Sen Tim Kaine says Minter’s killer should be tried before deportation

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is calling on prosecutors to try, convict and punish Stephanie Minter’s undocumented killer, arguing that he should face American justice before he is ordered to leave the country.

Kaine said he feared deportation might be a form of leniency.

“If he gets deported, I’m not sure about that. [that] He will indeed face the punishment he must face. If you deport him now, what is the guarantee that he will face serious consequences for what he did?,” Kaine said.

“I think he should be tried to the fullest extent of the law and then possibly deported, but I wouldn’t want him to escape responsibility for his crime.”

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Authorities are charging Abdul Jalloh, a 32-year-old Sierra Leone native, with the murder of Stephanie Minter after she was found dead at a bus stop in Fairfax, Virginia, last month.

Jalloh had already been arrested more than 30 times before his fatal confrontation with Minter, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Previous charges have included rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing and more.

Local authorities dropped previous charges against Jalloh, allowing him to go free.

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Kaine believes this time should be different.

“I think he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and then possibly deported,” Kaine said.

Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing 41-year-old Stephanie Minter at a Virginia bus stop. (Fox 5 DC)

Jalloh was charged with second-degree murder.

While questions remain about why Virginia officials allowed Jalloh to leave, Kaine, who served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, suggested ICE may have failed to comply with requests to detain Jalloh before Minter’s murder.

“My experience when I was governor — and this is 15 or 20 years ago now — in Virginia, before we let anyone out of prison, we would normally notify ICE, and then they wouldn’t come,” Kaine said.

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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on March 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“We will give them two weeks notice.” [and say] They said, ‘Hey, there’s someone here, come and get them,’ but they didn’t come. That was more my experience.”

Fox Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.