Fairfax County Got 615 ICE Requests.
It Said Yes to Eleven.
Over sixteen months, Fairfax County, Virginia—the largest jurisdiction in the Commonwealth and one of the wealthiest counties in America—received 615 requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold or transfer people in its jail who were flagged as being in the country illegally. It honored eleven of them.
That is not an accident of paperwork. It is the working of a written policy—the county’s 2021 “Trust Policy”—adopted by a Democratic Board of Supervisors and enforced by a Democratic sheriff and a Democratic prosecutor. The records that put a number on it were pried loose under the Freedom of Information Act. And in at least three documented cases, a person Fairfax released over an ICE detainer went on to be charged with a violent crime.
- 615requestsICE detainers/transfers Fairfax refused over 16 months — America First Legal FOIA records
- 11honoredillegal immigrants actually turned over to ICE in that window — an honor rate under 2%
- 1,100+in 2 yrsdetainers Fairfax rejected in under two years — third most of any county in the U.S. (CIS)
- 3D officialsChairman Jeff McKay, Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, and Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano — all Democrats
The number came out of a records request. America First Legal, a conservative legal group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office for its log of ICE detainers and transfer requests. The log it got back covered roughly sixteen months. Across that window, ICE asked Fairfax to hold or hand over illegal immigrants in its custody 615 times. Fairfax complied eleven times. As first reported by Fox News, that is an honor rate of under two percent.
The breakdown is not softened by any single bad month. For all of 2025, the Sheriff’s Office refused to transfer 448 illegal immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security and turned over just nine. In the first four months of 2026, Fairfax declined another 167 and honored two. In April 2026 alone, thirty-two illegal immigrants were listed in the Sheriff’s custody—three of them already convicted—and none were released to ICE.
“Fairfax County must reverse this reckless, anti-American governance immediately,” said America First Legal counsel Will Scolinos, whose firm obtained the records. The county’s answer, in effect, is that the numbers are the policy working as designed.
An ICE detainer is a request, not a court order. When a local jail is holding someone ICE believes is deportable, ICE lodges a civil administrative detainer—asking the jail to hold that person for up to 48 hours past their scheduled release so federal agents can take custody. Because a detainer is signed by an ICE officer rather than a judge, sanctuary jurisdictions argue that honoring one without a judicial warrant risks an unlawful detention. That legal theory is the hook on which Fairfax hangs its policy.
The written rule is the Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy—the “Trust Policy”—which the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors adopted in 2021. It bars county employees from seeking or disclosing a person’s immigration status unless required by state or federal law, a judicial warrant, or a court order, and it directs the Sheriff’s Office not to hold anyone past their release date on a civil detainer alone. Sheriff Stacey Kincaid (D) has been explicit: her office requires ICE to bring a warrant signed by a judge, and it applies that bar even to violent offenders who are in the country illegally. Kincaid also terminated the Sheriff’s prior Intergovernmental Service Agreement with ICE, ending the arrangement that had let the federal government house detainees in the county jail.
“County employees are not federal immigration officials. Immigration policy and enforcement has always been, and must always be, the role of the federal government.”
Board Chairman Jeff McKay (D), on the Trust Policy he introduced in 2021
The Trust Policy did not descend from Washington. It is a local product of a county government that has been under one-party control for years, and the officials who wrote and enforce it are not anonymous. Naming them is the point: the political geography of the policy is itself a fact.
Board Chairman: Jeff McKay (D) — chairman since 2020, first elected to the Board in 2007; introduced the 2021 Trust Policy.
Sheriff: Stacey Kincaid (D) — runs the jail; requires a judicial warrant before honoring an ICE hold; terminated the county’s service agreement with ICE.
Commonwealth’s Attorney: Steve Descano (D) — the elected prosecutor whose charging and plea decisions determine which defendants stay in custody long enough for ICE to act.
The lone dissent: Supervisor Pat Herrity (R) of the Springfield District — the board’s only Republican — has publicly urged county leaders and the sheriff to start honoring ICE detainers.
Statewide: Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), inaugurated in January 2026, is the official ICE addressed directly in a June 2026 detainer request over a Fairfax release.
McKay defends the policy on public-safety grounds, arguing that immigrant residents will not report crimes or cooperate with police if they fear that any contact with local government funnels them to ICE—and he credits the approach with helping Fairfax post one of the lowest crime rates of any large jurisdiction in the country. Critics answer that the argument collapses when the person ICE wants is not a witness but a defendant already in the county’s own jail.
Sanctuary jurisdictions that release criminal illegal aliens instead of turning them over to ICE are putting Americans in danger. Honor the detainers. Get these criminals out of our country.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Truth Social · President Trump has repeatedly demanded sanctuary jurisdictions honor ICE detainers — paraphrased.
On February 23, 2026, Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old single mother from Fredericksburg, was found dead at a Fairfax County bus stop in the Hybla Valley area with multiple stab wounds. Fairfax County Police charged Abdul Jalloh, a Sierra Leone national whom DHS says entered the United States illegally in 2012. According to police and DHS, Jalloh had faced more than forty charges in Fairfax County over the years—an alleged rape, a series of alleged stabbings, and alleged assaults—and ICE had lodged a detainer against him in 2020, after which an immigration judge granted a final order of removal.
The detail that turned the case into a national story is the paper trail. Emails obtained by WJLA/ABC7 showed that Fairfax County police warned the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) in writing at least three times that Jalloh was dangerous and could kill someone. Descano’s office had nonetheless dropped most of Jalloh’s earlier charges, securing a conviction on a single malicious-wounding count while a string of other cases were dismissed. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis later called Minter’s killing “absolutely preventable.”
“Absolutely preventable.”
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis, on the killing of Stephanie Minter
DHS put it in blunter terms. In a statement, assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin framed the county’s policy as a cause, not a bystander—language the Board of Supervisors and Descano’s office reject.
ICE lodged a detainer against this criminal illegal alien. Fairfax County's sanctuary policies refused to honor it and released him into the community. When jurisdictions won't cooperate, public safety pays the price.
Minter’s killing was the case that drew Congress, but it was not the only one DHS attached to the county’s policy. In December 2025, Fairfax released Marvin Morales-Ortez from its jail despite an ICE arrest detainer that the agency says it had lodged on September 14, 2025. According to the Washington Times and DHS, one day after his release he was charged in connection with a slaying inside a Reston home. DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin’s statement did not hedge.
“There is blood on the hands of Fairfax County politicians for pushing policies that released this illegal alien from jail and onto the streets of Virginia.”
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs · December 19, 2025
Then, in June 2026, ICE lodged a detainer over Moises Domingo Rico-Rosales, an Annandale man DHS describes as a Nicaraguan citizen who entered the country illegally in 2022. He was charged with abduction with intent to defile and indecent exposure after a June 21 incident on a park trail. DHS says ICE had previously lodged a detainer on Rico-Rosales in 2024, after a felony drug-trafficking arrest, and that Fairfax did not honor it and released him. This time ICE addressed its request directly to Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D). All three defendants are presumed innocent of the pending charges until a court rules otherwise; what is not in dispute is that each had a prior ICE detainer Fairfax declined.
Fairfax County had the chance to hand this criminal illegal alien to ICE and chose its sanctuary policy instead. We are calling on local politicians to honor the detainer and stop releasing public-safety threats back onto the street.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Truth Social · DHS publicly pressed Fairfax officials to honor ICE detainers — paraphrased.
On May 14, 2026, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement held a hearing titled “Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies.” Sheriff Stacey Kincaid (D) and Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) were called to testify, alongside Cheryl Minter—Stephanie’s mother—and former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.
“Let me be absolutely clear. My office does not provide sanctuary or safe harbor to undocumented immigrants,” Descano told the subcommittee, arguing that Fairfax’s low crime rate is evidence the approach works. Republican members pressed him on how his office carries out its charging policy in immigration cases; the Center for Immigration Studies’ account of the hearing noted he struggled to answer several basic operational questions. Back home, the family of Stephanie Minter began pushing to recall Descano from office.
Fairfax County's sanctuary policies have deadly consequences. Officials who refuse to cooperate with ICE and release criminal illegal aliens back into our communities must answer to the American people.
Fairfax is not a fringe case; it is a leading one. The Center for Immigration Studies found that Fairfax County rejected more than 1,100 ICE detainers in under two years—the third-highest total of any county in the United States. For scale, Santa Clara County, California, one of the country’s most absolute sanctuary jurisdictions, received 529 detainer requests in 2025 and honored none. Fairfax’s eleven-out-of-615 record places it in that company.
The Trump administration formally labeled Fairfax a “sanctuary jurisdiction” on June 2, 2025, and the county has worn the designation as a point of policy rather than shame. What the FOIA records add is arithmetic. “Trust” is the stated value; 615-to-11 is the measured behavior. Whether that trade protects Fairfax residents or exposes them is the question the Minter, Morales-Ortez, and Rico-Rosales cases put on the table—and the one the county’s Democratic leadership has, so far, answered by keeping the policy exactly as written.
Fairfax County received 615 ICE detainer or transfer requests in sixteen months and honored 11 — an honor rate under 2%, driven by a 2021 Trust Policy adopted by a Democratic Board and enforced by a Democratic sheriff and prosecutor.
At least three people released by Fairfax over an ICE detainer — Abdul Jalloh, Marvin Morales-Ortez, and Moises Domingo Rico-Rosales — were later charged with violent crimes. Each is presumed innocent of the pending charges; each had a prior detainer the county declined.
Congress held a hearing, DHS issued repeated public condemnations, and a grieving family launched a recall — and the policy remains in force.
