An illegal migrant accused of raping a woman on a popular hiking path in a Washington, D.C.-area suburb previously had been arrested and released multiple times by local law enforcement.
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Immigration policy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies released its updated map of American sanctuary locations on Thursday, revealing a surge in Virginia localities adopting sanctuary status.
The center added 36 Virginia localities to its map for a total of 84.
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A county supervisor in Virginia on Monday called for an end to sanctuary laws for illegal migrants after two murder suspects were confirmed to be living in the U.S. illegally, 7News reported.
Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity, the one-and-only Republican supervisor in the deep blue jurisdiction, is demanding county officials put an end to laws that protect illegal migrant criminals in the county, according to 7News. Herrity’s public comments follow a brutal murder earlier this month along a popular hiking trail in Oakton, Virginia, with accusations that at least one of the illegal migrant suspects benefited from sanctuary laws before the murder.
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Police in Fairfax County are reportedly refusing a request by Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard to reissue ceremonial police academy graduation documents after they were signed in Chinese. English was declared the “official language of the Commonwealth” in 1996.
The graduation certificates were signed by Major Wilson Lee of the Fairfax County Police Criminal Justice Academy, who according to NBC 4 Washington is Chinese-American. Lee has reportedly held the position for more than a year, but the outlet explained the Herndon Police Department only recently received its first batch of new graduates from the academy since Lee began his tenure.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities arrested a criminal illegal immigrant Jan. 4 that a Virginia sheriff let free after his arrest on suspicion of sexually assaulting a minor and production of child sexual abuse material, the agency said Monday.
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office arrested the individual in July, charging him with carnal knowledge of a child between the ages of 13 and 14 without force, possession of child sexual abuse material, and producing child sexual abuse material. Later that day, the Pacific Enforcement Response Center lodged an immigration detainer against him with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Virginia, which didn’t comply with the detainer and released the noncitizen without notifying ICE.
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In a chilling reminder that the integrity of our voting process is under constant attack, there is a serious violation of electoral law under way right now in the Elections Office of Fairfax County, Virginia. The Fairfax County Registrar, Eric Spicer, has allowed a candidate for school board to appear on the ballot although she failed to submit proper petitions with sufficient signatures. Immediate action is required by the county Electoral Board to disqualify her.
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Beginning in 2024, Fairfax County will be the third locality in Virginia to offer a pilot guaranteed income program after Richmond and Alexandria.
Pilot guaranteed income programs are — in this case, localities — attempt to provide a guaranteed, consistent direct cash benefit every month to a limited number of families in their city or county who meet specific qualifications. As they are experimental, they have a prescribed end date.
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Many schools in the Washington, D.C., region participate in a program called “No Place for Hate” designed to promote inclusion among students.
At least 143, and possibly closer to 200, are in Virginia and Maryland.
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A prestigious U.S. high school reportedly received more than $1 million in donations from Chinese-linked organizations, a report from watchdog group Parents Defending Education indicates.
Thomas Jefferson High School, situated in Fairfax County, Va., focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and ranks among the nation’s best high schools.
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The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to move forward with consideration of a proposal to give themselves salary increases of up to 45 percent, even as the county, located just outside of Washington, D.C., faces a shortage of police in the midst of a crime surge.
With inflation still high, county residents are facing real estate taxes that have risen 7 percent on average. In addition, Virginia counties assess the value of personal vehicles and send “personal property tax” bills that residents must pay each year. These bills are at record levels due to the high values of used vehicles.
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On Monday, Jason Miyares, the Attorney General of Virginia, announced that his office would conduct an investigation into all public schools in Fairfax County, over allegations that schools throughout the area have withheld merit awards from winners in the name of “equity.”
As Fox News reports, Miyares had already begun a civil rights investigation on Wednesday into Thomas Jefferson High School after parents complained that the school’s withholding of such awards negatively impacted their students’ college applications, with the awards not being announced until after most application deadlines had passed.
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Late last week, a judge on the Virginia Circuit Court for Fairfax County threw out a lawsuit by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which was levied against Fairfax County Board of Elections and the Fairfax County General Registrar.
“The lawsuit was dismissed because our client, the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, lacked standing, so the merits of the case were never heard. It is a shame that an election will take place with the largest county in Virginia breaking the law,” Lauren Bowman, the spokeswoman for PILF, told The Virginia Star. “The good news is other counties in Virginia are following all election rules and guidelines. Fighting lawlessness discourages more lawlessness.”
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Two weeks before Virginia’s bellwether election, Republican Glenn A. Youngkin‘s campaign is banging the pots and pans to draw attention to Democrat Terence R. “Terry” McAuliffe’s sudden end to his interview with WJLA-TV’s Nick Minock. Three times, a McAuliffe staffer interrupted the interview, which ended with this exchange: McAuliffe Staffer: “Alright Nick we are already over time.” Terry McAuliffe: “Alright, we are over. That’s it. That’s it. Hey I gave you extra time. C’mon man. You should have asked better questions early on. You should have asked questions your viewers care about.” Nick Minock: “Well, we did.” WJLA-TV anchor Jonathan Elias introduced the paired interviews with an explanation for why McAuliffe’s segment was roughly 10 minutes, compared with Youngkin’s 20-minute segment. “We do want to point out that the Terry McAuliffe interview is shorter than our interview with Glenn Youngkin, that was not by our doing,” Elias said. “Nick offered both candidates 20 minutes exactly to be fair, for the interviews. McAuliffe abruptly ended 7 News’ interview after just 10 minutes and told Nick that he should have asked better questions.” The Youngkin campaign quickly tweeted out what happened– the candidate held a rally for 10,000 supporters in the…
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Frustration at school boards boiled over for some parents and activists who protested outside of the Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. Sunday.
A small crowd gathered for the “Parents Are Not ‘Domestic Terrorists’ Rally,” a reference to Merrick Garland’s Oct. 4 memorandum that called on the FBI to “use its authority” in response to the “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”
Garland’s statement followed a letter from the National School Board Association (NSBA) that asked the federal government to get involved in the alleged “immediate threat” of violence from parents against American public schools and education officials. The letter encouraged President Joe Biden’s administration to use statutes such as the USA PATRIOT Act to address actions that could be “equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
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Police in Fairfax County, Va. have erased the names of those arrested or charged with a crime from public crime reports to comply with a policy adopted in January by the Democrat-controlled county board to thwart federal immigration enforcement.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ “Trust Policy” prohibits “sharing any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s citizenship and identify or locate someone” with unlawful immigrant status, according to local reports.
The lone Republican member of the board slammed Democrats for approving the policy leading to the wiping of names from public arrest data.
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“Idon’t think parents should be telling schools what they teach,” Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe said in a recent debate.
A wealthy Virginia school district outside Washington, D.C. went even further this week, with the help of a law firm tied to the former governor.
Represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth, Fairfax County Public Schools is suing two parents for learning about its dirty laundry from a state Freedom of Information Act request. It filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction Tuesday.
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Groups in Loudoun County and Fairfax County are attempting to recall school board members. They’re part of a national increase of school board recalls in 2021, according to Ballotpedia, which reports 58 recall efforts in 2021, targeting 144 officials. That’s up from a 2006 to 2020 average of 23 recalls.
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It has been revealed that the Fairfax County Public School district (FCPS) is encouraging second-graders to be anti-police, with a “Summer Learning Guide” that includes the phrase “I feel safe when there are no police,” according to an exclusive report by Breitbart.
The stunningly radical content was revealed by a document leaked to the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education (PDE). Fairfax is the most populous school district in the state of Virginia, and has widely been viewed as the epicenter of the battle over “Critical Race Theory” – the notion that all White people are automatically racist, and that America is a fundamentally racist nation – and other far-left ideas with which children are being indoctrinated.
The summer curriculum requires students to watch a far-left YouTube channel called “Woke Kindergarten,” and one video in particular called “Safe by Ki.” The video says, in part: “I feel safe when there are no police. And it’s no one’s job to tell me how I feel. But it’s everyone’s job to make sure that people who are being treated unfairly…feel safe too.” The “lesson” ends with several loaded questions, including “Why do some people feel safe with police and others don’t,” as well as “What can you do to make sure other people feel safe?”
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Virginia’s economy is recovering, but Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) President Rita McClenny told legislators this week that a major infusion of $50 million is needed to help the struggling tourism sector.
“The $27 billion tourism engine stalled out in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic. Every component sector was negatively impacted: lodging, food service, attractions, business, conventions, events, transportation, entertainment and recreation. The entire sector needs financial recovery support,” McClenny told the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.
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Governor Ralph Northam awarded $9.4 million to fund electrification of government-owned vehicle fleets for Dulles International Airport, Fairfax County, and Amherst County. The funds are part of the Clean Air Communities Program (CACP) and is funded by the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust (VEMT). Along with the $9.4 million awards, Northam announced a second round of funding, an additional $20 million, to electrify school buses.
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Stand Up Virginia held a rally outside the Fairfax County Government Center on Tuesday evening announcing the launch of an effort to recall Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. About 75 people attended the event, according to Stand Up Virginia President Brenda Tillett, who said she had also heard from supporters who couldn’t attend due to government jobs.
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An equestrian center is suing Fairfax County over a dispute about whether the center should be deemed agricultural in nature and therefore exempt from certain regulations.
Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, is providing the center with legal representation. Petersen is the chair of the senate’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
Virginia law prohibits local governments from interfering with farming activities on land zoned as agricultural. Yet, the county is trying to subject the Harmony Hills Equestrian Center to urban code requirements and ordinary commercial property requirements because it does not consider the center to be a farm.
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To vote in the Republican Party of Virginia’s (RPV) nomination of its 2021 candidates, citizens will have to be delegates to the nomination convention. Selecting delegates is a process controlled by local branches of the GOP, called units.
Former Chair of the Republican Party of Norfolk Pam Brown said the easiest way to start the process is to contact the local unit chairman. She said, “You can find that on the RPV site, they have linked email addresses to all the local unit chairmembers, and there’s 110 of them to contact.”
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Congress passed the CARES Act last March, sending many taxpayers $1,200, giving $100 billion to health providers, and boosting unemployment benefits by $600 a week, according to Govtrack. The $2 trillion stimulus bill also sent $150 billion to states and localities across the country. Virginia received about $3.1 billion dollars, with a separate $200 million sent directly to Fairfax County.
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The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled Fairfax County’s mass collection of vehicle license plate numbers does not violate legal privacy protections in a decision criticized by civil liberty advocates.
The Fairfax County Police Department won a lawsuit that challenged its use of automated license plate readers, which tracks times and locations of drivers. Because the court ruled the information the readers compile is not legally protected as personal, identifying information, Fairfax Police and other police departments in the commonwealth can continue to use them.
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Joining the ranks of other urban jurisdictions, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors (FCBOS) voted nine-to-one on Tuesday to enact a gun ban in city buildings, parks, and at or near permitted events. Also on Tuesday, the Loudoun County Board (LCBOS) of Supervisors voted four-to five against evaluating a potential ordinance controlling gun noise.
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Multiple school districts across the country are considering busing-style programs to distribute impoverished students equally, but data suggest that such proposals would not reduce an achievement gap between poor students and their wealthier schoolmates, analyses by the Daily Caller News Foundation and others found.
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This shouldn’t happen anywhere in America. I resolved that it wasn’t going to happen in my county, on my watch, without a fight.
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