A Mexican illegal immigrant now faces second-degree murder charges after allegedly stabbing two women on the streets of Staunton, Virginia, and ICE had to formally ask Gov. Abigail Spanberger not to release him.
Freddi Chigo Mil was found by police at the scene with two women who had been stabbed. One was pronounced dead. The other was taken to a local hospital. Mil now sits in Middle River Regional Jail, charged with second-degree murder and aggravated malicious wounding causing permanent impairment, according to jail records.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin did not mince words. In a DHS news release tied to the case, Mullin pinned blame directly on Virginia's Democratic governor and what he called her administration's refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. ICE lodged a detainer, a formal request asking state authorities to hold Mil so that he can be deported after facing criminal justice, rather than turning him loose back into the community.
Mullin told the New York Post:
"This illegal alien from Mexico has been charged with murder after a stabbing spree that killed one woman and injured another. This is what the Commonwealth of Virginia has become under the sanctuary policies of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians."
He added that ICE had asked Spanberger "to cooperate with us and commit to not releasing this criminal from jail, so that he can be removed from our country once he faces justice."
The Staunton stabbing is not an isolated incident. The DHS news release cited 22 cases of violent crime involving illegal immigrants in Virginia in 2026. The charges across those cases include child pornography offenses, sex offenses against children, attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer, murder, aggravated sexual battery, rape, and abduction, Fox News reported.
That number, 22, represents only the cases DHS chose to highlight. Each one involved someone who, by definition, was not lawfully present in the United States.
On the same day Mil was taken into custody in Staunton, ICE arrested another illegal immigrant, Yinmi Molina-Zepeda, a Salvadoran national, in Woodbridge, Virginia. Molina-Zepeda is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide and other crimes. Virginia has seen other high-profile cases of illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes in recent months.
Fox News also reported that three illegal immigrants accused of child sex crimes were released on bond in Fairfax County despite active ICE detainer requests, meaning local authorities let them walk even though federal agents had asked them to hold the suspects.
Jennifer Harrison, executive director of the Victims' Rights Reform Council, told Fox News Digital that the situation in Virginia had become untenable. She framed the ICE detainer itself as evidence of how far things have deteriorated.
"We have reached a point where the federal government has to ask state and local officials not to release dangerous illegal immigrants back into American communities. Think about how insane that is."
Harrison called the pattern of violence "out of control" in jurisdictions she described as "upside-down," run by politicians like Spanberger "who call themselves 'moderate Democrats' while implementing policies that put criminals ahead of victims and public safety."
She pressed the point further: "These are people who should not be in this country to begin with, and yet after they are accused of committing serious crimes here, when they have dead bodies in front of them, we are still having a debate over whether they should be released back onto our streets."
Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities, was equally direct. He accused Spanberger of "blocking ICE at every turn" and "shielding illegal immigrant criminals from consequences." The pattern of serious crimes committed by illegal immigrants in Virginia has drawn sustained criticism from public safety advocates.
Kennedy told reporters:
"Spanberger's actions are not pro-immigrant. They are pro-criminal. By shielding dangerous offenders from removal precisely because they are foreign nationals, she is loosing predators onto our streets. In fact, these predators overwhelmingly prey on other innocent immigrants, the ones she claims to be helping."
He did not stop there. "Every murder, rape, and robbery by an illegal alien was preventable if they had never been allowed in and let stay here," Kennedy said. "They didn't have to die. She only had to follow the law, not her agenda."
A spokesperson for Spanberger's office responded to the criticism by telling Fox News Digital that 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 added that "under Gov. Spanberger's leadership, the Virginia Department of Corrections continues the long-standing practice of notifying ICE when individuals born outside of the United States are in state custody." Virginia state law enforcement agencies, the spokesperson said, "also continue to participate in task forces and interagency cooperation with federal agencies."
The statement also invoked Spanberger's personal background: "As a former federal law enforcement officer who went after child predators, Gov. Spanberger will always prioritize the safety and well-being of Virginia families."
But that framing runs headlong into the facts on the ground. If Virginia's cooperation with ICE were as seamless as the governor's office suggests, the Department of Homeland Security would not need to issue a public news release asking her to hold a murder suspect. And the 22 violent crime cases DHS flagged this year suggest the existing "long-standing practice" is not producing results that protect Virginia residents.
The federal government has also stepped up enforcement actions across the country, including large-scale denaturalization efforts targeting convicted criminals who obtained citizenship fraudulently, a sign that the administration views the immigration enforcement breakdown as systemic, not limited to any single state.
What remains unclear is whether Spanberger's administration will honor ICE's detainer request for Freddi Chigo Mil. Her spokesperson's statement did not address the specific detainer. It offered general assurances about cooperation without committing to the one concrete action the federal government asked for: don't release this man.
The identity of the woman who died on the streets of Staunton has not been publicly released. Nor has the condition of the surviving victim been updated. Middle River Regional Jail did not respond to a request for comment. No motive for the attack has been disclosed.
Mullin closed his statement with a line that landed like a verdict: "Deporting illegal aliens saves lives. It's time to put an end to these preventable tragedies." Whether Spanberger treats that as a serious demand or a political inconvenience will say more about her priorities than any press release from her office.
Democrats who style themselves as moderates on immigration keep finding themselves standing next to body counts that their own policies helped make possible. At some point, the word "moderate" stops meaning cautious and starts meaning complicit.
