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The Trump Department of Homeland Security has requested that Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger and officials in immigrant-friendly Fairfax County not release an adult illegal alien charged with groping several high school girls on school grounds.
Illegal alien Israel Flores Ortiz, 19, is facing nine counts of assault and battery for groping girls at a Fairfax County high school he was attending. Victims and parents have alleged that Ortiz approached about 12 girls from behind in crowded hallways, grabbed them between the legs, and groped their private areas, according to 7News.
The outlet reported that parents said the incidents have occurred throughout the school year. Ortiz attends the school and is in the eleventh grade, per 7News.
According to DHS, Ortiz illegally entered the U.S. in 2024 and was released into the country by the Biden administration.
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DHS is calling on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (right) not to release 19-year-old illegal alien Israel Flores-Ortiz (left), who is charged with assault and battery after allegedly groping high school girls. (Bryan Woolston/AP Photo; DHS)
He is currently being held without bond in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, which is operated by the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, led by Sheriff Stacey Kincaid.
According to the sheriff’s office website, the office does not honor ICE administrative detainers — requests to hold inmates — unless the detainer is accompanied by a criminal judicial order.
Further, as governor, Spanberger has rolled back state policies mandating cooperation with ICE. Spanberger has said that “when state and local law enforcement are pulled away from upholding our Virginia laws to do the job of federal agents, it weakens their ability to deepen trust — contributing to a culture of fear and distrust that makes it harder for officers to do their jobs.”
In a later executive order, Spanberger added that Virginia law enforcement efforts “focus on upholding the rule of law, investigating and stopping criminal conduct, and protecting public safety, not the administrative enforcement of civil status.”
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A Fairfax County school bus. (Getty)
In a Monday statement, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said that the agency is “calling on Fairfax County sanctuary politicians to NOT release this predator from jail back into our communities to assault more teenage women.”
Bis slammed Spanberger for ending former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policy of cooperation with ICE, saying it is “siding with criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.”
“This 19-year-old criminal illegal alien should NOT have been attending a Virginia high school and allowed to prey on innocent teenage girls,” Bis said, adding, “This is yet another example of the Biden Administration’s failed open border policies.”
In response, Allyson Conroy, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Digital that Ortiz currently “remains in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.”
Conroy said that “while it is still too early in the process to know the outcome of his case, ICE has been notified of Ortiz’s location at the ADC” and “they are able to execute their detainer by responding to the ADC and taking Ortiz into custody if and when he is ordered released.”
Conroy emphasized that the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office “does not obstruct or prevent ICE from acting on their civil detainers.”
Meanwhile, Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a mother of three students in the Fairfax County School System, told Fox News that “this entire horrifying situation is the direct consequence of policy with really dysfunctional priorities,” which she said are attempting to “shield adult illegal immigrants at the expense of children’s safety, even in their public schools.”
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Fairfax County, Virginia, Adult Detention Center. (Fairfax County)
Lundquist-Arora claimed officials at the high school waited two weeks to inform parents, and that the move only came after parental pressure.
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In an emailed statement, Fairfax County Public Schools said that while it is “unable to comment on specifics due to federal and state privacy laws, we prioritize student and staff safety and we fully investigate any time someone shares that an incident has occurred at school, or that they do not feel safe at school.”
The public school system added that it is “grateful to our law enforcement partners who continue to work swiftly and thoroughly when there are safety concerns in our schools” and that the “safety of all FCPS students and staff remains a top priority.”
Spanberger’s office and the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
