The Fake Moderate Narrative Kills Again

Just when it seemed the depravity of sanctuary politicians couldn’t get worse, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger told citizens in the commonwealth to hold her beer.  

In Fairfax County, Virginia, just a stone’s throw away from the nation’s capital, Abdul Jalloh, a 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, allegedly stabbed and killed Stephanie Minter, 41, while she waited at a bus stop. In a sane world, Jalloh would be on the fast track to deportation. Instead, the state’s highest elected official is defying ICE to keep Jalloh in Virginia.

The popular narrative that anti-border Democrats are just looking out for migrant families, but agree with normal people in wanting criminal aliens deported, has been obliterated. They are now openly advocating for the most bloodthirsty killers and marauders, too. Jalloh, legally only an alleged killer until conviction, is the latest example of this.

Over the years, he has racked up more than 30 arrests, including charges for rape, malicious wounding, and other violent offenses.

Fairfax County police encountered him an astonishing 175 times on the streets, according to records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. Despite an active ICE removal order, Jalloh was released multiple times after serving minimal time for probation violations and other infractions.

Emails reveal that police commanders warned Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano about Jalloh’s escalating violence as far back as November 2025, expressing fears he would “maliciously wound (or worse)” again.

Yet, he remained free, culminating in Minter’s brutal murder. Jalloh is the archetype of the violent criminal alien that sanctuary activists inexplicably want to shield, often at the expense of American lives. Enter Gov. Spanberger, who, barely two months into her term, has escalated the state’s commitment to sanctuary madness. On her first day in office, she rescinded her predecessor, Glenn Youngkin’s, executive order mandating cooperation with ICE, and soon after, she directed state agencies to terminate agreements that allow cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

In Jalloh’s case, the obstruction is blatant. After his arrest for murder, ICE lodged a detainer—a standard administrative request to hold him for deportation. But Spanberger’s administration insists on a “signed judicial warrant” before complying, a requirement that is not only irrelevant but impossible in deportation proceedings.

Deportations rely on administrative warrants issued by ICE, not criminal judicial ones, which pertain to separate legal processes. As White House aide Stephen Miller put it, judicial warrants “have nothing to do with deportation. Zero. Nothing.”

This is the current scam Democrats use nationwide to defy federal immigration law while claiming to support deporting violent criminals. It is a cynical move that might sound reasonable to a public largely unaware of the legal distinction between administrative and judicial warrants. Spanberger, a former federal law enforcement officer herself, knows better. Her position ensures that after Jalloh serves any sentence, he could be released back into Virginia communities, free to offend again.

This outrage is just the latest in Spanberger’s rapid pivot from the moderate image she crafted during her campaign to a far-left agenda. Elected last fall by portraying herself as a pragmatic, CIA-veteran Democrat who would “stop the chaos” and focus on bipartisanship, she has instead embraced many of the Biden administration’s kamikaze policies that led to a rash of murder and mayhem by criminal aliens.

Spanberger’s actions align her with Democrats nationally who would lead us on a path to national suicide. During President Trump’s State of the Union address last month, he called on Congress to affirm that the government’s “first duty” is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Republicans stood and applauded; most Democrats remained seated, drawing Trump’s real-time rebuke: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Spanberger, tapped to deliver the Democratic response to Trump’s speech, marched in lockstep with the party’s unhinged stance on protecting violent criminal aliens from consequences prescribed by law.

Americans of all races, backgrounds, and political stripes are weary of this charade. From black and Hispanic communities disproportionately affected by gang violence tied to unchecked illegal immigration, to working-class families in rural Virginia fearing for their safety, the message is clear: Politicians should look out for us, American citizens, not violent criminals who flout our laws.

As was the case with murders at the hands of other illegal immigrants, including those of Rachel Morin, Katie Abraham, and too many others, Stephanie Minter’s death was preventable, but happened anyway because of policies that value political gain over saving lives. Gov. Spanberger, who thankfully cannot serve a second consecutive term in Virginia, needs to remember why she was elected: to serve Virginians, not criminal aliens who are killing them. The sanctuary experiment has failed and should go in the ashbin of history where it belongs.

https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/the-fake-moderate-narrative-kills-again