OPINION:
Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos, 19, an illegal from El Salvador, was arrested this week for allegedly stabbing 42-year-old Carmen Lizet Puch to death, then dousing her body in gasoline in an attempt to set her on fire. Authorities say he eventually dumped her body in the parking lot of Difficult Run Park in Fairfax County, Virginia.
“No one deserves to be treated the way that our victim was treated,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said. “The way that she was treated by this killer was reprehensible, to say the least.”
Fifty percent of Fairfax County’s murders this year have been committed by illegal aliens, and the number could be higher as the police are resistant to arresting them and the county’s attorney, George Soros-backed Steve Descano, is reluctant to prosecute them.
Mr. Descano’s office has dropped charges and has given lenient plea deals to illegal immigrants accused of murder, assault and battery, child sex crimes and more.
ABC7 News obtained Mr. Descano’s official office policy when it comes to prosecuting illegal aliens, which directs prosecutors to “consider immigration consequences where possible” and consider the “detrimental impact that deportation/removal has on the families and communities those removed or deported leave behind.”
The local news outlet also learned Mr. Descano told the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that his office “will not cooperate with ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], nor will it notify or alert immigration officials or agencies regarding witnesses, victims, or defendants with whom the office comes into contact.”
It’s illegal immigrants first, victims last.
Israel Flores Ortiz, an 18-year-old illegal immigrant, registered as a junior at Fairfax High School and was accused of groping about a dozen girls in the hallways. It was only after the story went viral and parents’ complaints that Mr. Ortiz was arrested and found guilty of nine counts of assault and battery.
ICE lodged a detainer against him following his arrest, which was not honored by the county’s sheriff.
Mr. Ortiz was sentenced to 360 days in prison and is scheduled to be released on Sept. 3 . It is unclear whether, upon his release, the county’s sheriff will honor the ICE detainer or Fairfax County Public Schools will readmit him as a student to serve out his senior year, terrifying his victims and their families.
Perhaps the wildest act of sympathy for an illegal immigrant murderer happened this week. Abdulloi Toshpulodzoda, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 2019 killing, fled the U.S. on a one-way flight to his home country of Tajikistan while on an approved 48-hour pass from the Fairfax County mental health facility to which he was sentenced.
In 2024, Mr. Descano’s office signed off on Toshpulodzoda’s travel to Washington from the mental health institution to obtain a passport, freeing him up to break out.
Fairfax County doesn’t allow cooperation with ICE unless a federal judicial warrant is involved, which doesn’t include state crimes like rape, murder and molestation.
The county’s policies align with those of newly elected Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who has made Virginia a sanctuary state. One of her first moves in office was to issue an executive order banning state cooperation with ICE, and she terminated the state’s 287(g) agreements, which are collaborations between the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Corrections to turn illegal immigrants over to ICE.
Virginia’s 287(g) program led to the arrest of more than 500 criminal non-citizens and gang members under former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s oversight. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is begging Ms. Spanberger for her cooperation.
On Wednesday, ICE lodged detainers for three illegal aliens charged with sex crimes against children in Virginia. All are being held at the same jail in Staunton, Virginia.
“DHS is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing these criminals from jail and to instead hand them over to ICE,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “Under Spanberger, the Commonwealth of Virginia has become a magnet for illegal alien crime. These reckless sanctuary policies are putting American lives at risk.”
The press released detailed information on 20 illegals who were charged with drug trafficking, rape, abduction, pedophilia, assault, robbery and various other crimes, this year alone in Virginia.
The list will have to be updated to include Mr. Cedillos-Campos’ heinous murder in the tally.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at the Washington Times.
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