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The case has resurfaced following revelations that Virginia’s policies regarding cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have dramatically shifted under the new administration. Those changes mean state and local authorities are no longer required—or in some cases even allowed—to notify ICE when criminal illegal aliens are set to be released from custody.
The consequences of that policy shift were laid bare during a recent Fox News segment featuring former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
McEnany questioned the logic behind refusing to hand over convicted criminals to federal authorities, noting the public safety benefits of jail transfers rather than street arrests.
Kayleigh McEnany:
“To get these immigrants out of the prisons—it is safer for everyone than street operations. So it seems like Spanberger… what, she didn’t get the memo?”
McLaughlin responded by contrasting the current situation with the previous administration’s approach in Virginia.
Tricia McLaughlin:
“I guess she didn’t get the memo, because we had a great partnership with Glenn Youngkin and his team on the ground there to make sure that when these criminal illegal aliens who are in the jails, in their custody, once they serve their time, that we are notified and they can be turned over to ICE to be released back into their own country.”
McLaughlin then pointed directly to the Mejia-Ayala case as a devastating example of the real-world consequences of sanctuary-style policies.
“But, Kayleigh, I want to give you one example—and your viewers one example—of a direct response to this. There is an illegal alien that we arrested from El Salvador in September of last year. He was arrested for strangling, with an electric cord, his eight-month-old sister. Oh my goodness—she was killed.
“Because of these policies—because of these new sanctuary city policies out of Virginia—once this individual serves his time, he will go back onto Virginia’s streets because we’re not allowed to be notified. That is absolutely heinous, and Virginians are going to be a lot less safe because of this policy.”
McEnany reacted with disbelief and pointed out that Virginia is far from the only state experiencing these outcomes.
Kayleigh McEnany:
“Tricia, that is insane, what you just told me. And I saw on your Twitter feed that in New York—this is just likewise insane—6,947 illegal aliens with criminal records were just let out onto the streets of New York, right behind me.”
McLaughlin confirmed the numbers and explained that similar situations are unfolding in other Democrat-run cities.
“That’s exactly right. And we saw the same out of Minneapolis, which, of course, we’re trying to solve for. I’m so glad that Tom Homan is on the ground there, trying to make what are really common-sense deals, because all we’re asking for is state and local cooperation.”
She went on to list several violent offenders ICE has recently been forced to track down on the streets due to lack of jail access.
“I mean, just a couple more of these individuals that we’ve picked up off the street in the last few days, Kayleigh, out of Minneapolis: an individual from Laos, convicted of rape and sexual assault; an individual from Vietnam, convicted of sexual assault, homicide, and negligent manslaughter; another from Laos, convicted of homicide.”
“These are the people who’ve been walking around Minneapolis with impunity for the last few years, and who ICE—because we’re not allowed into those jails—has had to flood the zone to get these individuals out of the country. That’s what we’re doing in Minneapolis. That’s what we’re going to be doing in New York with those sanctuary city policies.”
As Virginia prepares to release a convicted child killer back into the public without ICE notification, critics warn the state is becoming yet another case study in how sanctuary policies prioritize ideology over public safety—often with tragic consequences.
