A two-year-old girl is dead, allegedly sexually assaulted and murdered by a Mexican national in Virginia, and the Department of Homeland Security is pointing the finger directly at Governor Abigail Spanberger's day-one rollback of ICE cooperation.
Mexican national Raul Genesis Ortiz Moran stands accused of sexually assaulting the toddler in rural Louisa County, halfway between Richmond and Charlottesville. The girl's mother — reportedly Ortiz Moran's girlfriend — rushed the injured child to a sheriff's office in neighboring Goochland County, where deputies tried to resuscitate her. She didn't survive.
"This horrific tragedy was completely avoidable, because this illegal alien should have never been in our country," Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "Governor Spanberger's sanctuary policies have made Virginia a hotbed for illegal alien crime."
The Policy That Opened the Door
On her first day in office, Spanberger rescinded former Governor Glenn Youngkin's 287(g) agreement, which had allowed Virginia State Police, fish and game wardens, and state corrections officials to cooperate directly with ICE. The rollback severed those formal ties.
Louisa County Sheriff Donald Lowe, who called the killing an "unimaginable tragedy," told Richmond's ABC affiliate he called ICE because he feared Ortiz Moran was "going to bolt." Goochland and Louisa authorities cooperated with ICE on their own, and the suspect was taken into federal custody — not because of state policy, but because local sheriffs circumvented it.
Spanberger's Response
A spokesperson for Spanberger said the governor "strongly believes violent criminals who are in the United States illegally should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and deported." The spokesperson noted that the Virginia Department of Corrections continues notifying ICE when individuals born outside the United States are in state custody, and that state law enforcement still participates in task forces with federal agencies.
Fine words. But DHS says the pattern tells a different story. Since Spanberger took office in January, ICE lodged a detainer for El Salvadoran national Juan Arevalo Mendez after his arrest on rape and abduction charges in Fairfax County. Mexican illegal immigrant Samuel Flores de Dios was sentenced to 30 years in Fredericksburg. Fox News framed these as part of a mounting pattern; Spanberger's office offered no comment on the broader trend.
Another Attack, Another Illegal Immigrant
The same week, WJLA reported that illegal immigrant Rolando Sanchez Velasquez, 34, was arrested after grabbing a woman from behind on a walking trail in Sterling. The woman — a former college athlete — fought back as Sanchez Velasquez pulled her by her ponytail and escaped to a nearby drugstore. Authorities said an immigration detainer is on file for Sanchez Velasquez, who also faces outstanding child neglect warrants. WJLA described him as an "undocumented noncitizen" — the preferred euphemism — but the facts are the facts: he was in the country illegally, and a woman was attacked on a trail.
The Open Question
Spanberger's office insists violent illegal immigrants should be deported. Her day-one action killed the formal cooperation agreements that made deportation faster and more certain. A two-year-old is dead. A woman was grabbed on a walking trail. The question isn't what the governor believes — it's what her policies actually accomplish.
