A shooting on Old Dominion University’s campus has left Americans asking how someone who pled guilty to helping ISIS was able to enroll at an American university.
The unsettling answer is that Virginia Democrats passed a law forbidding public colleges for asking applicants about their criminal history.
Republicans in Washington are now looking to take federal action to prevent future tragedies like the one that unfolded on Old Dominion’s campus last Thursday.
A Terrorist on Campus
The shooter, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized citizen from West Africa who became an ISIS terrorist while serving in the U.S. Army National Guard, shot and killed ROTC professor Lt. Col. Brandon Shah and wounded two others.
In 2016, Jalloh pled guilty for attempting to aid the terror group and was sentenced to 11 years in prison but was released early in 2024.
Despite Jalloh’s terrorist past, he was able to re-enroll at ODU as a student in 2025 thanks to a bill signed by former Democrat Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.
In 2019, Northam signed into law a bill which bars public colleges from questioning applicants on their criminal history and cannot deny them acceptance because of it—even if the applicant is a terrorist.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., told the Daily Signal of the shooting.
And with Northam’s law on the books, “it all just seems preventable,” the former Navy SEAL added.
“I was in the House of Delegates, and I voted no on that bill. It’s called Ban the Box law,” McGuire said, adding that he believes the tragedy at Old Dominion could have been prevented if Democrats hadn’t passed the legislation.
“The fact that we have a person that has terrorist ties and is just allowed to walk the streets, I mean, that makes me furious,” Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, told The Daily Signal.
Republicans Eye Bill That Would Have Denaturalized and Deported the Shooter
On Monday afternoon, Kiggans co-sponsored a bill brought forth by Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., that could have prevented the shooting.
Kiggans signed on to Emmer’s SCAM Act, which seeks to “denaturalize and deport individuals within 10 years of naturalization who join terrorist organizations or commit serious crimes against our country.”
“This monster should’ve been stripped of his citizenship and shipped back to Sierra Leone. Instead, he was let back onto our streets only to commit more terror. We can’t go on like this,” Emmer wrote on X.
The SCAM Act is a critical part of Republicans’ ongoing efforts to support law and order, Kiggans suggested.
“We need to put legislation in place that keeps our streets safer,” Kiggans said. “It’s been a goal of this administration and a goal of mine and Congress to do whatever we can, not just to support law enforcement, but be supportive of border patrol.”
The Shooting Shakes Virginia
While Republicans on Capitol Hill consider a federal solution, Virginia Republicans are demanding answers.
Virginia Senator Glen Sturtevant told the Daily Signal that “if that law prevented ODU from knowing about this individual’s terrorism conviction, then Virginians deserve a full explanation and accounting from those responsible for its passage.”
“This is exactly the kind of consequence many of us warned about when these so-called ‘restorative justice’ policies were passed,” Sturtevant continued. “Instead of making public safety a priority, Richmond Democrats chose to tilt the system toward criminals and away from the safety of our communities.”
Virginia Democrats, however, say that guns are to blame.
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who represents Old Dominion University’s district in Congress, wrote on X, “We must do everything we can to prevent these all-too-common tragedies of gun violence.”
Kiggans said this wasn’t an accurate description of the situation. “This person who committed to shooting the shooter and had no regard for laws,” she said.
McGuire called it “ludicrous” to describe this situation as gun violence. “Criminals don’t care about any law you pass,” he continued. “The best way to stop guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
“The [Democrats] are championing soft-on-crime policies that protect perpetrators while simultaneously passing an unprecedented number of bills to disarm law-abiding Virginians,” Anne Ferrell Tata, a Republican representing Virginia Beach in the Virginia House of Delegates, told The Daily Signal.
“You do not make Virginia safer by stripping away the Second Amendment rights of our citizens while granting sanctuary to violent criminals,” Tata added. “Virginians deserve better.”
