ARLINGTON COUNTY, VA- The House Judiciary Committee issued a scathing report slamming Arlington County’s defiance against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda, a report that was confirmed by Arlington County Republican officials.
Fox News Digital reports that a 23-page interim staff report from the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement heavily criticized the county’s sanctuary policies, accusing Democrat-run jurisdictions of “ignoring public safety while advocating policies that make it harder for federal immigration authorities to detain and arrest” illegal aliens with criminal records, Fox News Digital wrote.
“Chairman [Jim] Jordan’s Judiciary Committee report about Arlington is spot on,” Matthew Hurtt, chairman of the Arlington County Republican Committee told Fox News Digital.
Hurtt accused county officials of “prioritiz[ing] illegal aliens over the safety of Arlington residents. And as an Arlington resident, I’ve seen this play out over the last several months.”
The House committee’s report accused local law enforcement of engaging in “limited cooperation” with immigration authorities and highlighted the county’s official board Trust Policy rules governing local law enforcement.
That policy prohibits the Arlington County Police Department “from initiating contact with federal immigration authorities” even when an illegal alien is identified as a “violent felon, gang member, human trafficker, or terrorist.”
Far left Commonwealth Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, admitted that her office considers immigration status when determining case outcomes and also admitted that written guidelines don’t forbid considering immigration status for any crime, Jordan’s report said.
She also defended a memo asking prosecutors to consider other charges when a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient is accused of drunk driving, Fox News Digital reported.
This is an effort to circumvent a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provision that classifies a DUI conviction as a “significant misdemeanor” which prohibits DACA recipients from renewing that status and automatically triggers deportation. The memo tells prosecutors to consider DACA status to avoid “disproportionate and devastating collateral consequences.”
“It is not the job of a prosecutor to decide lenience against illegal aliens who are oftentimes committing violent crimes against individuals or property crimes, but that is exactly what Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has been doing,” Hurtt said.
“[Dehghani]-Tafti sees herself as a left-wing criminal justice activist,” Hurtt added, then turning his attention to another far-left prosecutor, Steve Descano, who works in nearby Fairfax County and who has received some unwanted attention for his light on crime policies in a county that has seen an onslaught of crime committed by illegal aliens.
In attempting to defend herself, in a statement obtained by ARL Now, Dehghani-Tafti called the committee report a “political sham.”
“The committee refused to hear my testimony in public because open testimony doesn’t let you distort a record,” she complained. “This report is the predictable product of that process—a piece of political propaganda timed for the midterms, built on the deliberate misrepresentations of my policies and my testimony.”
“Now it’s clear why they wouldn’t hold a public hearing and why they stonewalled my requests for the full deposition transcript,” she continued. “They didn’t want the public to see it. I demand the committee release the full, unedited transcript of my deposition immediately.”
Fox News Digital attempted to get a comment from her office, the Sheriff’s Office, and the County Board, but no response was received.
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