By Jimmy Henderson – Published August 16th, 2024

A Fairfax County policy called “the Trust Policy” may be putting county citizens at risk as it protects those in the country unlawfully.

In January 2021, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors adopted the Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy, known as “the Trust Policy,”  to “reaffirm current county policy and improve community health, welfare, safety, security, and trust by ensuring that immigrant residents can access county services without fear that the information they share will be disclosed to federal immigration officials,” according to the county’s official website.

Under the policy, residents who are illegally in the United States and arrested for crimes are being released back into the community rather than being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which enforces immigration laws. Recently, the Fairfax County Times queried the Washington, D.C., office of the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) about seven people who were arrested in Fairfax County over a one-week period. An Enforcement and Removal Operations spokesman said that six of the seven people were illegally in the United States.

For example, three suspects were arrested and charged with malicious wounding by a mob in connection to a homicide in Oakton, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. ICE has issued multiple “immigration detainers,” which notify local police the individuals should be detained against one of the suspects. Still, according to an official in the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office didn’t notify ICE about the suspect honoring it.

In the murder, Nicacio Hernandez Gonzalez, 47, of Fairfax, was found dead in the 9500 block of Route 29 in Oakton with body trauma. According to FCPD, police officers arrested Maldin Anibal Guzman, 27, who previously had 23 charges, eight of them felonies, between July 2022 and July 2024, including malicious wounding. FCPD had also arrested Guzman in March and charged him with malicious assault and other crimes. ICE issued several detainers against him. Wis Alonso Sorto-Portillo, 45, was also arrested in connection with Gonzalez’s death.

Of the charges against Guzman in the past two years, 15 were not prosecuted, and four were dismissed.

Sean D. Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities, a local group, said the county used to have an old provision in its bail laws that required police to hold a person until their next hearing if they are presumed to be unlawfully present in the country. Kennedy said the Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy is a threat to the safety of local residents.

“Prior to 2021 bail law changes in Virginia, the courts defaulted to holding illegal immigrants accused of crimes until their trials,” Kennedy said. “But now illegal aliens – just like every other defendant – receive the benefit of the doubt that a lawbreaking foreign national will show up to court to face American justice.” He said that the new policy amounts to  “blind faith in our blind justice system.”

Kennedy said Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano had previously stated that he would not cooperate with ICE in these types of cases, and the sheriff does not honor immigration detainers.

The Trust Policy establishes “mandatory countywide standards for information sharing and other protections” for immigrant residents and ensures the county is not an information source “that those outside the county can exploit.”

Kennedy said that Guzman has had 23 charges against him since 2022 and has only been found guilty twice of public drunkenness. He was released on recognizance, Kennedy said.

Recognizance means a person is released of their own accord after signing an agreement to appear in court hearings. Other charges against Guzman are failure to appear and violating bail.

A third suspect, Wilmer Adli Guzman Videz, 20, with no fixed address, was arrested in Washington, D.C., in connection with Gonzalez’s death. He was released earlier this month by  D.C. Circuit Court Judge Eric Glover. According to court transcripts from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in the United States of America vs. Wilmer Guzman Videz, the charge against him is aggravated assault, but he also has a pending non-violent misdemeanor of petty larceny in Fairfax County. The court released him on his promise to go to Fairfax County, take care of his warrant, and return to the D.C. Superior Court for his extradition hearing.

Enforcement and Removal Operations issues detainers and warrants against noncitizens arrested for criminal activity to be held for transfer of custody to ICE. In a statement, ERO Spokesman James Covington said that the Fairfax County sheriff’s office has denied multiple detainers from ICE.

“ERO is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that protects the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws,” Covington said.

ERO issued a detainer on July 29 against a man who was previously convicted of murder in Prince George’s County, Md., Covington said. Ludwin Heriberto Lemus-Torres, 23, an unlawfully present Salvadoran man, was arrested and charged with assaulting emergency personnel and possession of a firearm. He was sentenced by the Fairfax County Circuit Court to two years and eight months concurrently. Lemus-Torres has seven pending felonies against him in the county, according to FCPD.

In a July 25 letter, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid said a person’s status as an immigrant does not diminish the right to be free from unlawful seizure.

Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity said this is a problem not just with those in the country illegally but a 2020 legislation problem of repeat violent offenders being released into the community.

“But it’s really the General Assembly’s fault when they eliminated the ability of magistrates to hold repeat violent offenders,” Herrity said. “It’s also the Commonwealth Attorney’s issue for not prosecuting and not showing up at many of these hearings where they could be held. And then it’s the sheriff’s issue of not cooperating and the Commonwealth Attorney’s for not cooperating with ICE.”

In a May letter, Descano introduced his office’s data program to track the implementation of reforms.

“At bond review hearings, we train our attorneys to focus primarily on dangerousness when making potential detain recommendations, since research shows that pretrial release of individuals who have been charged with non-violent offenses is likely to serve the community’s long-term safety interest,” Descano wrote.

Despite the program’s intention, repeat and violent offenders benefited from early releases, Herrity said.

“I think it’s clear it needs to be addressed,” Herrity said. “Clearly dangerous people are being allowed back into the community to commit violent offenses, not one time, two times, three times, but four times.”

Herrity criticized Descano’s transparency database, which he said uses already public information.

“All he did was take police data, data that the police have been sharing for some time, and regurgitate it and call it transparency,” Herrity said. “But it’s all arrest data. Nowhere in his database does he share the fact that he’s actually prosecuted fewer people, even though crime’s up double digits. Violent crime is up double digits. Nowhere does he share the fact that he has prosecuted fewer people than his predecessor, and his loss rate is higher than his predecessor. That’s transparency.”

The Major Cities Chiefs Association Violent Crime Report released in March showed aggravated assaults in Fairfax County rose from 579 in 2022 to 679 in 2023. ICE said in the past year, only three of 725 individuals were transferred to the agency from the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.

If you have any information about these incidents, FCPD asks you to contact them at 703-246-7800, option 2, or you can anonymously submit tips to Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).