about defendants his office comes into contact.

During his campaign for Commonwealth’s Attorney, Descano said he would create written policies directing prosecutors to consider immigration consequences when making charging and plea decisions.

In a letter, Kincaid wrote, “Our policy clearly states that the sheriff’s office will detain any individual who has a judicial warrant authorizing their arrest, including a judicial immigration warrant. The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office will not detain an individual based on an informal request or detainer.”

In her letter, Kincaid referenced Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s 2015 advisory opinion which stated, ”It is my opinion that an ICE detainer is merely a request. It does not create for a law enforcement agency either an obligation or legal authority to maintain custody of a prisoner who is otherwise eligible for immediate release from local or state custody. For that reason, an adult inmate or a juvenile inmate with a fixed release date should be released from custody on that date notwithstanding the agency’s receipt of an ICE detainer.”

Chapman said he thinks Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares should write an updated advisory opinion.

ICE said detainers are a critical public safety tool because they focus enforcement resources on removable noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity and detainers increase the safety of all parties involved. This includes ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, the removable noncitizens, and the public, by allowing an arrest to be made in a secure and controlled custodial setting as opposed to at large within the community.

Since detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they also minimize the potential that an individual will re-offend, ICE added.

The Arlington County Sheriff’s Office told 7News they no longer “accept administrative ICE requests, which are not officially signed by a judicial officer.”

The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office told 7News they do not “participate in any type of immigration enforcement in our communities. ASO does honor lawful detainers from ICE, as we would for any other law enforcement agency because interagency cooperation is the cornerstone of public safety.”

The Alexandria Sheriff’s Office told 7News they do comply with detainers they received from ICE.

In the first six months of this year, the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office has transferred 40 individuals to ICE, according to the sheriff’s office.

According to an Emerson poll, illegal immigration is one of the top issues in Virginia this year.