Virginia Politics and Policy

ICE has pressed Virginia officials to detain 28-year-old Guatemalan national Misael Lopez Gomez, who was arrested in Fairfax County and charged with second-degree murder and felony child abuse after his three-month-old daughter died of blunt force trauma, the medical examiner found. DHS says Lopez Gomez admitted to illegally crossing the U.S. border in July 2023, ICE has lodged a detainer, and officials are urging Gov. Abigail Spanberger to honor detainers as part of a broader push linking the case to other recent Fairfax County crimes involving undocumented immigrants.

Fairfax County, Virginia, police arrested 28-year-old Misael Lopez Gomez on Friday after his three-month-old daughter was found not breathing and later died, with the medical examiner ruling the cause of death blunt force trauma and prosecutors charging him with second-degree murder and felony child abuse causing serious injury. The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Lopez Gomez is a Guatemalan national who admitted in an interview to crossing the U.S. border illegally in New Mexico in July 2023 during the Biden administration, and ICE has lodged an immigration detainer asking Fairfax County to hold him for transfer to federal custody. The case is the latest in a series of serious crimes in Fairfax County attributed to undocumented immigrants, including a recent machete killing and a high school sexual-assault case, that DHS and conservative officials are citing to attack Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s executive order restricting state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Supporters of stricter enforcement are seizing on the infant’s death as evidence that so-called sanctuary-style policies endanger residents, while opponents warn against drawing broad conclusions about immigrants from a handful of violent incidents.