Virginia’s Prison System Honored the Detainer. Fairfax County Refused 615 Times.
On June 15, 2026, officers from ICE’s Washington, D.C. field office drove to a state prison in Mitchells, Virginia, and took custody of a 32-year-old Honduran national convicted of first-degree murder. The Virginia Department of Corrections had held the federal detainer on file for five years and called ICE to say when he was walking out.
That is the system working the way it was designed to work. In Virginia, it is also becoming the exception.
Up the road in Fairfax County, the Commonwealth’s largest jurisdiction, officials declined 615 ICE detainer requests over sixteen months and transferred eleven people into federal custody — according to county records America First Legal obtained under FOIA and Fox News first reported on July 2, 2026.
- 615 vs. 11 ICE detainers Fairfax County declined between January 2025 and April 2026, against 11 people it actually transferred to federal custody — America First Legal FOIA records via Fox News
- 30 years the sentence a Virginia judge imposed on Jose Jairo Rivas-Santiago in April 2021 for first-degree murder and armed robbery — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- ~15 years how long he remained in the United States after Border Patrol first apprehended him crossing into Texas in July 2011 — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Border Patrol first encountered Jose Jairo Rivas-Santiago in July 2011 near Carrizo Springs, Texas, after he entered the country unlawfully. Because he was a minor, officials turned him over to juvenile detention authorities. He stayed.
In April 2019, agents from ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Richmond located and arrested him on armed robbery and conspiracy charges tied to an MS-13 gang murder, then handed him to the Richmond City Police Department for state prosecution. Two years later, in April 2021, a judge convicted him of first-degree murder and armed robbery and sentenced him to 30 years.
ICE then lodged an immigration detainer with Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells, Culpeper County — a Virginia Department of Corrections facility, not a county jail. When Rivas-Santiago completed the portion of his incarceration that made him eligible for release, VADOC notified ICE, and ERO officers took custody on June 15, 2026. He is being processed under a previously issued final order of removal and awaits removal to Honduras.
One precision point matters here. ICE calls Rivas-Santiago a suspected MS-13 associate — an agency characterization, not something a jury found. The murder and armed-robbery convictions are the adjudicated part of this record, and they are not in dispute.
“The Virginia Department of Corrections honored our detainer and notified us of his release, and he's now in ICE custody awaiting removal.”
David J. Venturella · Acting ICE Director · ICE news release, July 13, 2026
Fairfax County is Virginia’s largest jurisdiction, and its jail runs on a different rule. In calendar year 2025, the county declined 448 ICE detainers and transferred 9 people to federal custody. From January through April 2026, it declined another 167 and transferred 2. In April 2026 alone, ICE had detainers on 32 people in the county’s custody and received none of them.
That is 615 refusals against 11 transfers across sixteen months — a compliance rate under two percent. The figures come from county records America First Legal obtained by public-records request and provided to Fox News, published July 2, 2026. In that same reporting, Virginia ranks third in the country for declined ICE detainers, behind only California and Illinois.
“This deliberate obstruction by county officials protects illegal alien lawbreakers and endangers every family in Northern Virginia.”
Will Scolinos · counsel, America First Legal · via Fox News, July 2, 2026
Fairfax County adopted its “Trust Policy” in 2021. Sheriff Stacey Kincaid (D) runs the jail and requires a judicial warrant — signed by a judge, not an ICE officer — before honoring any detainer. Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) sets charging policy. Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) has defended the arrangement. Supervisor Pat Herrity (R) of the Springfield District is the lone board member publicly pressing the sheriff to honor detainers.
Both Descano and Kincaid testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement on May 14, 2026, at a hearing titled “Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies,” chaired by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA). Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and McClintock sent Descano a follow-up letter on June 4. Descano is separately under investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division over whether his charging and plea policies discriminate against U.S. citizens.
Descano’s office does not concede the premise. Asked about the FOIA figures, a spokesperson told Fox News:
“Our office's policies are fair, legal and reflect the values of Fairfax County, and we will not be distracted from our mission of keeping this community safe.”
Spokesperson · Office of Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano (D) · via Fox News, July 2, 2026
On February 23, 2026, Stephanie Minter, 41, of Spotsylvania County was found stabbed to death at a Fairfax County bus stop. DHS says the man charged in her killing, Abdul Jalloh, is an illegal alien with more than 30 prior arrests, and that Kincaid’s office had declined an ICE detainer on him. The prosecution is pending and Jalloh is presumed innocent; DHS is the source for both the immigration-status and declined-detainer claims, and the department has an obvious interest in making them.
The department has kept up the public pressure since. On July 7 it announced a detainer lodged with a request aimed directly at Fairfax officials, and on July 30 it publicized another Virginia case involving a detainee accused of trying to disarm an officer. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), confirmed 54–45 on March 24, 2026, has made detainer compliance a headline metric.
“Virginia sanctuary politicians need to stop playing Russian roulette with American lives and work with ICE law enforcement to keep criminals out of our communities.”
Lauren Bis · DHS Acting Assistant Secretary · July 7, 2026
Effective February 1st, no more payments will be made by the federal government to states for their corrupt criminal protection centers known as sanctuary cities.
Virginia’s state-level fight has been about a different program. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) issued Executive Order 47 pushing state agencies into 287(g) partnerships, which deputize state and local officers to perform certain immigration functions. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) was sworn in on January 17, 2026 and rescinded EO 47 the same day; on February 4 her Executive Directive 1 ordered the State Police, the Department of Corrections, the Conservation Police and the Marine Police to terminate all 287(g) agreements. Her office says agencies still cooperate on judicial warrants and joint task forces.
287(g) deputization and detainer compliance are two different things. Ending the first does not automatically end the second — and this case proves it. The Virginia Department of Corrections, a state agency reporting to Gov. Spanberger, honored ICE’s detainer on Rivas-Santiago on June 15, 2026, more than four months after Executive Directive 1 terminated VADOC’s 287(g) agreement. ICE itself says so in its own release. Nothing in the public record indicates the governor’s office blocked, slowed, or was overruled on this transfer.
The gap is not state versus federal. It is state prison versus county jail.
That nuance has not slowed the political argument. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9) has tied the case to the 287(g) rollback in back-to-back posts, and Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA-6) has introduced the 287(g) Cooperation Act of 2026, which would condition federal COPS grant eligibility on ICE partnership. Virginia’s Republican congressional delegation wrote Spanberger jointly on February 5 asking her to reverse course.
ICE takes alleged MS-13 killer off Virginia streets! But sanctuary policies threaten state cooperation with ICE. I again call on Governor Spanberger to reverse her dangerous termination of 287(g) agreements.
Governor Youngkin's 287(g) policy helped take dangerous criminal illegal aliens off Virginia streets. This action protected our communities. But Governor Spanberger terminated this successful policy and allows sanctuary policies that make Virginians less safe.
MS-13 designations have been a national flashpoint for more than a year, and President Trump has pressed the point publicly since 2025:
Garcia has been found by two separate Courts to be a member of the violent, killer gang MS-13, was in our Country illegally, and is under a Deportation Order.
A separate case, cited here for the administration's stated posture on MS-13 designations — not a statement about Rivas-Santiago.
A Virginia state prison made one phone call and a convicted murderer went into federal custody instead of onto a Culpeper County road. In the largest county in the Commonwealth, elected Democrats declined to make that call 615 times in sixteen months. The paperwork is identical. The only variable is who is holding it.
