ICE Arrests 1,328 Illegal Immigrants in Two-Week DC-Area Operation, Nearly 400 Had Criminal Records

ICE arrested 1,328 illegal immigrants in the Washington, D.C. suburbs over a 14-day operation this month, according to multiple ICE sources who spoke to Fox News. The agency is calling it one of its most successful operations to date.

The operation, dubbed "Operation Safe Community — Washington, D.C.," ran from August 1 to August 14 across Virginia and Maryland, both states with sanctuary-style policies limiting local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Of the 1,328 arrested, nearly 400 had criminal convictions or pending charges, Fox News reported. That includes a Salvadoran national wanted in Richmond, Virginia on a murder warrant. Other charges among those arrested ranged from rape and sexual assault to kidnapping, DUI, robbery, and attempted murder.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the operation to Fox News, saying ICE agents "arrested sexual assailants, kidnappers, drunk drivers, robbers, and gang members" over the two weeks. Noem criticized Virginia and Maryland officials directly, saying "sanctuary politicians in Virginia and Maryland keep putting the needs of illegal aliens over the safety of the American people" while the administration "will always put American citizens first."

The Fairfax County backdrop

The operation follows months of scrutiny over Fairfax County, Virginia, where a DHS report alleged that 75% of murders in the county were committed by illegal immigrants, according to Fox News. That statistic has fueled an ongoing local debate over the county's sanctuary policies, a debate that predates this month's arrests and has repeatedly put Virginia Governor-level politics in the national spotlight.

DHS has previously flagged Virginia under Governor Glenn Youngkin's successor administration — now led by Governor Abigail Spanberger — as what the department called a "hotbed" for illegal immigrant crime following a series of high-profile cases, including rape charges reported earlier this year.

A separate operation: the Haiti deportation flight

Days before the D.C.-area arrests were disclosed, DHS also carried out its first deportation flight to Haiti since the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians, a move the Supreme Court cleared the way for in June. The flight left the United States on August 20 carrying 162 Haitian nationals, according to the Daily Wire, which obtained photos and rap sheets for 15 of the deportees from DHS.

Among those on the flight: Zoe Pound gang member McGuyverson Jetin, convicted on four counts of lewd or lascivious battery involving victims aged 12 to 15; fellow Zoe Pound member Modeler Hyppolite, convicted of second-degree assault on a pregnant woman; and 88 Crush Mob gang member Davidson Athis, convicted of first-degree assault with a lengthy arrest history including drug possession and reckless endangerment. Several others on the flight had convictions for sexual exploitation of minors or failure to register as sex offenders, per DHS records shared with the Daily Wire.

Multiple deportees on the flight, including Hyppolite, had been released into the country under the Biden administration after crossing the border, according to DHS records cited by the Daily Wire. Others, like Jetin, had lived in the U.S. for close to two decades as green card holders before receiving deportation orders this year.

What's confirmed, what isn't

The 1,328 figure and the breakdown of criminal histories come from ICE sources speaking to Fox News and from Secretary Noem's on-record comments. DHS has not yet published a full public accounting with independent verification of every case. That's a normal lag for operations of this size, but the specific 400-criminal-record figure and individual case details rest on DHS's own characterization rather than court records reviewed independently.

Virginia and Maryland officials had not issued a public response to the operation as of this writing. Neither Governor Spanberger's office nor Maryland Governor Wes Moore's office was quoted defending or explaining the sanctuary-style policies DHS is targeting, leaving the political rebuttal to the operation largely unanswered in current coverage.

The scale of the arrests raises an obvious question for both states: whether local law enforcement cooperation policies get revisited, or whether officials hold their ground and let federal agents keep operating largely without local coordination. With DHS signaling more operations like this one are coming, and with the Fairfax County murder-rate statistic still driving local political fights, the sanctuary-policy standoff between Richmond, Annapolis, and Washington isn't close to resolved.

Fox News video correspondent Bill Melugin, who first reported the numbers, has not indicated whether DHS plans to release a full case-by-case public ledger of the 1,328 arrests, which would let outside observers verify the criminal-history breakdown independently rather than relying solely on agency-provided figures.