The Latino Caucus Meeting on February 26 has been moved to March 12, 2026 - watch for registration instructions

Latino Caucus Reorganization

New Date - Nueva fecha

March 12, 2026

Glory Days (Private Room)

6341 Columbia Pike

Falls Church, VA 22041

Latino Caucus Reorganization

March 12, 2026 @ 7:00 - 8:00 pm

Every two years the Fairfax County Democratic Committee and its Caucuses reorganize and elect new leadership. The Caucus in attendance will vote to elect a Chair and Secretary to continue the aspirations of our Mission Statement.

Chair Pro Tempore

Chris Falcon

Clerk of the Fairfax County Circuit Court

Chris Falcon will conduct our election for Caucus leadership for the next biennial.

Chris was born in Falls Church, Virginia and is the proud son of two immigrant parents from Peru and Ecuador.

He grew up speaking Spanish and learned to speak English as his second language in kindergarten with the Fairfax County Public School system. He graduated from Woodson High School in Fairfax and became part of the first generation of his family to graduate from college when he received his bachelor’s degree from James Madison University. He's now raising his family with his wife Jackie and their three children in Annandale.

If you would like to be considered for or nominate someone for the Chair or Secretary or any position such as Social Media Master, please reply by email HERE. You can include a statement of up to 100 words which will be published in El Boletín on March 9. Statements will be published in the order received.

Barack Obama

My Conversation with Brian Tyler Cohen

Click for recent posts

Watch the Barack Obama interview

"So the rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous, but we should take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary outpouring of organizing, community building, decency, neighbors buying groceries for folks, accompanying children to school, teachers who were standing up for their kids, not just randomly, but in a systematic, organized way, citizens saying, “this is not the America we believe in,” and we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests and shining a light on the sort of behavior that in the past, we’ve seen in authoritarian countries and we’ve seen in dictatorships, but we have not seen in America."

Read the entire interview HERE.

The Kids Aren’t Alright in Dilley

ADRIAN CARRASQUILLO

FEB 13, 2026

LIAM RAMOS WAS THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the facility from which 5-year-old Liam and his father were discharged on February 1, is a place where many other children are still being detained. Their stories are almost too much to bear.

There was the 18-month-old baby, Amalia, who was suffering from respiratory failure and was rushed to the hospital, where she spent much of the next ten days on oxygen. Upon release, federal officers took her right back into detention at Dilley, words that boggle the mind to write, and there she was denied daily medication prescribed after her hospital visit, according to a new lawsuit filed last week. Amalia and her family were finally released last Friday in response to an emergency habeas petition, but for many families in similar situations, there is no clarity about when they or their children might leave, or under what conditions.

Carmen Ayala, an aide to Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), has been in contact with many of the detainees at Dilley, as well as with their families. She told me about Valery, a 13-year-old who attempted self harm at Dilley with a knife from the cafeteria.

Valery’s family arrived at Dilley on December 13, one day after they were detained near their home in South Florida. The family fled Colombia for the United States because the father was sexually abusing the two daughters, aged 8 and 13, Ayala was told by the girl’s family. But after the asylum claim for Valery’s family was denied in January, they faced deportation.

“It was a sense of hopelessness,” Ayala said of Valery’s suicide attempt. “They’ve been in there for months, she’s depressed and wants to get out. She saw no way of getting out, she thinks she’ll be there forever, and that was her way out.”

Crockett’s office received a privacy waiver from the family and has opened a congressional inquiry to advocate on the family’s behalf. When I asked why Valery’s treatment for self-harm seems to be exclusively a prescription for sleeping pills, ICE did not respond.

THEN THERE IS THE CASE of Mariela Sobrero Chillitupa, 31, who was in the hospital for a few days in December for tests to determine if she had breast cancer. The tests weren’t conclusive, so her doctors called for a biopsy in the new year to know for sure. Mariela wanted to delay biopsy until after a court date she had scheduled for January 14. She didn’t think it would be anything major. She spent the night in a hotel with her three children, aged 2, 8, and 11, and had breakfast with her sister-in-law the next day. They said their goodbyes and Mariela told her sister-in-law to wait nearby, it would likely only be two hours. Later, however, she received a call: “We’ve been detained, don’t wait for us.”

Her sister-in-law, Mari, who asked to be identified by only her first name, said that Mariela has complained to her about her deteriorating health and treatment inside Dilley.

“Mari, they don’t give me my medication, only when they want,” Mari says Mariela told her, adding that her breast “gets hard like a rock,” and she is only given her medication when the nurse arrives. If the nurse doesn’t come, she doesn’t get her medication. Ayala was also told by Mariela that her breast is turning beet red. She told Mari that a week ago she asked a guard to give her fussy 2-year-old to his father, who is also in detention, because her breast was causing her so much pain; she was told “No, you have to keep him, he can’t be with his father.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin did not respond to specific questions about Mariela’s treatment, why her medication has been withheld, whether she will be allowed to seek outside medical attention, or if she will be released given her medical condition. She said only, “That doesn’t sound right but we’ll run this down,” before asking for identifying numbers for the children, which I provided.

ICE did not respond to questions about operations inside Dilley. For example, why can’t Mariela pass her 2-year-old to his father when she is in pain? And what is being done to follow up on the biopsy ordered during those inconclusive tests in December?

Mari told me she can’t understand why people like Mariela are being treated this way.

“As a Latina . . . and as a mother, it worries me more the situation for the mothers because they’re in there with their kids suffering, but they have to hold in the pain to protect their kids,” she said in Spanish, adding that her 2-year-old nephew doesn’t understand where he is and is getting aggressive in a way that he never was before.

“I think the conditions and the suffering is inhumane and they shouldn’t be going through that. They should have respect because of the kids. Adults, we can suffer, but the kids don’t deserve to be treated this way,” she said.

She called for Dilley to be shuttered. “It’s inhumane and they should let Mariela come home with her children.”

Read the story and the continued reporting HERE.

Current Events - Eventos Actuales

Virginia House Bill 1438 and HB 1441

Law-enforcement agencies; agreements with federal authority for immigration enforcement.

Status

Action: 2026-02-12 - Passed House

Text: Latest bill text

Summary

Agencies of the Commonwealth; law-enforcement agencies; employees and officers; agreements with federal authority for immigration enforcement; prohibitions and limitations. Prohibits a state agency or a law-enforcement agency, defined in the bill, from entering into a written agreement authorizing any employee or law-enforcement officer to perform a function of a federal immigration officer. The bill provides that federal immigration laws shall be enforced by a state or local law-enforcement agency of the Commonwealth pursuant to a valid judicial warrant, federal or statutory regulations, or as otherwise required by state law. The bill also prohibits an employee of a state agency or a law-enforcement officer, defined in the bill, from conducting certain actions or inquiries regarding a person's citizenship or immigration status while engaged in the performance of his duties and creates a cause of action for appropriate equitable, injunctive, or declaratory relief against such employee or law-enforcement officer who willfully conducts such actions or inquiries in violation of the provisions of the bill. Finally, the bill requires any state agency or law-enforcement agency that has an existing written agreement with a federal authority to perform federal immigration functions to terminate such written agreement by September 1, 2026.

Virginia House Bill 1440

Protected areas; certain federal immigration enforcement prohibited, penalty.

Status

Action: 2026-02-12 - Read third time and passed House

Text: Latest bill text

Summary

Certain civil arrests prohibited in courthouses; penalty. Provides that a party who is required to attend any court of the Commonwealth, or such party's family or household member or person attending the court with such party to serve as a witness, shall be privileged from civil arrest, defined in the bill, while attending, going to, or coming from the court. The bill also prohibits a person with the lawful authority to perform civil arrests from entering a courthouse to conduct a civil arrest unless he complies with certain requirements, including presenting a judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing the civil arrest to the appropriate courthouse officer or employee. Additionally, the bill requires that any judicial warrant or judicial order authorizing the civil arrest be reviewed by a designated judicial officer or attorney before a civil arrest pursuant to such warrant or order can be performed. Finally, the bill provides that any person who conducts a civil arrest, or facilitates or assists with the performance of, a civil arrest in violation of the provisions of the bill shall be punished with contempt of court.

VA State Legislature page for HB87

State plan for med. assistance; patient-initiated consultation, provider-to-provider consultation.

Status

Action: 2026-02-13 - Read third time and passed House

Text: Latest bill text

Summary

Department of Medical Assistance Services; state plan for medical assistance; patient-initiated consultation; provider-to-provider consultation.

Thank you Virginia Grass Roots Coalition for your work to advance this legislation to restrict state and local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration (ICE) operations, aiming to enhance trust between immigrant communities and local police, ensuring residents report crimes without fear of deportation. It limits resource allocation for federal immigration enforcement unless a valid judicial warrant or court order is presented, thereby focusing local police resources solely on public safety. 

REPUBLICANS HAVE MOVED INTO A NEW, EVEN DUMBER PHASE OF BAD BUNNY OUTRAGE

By NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ, MAYA GEORGI

February 12, 2026

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show continues to live rent-free in the minds of Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators. Plenty of right-wingers were outraged that the NFL tapped the Puerto Rican star for the show, and criticized the Spanish-language performance in real time. The GOP isn’t letting it go, and has since called for multiple investigations into those responsible, while making a hilarious show of translating and dissecting Bad Bunny lyrics in public.

It started on Monday morning. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) wrote a letter to the House Committee on Energy Commissions, calling for a formal inquiry into the NFL and NBCUniversal over their “prior knowledge, review, and approval of indecent content” from Apple Music’s halftime show.

“The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show was pure smut, brazenly aired on national television for every American family to witness. Children were forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air,” Ogles wrote. “The performance’s lyrics openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities.” 

Ogles claimed in a post on X that the show “depicted gay pornography” (we couldn’t find any) and that the performance was “conclusive proof that Puerto Rico should never be a state.”

Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), meanwhile, has called for the Federal Communication Commission to investigate. Fine claimed on X that the “disgusting halftime show was illegal” and that had Bad Bunny “said these lyrics — and all of the other disgusting and pornographic filth in English on live TV, the broadcast would have been pulled down and the fines would have been enormous.” 

“Puerto Ricans are Americans, and we all live by the same rules,” Fine wrote, adding that he would be sending the FCC a letter demanding “dramatic action, including fines and broadcast license reviews, against the NFL, NBC, and ‘Bad Bunny.’”

Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) chimed in on Real America’s Voice on Tuesday, claiming that while he doesn’t “speak fluent Spanish” the “lyrics from what we’ve seen from Bad Bunny are very disturbing.” 

“We have a lot of questions for the entities that broadcast this, and we’ll be talking with Brendan Carr from the FCC,” he added. “This could be much worse than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction.”

● ● ●

If you’re noticing a pattern by which the pearl-clutching masses attack performers with furious claims of vulgarity, you might be onto something. Republicans — led by Turning Point USA — hosted an anti-halftime show on Sunday, stocked with an all-white, English-speaking lineup fronted by Kid Rock. The 55-year-old artist — who has been arrested multiple times and accused of assault — rapped his song “Bawitdaba,” which includes family-friendly references to “topless dancers,” “hookers all trickin’ out in Hollywood,” meth, porn, and more. Someone should let the FCC know.

One of the other chief complaints conservatives have leveled against Bad Bunny is that he sings almost entirely in Spanish. How were they supposed to understand him in real time without subtitles? One could wonder the same about Donald Trump, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pointed out this week. “I barely know what Trump’s saying half the time. So, I feel him,” she said responding to the president’s trashing of Bad Bunny’s performance.

Despite the meltdown over Bad Bunny’s performance, the halftime show scored big ratings, ranking as the fourth most-watched in halftime history. It has received generally positive reviews both in the United States and abroad. We do this every year, and at this point if Republicans saw a halftime show that didn’t send them into a moralistic conniption, it might be a sign to retire the event in its entirety. 

Read the entire article HERE.

Take Action - Tomar medidas

Hispanic Heritage Month

Theme Submissions

February 26, 2026

From September 15 to October 15, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the heritage, history, traditions, and cultural diversity of Hispanic Americans whose heritage is rooted in Spain and 19 countries and territories: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.

This heritage month is celebrated mid-September to mid-October to highlight the independence of several countries. September 15 is the day that five Latin American countries celebrate their independence from Spain: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras. Mexico celebrates its independence on September 16 and Chile on September 18. Also, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day, or Día de la Raza, in mid-October, falls within this 30-day period. 

The national observation began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting September 15 and ending October 15 of each year. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402. Each year the President of the United States has issued a proclamation at the start of the observance. 

Each year, the NCHEPM has lead the process to select the annual theme and corresponding poster that federal agencies, organizations, and schools have used when observing Hispanic Heritage Month.

We would be honored to have our community, including students, involved by submitting Hispanic Heritage Month theme ideas and artwork for posters in the future.

Learn more HERE.

Events - Eventos

Hacan

Mardi Gras Fundraiser

February 17, 2026

10% of All Orders Dine-in or Takeout

after 3pm go to HACAN

El Tia Tex Mex Grill

7630 Lee Hwy.

Falls Church, VA 22042

Visit the site

Watch the advertisement

Virginians for Fair Elections: Grassroots Leadership Call

Virtual Training

February 18, 2026 @ 6:30 – 7:30pm

Virtual event

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy — and right now, they’re under attack. Across the country, politicians are rigging congressional maps to protect their own power and silence voters. Virginia has a chance to level the playing field.

Join us for our inaugural Grassroots Leadership Call on Tuesday, February 10th, where you can commit to taking action to make sure Virginians vote YES for fair elections in the upcoming referendum.

Looking forward to seeing you there, so we can stand with Virginians who believe voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.

Register HERE.

Major Annual Festivals (Future Dates)

Several large-scale festivals celebrate Latin American and Caribbean culture annually in the region: 

• Fiesta del Sol Festival: An annual community celebration of Latin American and Caribbean culture, featuring music and dance.
• Location: McLean Community Center, McLean, VA.
• Next Date: Saturday, March 21, 2026.
• Fiesta DC: Known as the nation's largest Latin festival, it features a wide range of entertainment, food, arts, and crafts from various Latino cultures.
• Location: Washington, DC
• Next Dates: Scheduled for September 2026.
• Manassas Latino Festival: A local festival that showcases Latino culture through food and art.
• Location: Harris Pavilion, Manassas, VA.
• Next Date: Typically held in September. 

https://www.youtube.com/@FCDCLatinoCaucus

Latino Caucus

Fairfax County

Democratic Committee

Click HERE to join FCDC

www.FairfaxDemocrats.org

or HERE to join our mailing list

Maritza Zermeño — Chair

Marta Calderon — Secretary

Leonel Rojas — Social Media Master

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