The Department of Homeland Security said it asked Virginia officials not to release a man arrested in Prince William County, renewing a dispute over the state’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities
The Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer asking Virginia officials not to release a man arrested in Prince William County and charged with sexually assaulting a young child.
According to DHS, police in Woodbridge, Virginia, investigated a sexual assault reported on March 30, 2026, and arrested the man on June 3, charging him with aggravated sexual battery. The agency said the suspect is in the country illegally and, while in custody, claimed to have entered the United States through Texas in 2003. The charge is an allegation that has not been proven in court, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted. DHS attributed the underlying details of the case to local reporting.
In a statement, Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis called on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger to commit to not releasing the man and to cooperate with ICE. Bis criticized what she described as the state’s sanctuary policies, saying they have made Virginians less safe.
A Dispute Over State Cooperation
DHS said the detainer comes amid a broader disagreement between the federal agency and Virginia’s government. According to the department, Spanberger, during her first days in office, signed executive orders barring state cooperation with ICE and ending 287(g) agreements — the program that allows state and local officers to perform certain immigration-enforcement functions.
DHS said it has lodged detainers or made arrests in a number of other Virginia cases in recent months involving people it described as in the country illegally, several of them charged with or convicted of violent or sexual offenses. Among the cases the agency cited that have resulted in convictions, a Guatemalan national was sentenced in Loudoun County in May to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl. Most of the other cases the agency listed involve pending charges that have not been adjudicated.
The dispute reflects a wider national disagreement between the federal government and so-called sanctuary jurisdictions over how far state and local authorities should go in cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
