FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA- Readers of Law Enforcement Today are quite familiar with radical leftist prosecutors who refuse to do their job, which is to protect their citizens from criminals. One that comes to mind is Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner, an unhinged wackjob who never met a criminal he was not in love with. Another is Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano.
According to Fox News Digital, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office has ignored just under 1,700 immigration detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between 2023 and 2025, releasing criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets where they can continue to victimize innocent Americans, a House Judiciary Committee report found.
The interim report also accuses Descano of treating criminal illegal aliens differently than similarly charged American citizens for the purpose of limiting their immigration consequences.
“This interim report provides evidence of the ways in which just one local jurisdiction has implemented policies that allow dangerous foreign nationals to reoffend and avoid deportation,” the report, issued by House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chair Tom McClintock (R-CA), found.
“But Fairfax County and prosecutor Steve Descano are not outliers. They are indicative of a modern, radical, socialist Democrat Party that seeks to erase national borders and place illegal alien criminals ahead of law-abiding American citizens,” the report continued. “The policies supported by these Democrats, including sanctuary policies, will have negative and lasting consequences for Americans. The Committee and Subcommittee will continue to conduct oversight of these sanctuary policies to inform potential legislative reforms to better protect American communities.”
A preliminary review of over 1,100 criminal cases showed over 100 unreported illegal aliens who benefited from Descano’s far-left prosecutorial decisions. The report showed that Descano’s office rarely pursued charges against illegal aliens charged with crimes such as driving under the influence, felony drug possession, felony grand larceny, shoplifting, fraud, trespassing, destruction of property and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
The committee said Descano’s office “de facto” decriminalized some offenses and noted that most of the defendants went on to reoffend, in some cases upping their crimes to violent crimes, including murder.
“Fairfax County, Virginia: The dangerous consequences of sanctuary policies,” the name of the report, claims that Descano misled Congress about what his policies did.
“The Biden-Harris Administration worked to weaken the first Trump Administration’s efforts to hold sanctuary jurisdictions accountable for undermining immigration enforcement,” the report noted. “In addition to dropping federal litigation relating to sanctuary jurisdictions’ policies, the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice Department, beginning in April 2021, no longer required jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE as a condition of receiving federal grant funding.”
Descano appeared before the committee in May and said his policy was “written with legal permanent residents in mind for minor crimes.” However, in a September letter, Descano said prosecutors could also consider immigration consequences when handling cases involving illegal aliens.
Descano’s campaign website admitted the apparent discriminatory policy, stating that when “possible,” his office would “make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences.” Descano also wrote that “if two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County.”
Apparently not. The “values of Fairfax County” include letting murderers, rapists, child molesters, drug dealers, and gang bangers loose on Fairfax County residents.
The committee's report highlighted numerous cases where illegal alien criminal offenders were given reduced or dismissed charges, including reducing felony charges involving the sexual assault of a child to misdemeanor “consensual sex with a child” while offering a 90-day suspended jail sentence.
Descano’s other claims to fame include dropping over 50 charges against a serial fraudster from China, and permitting defendants charged with malicious wounding, strangulation, assault and battery and other violent offenses to “escape accountability and reoffend.”
Despite the factual report, Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Chief of Staff Laura Birnbaum claimed the report was politically motivated to impact the midterm elections.
“This ‘report’ is nothing more than recycled Republican talking points put out weeks before the midterm elections as a desperate attempt to distract from widely anticipated Republican losses,” Birnbaum said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “This committee has churned out nearly identical reports recently on other Democratic-led jurisdictions, and the few sections on Fairfax County contain multiple falsehoods and distortions, since the committee repeatedly ignores public reporting and court records that contradict its narrative. Despite this ongoing series of attacks, we have remained laser-focused on keeping Fairfax County one of the safest large communities in the country, holding individuals accountable when they commit crimes, and respecting the dignity of all members of our community.”
Despite Birnbaum’s attempt at gaslighting, the committee cited numerous cases involving defendants accused of child pornography, rape, abduction, firearm offenses, drug possession, and assault. The report said that in some cases, defendants were released despite the existence of ICE detainers and were arrested again later.
One “recycled Republican talking point” involved Marvin Morales-Ortez, an MS-13 gang member whose charges were dropped prior to his release by the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office in December 2025. The report said Morales-Ortez murdered a man in Reston, Virginia one day later.
In that case, Sheriff Stacey Kincaid blamed the release on the lack of prosecution, writing that “the system must work as a whole,” adding “When criminal defendants are prosecuted, authorities are better able to track court dates and monitor releases.”
Kincaid has been a critic of Descano’s prosecution practices, Fox News Digital reported, stating, “It’s shameful the way things have not been prosecuted.”
Another “Republican talking point” involves a Fairfax County woman, Stephanie Minter, who was fatally stabbed at a Fairfax County bus stop in February. In that case, the suspect, Abdul Jalloh, is an illegal alien with over 40 prior charges in Fairfax County. The committee alleged that Descano’s office dropped charges against Jalloh in most of those cases and police warned prosecutors before Minter’s murder that “it is not a question of if, but rather when [Jalloh] will maliciously wound—or worse—again.”
Minter’s mother Cheryl was outraged after her daughter’s murder, telling the committee that “a system failed my daughter.”
“When policies protect people who are a known threat, innocent lives are put at risk,” she said. “When warnings are ignored, families like mine pay the price.”
The committee concluded that Fairfax County’s policies “threaten public safety and undermine the safe and effective enforcement of federal immigration law.” Descano has denied those allegations and has claimed that “the idea that [his office] favor[s] one group over another is completely wrong.”
According to WJLA, the committee has repeatedly asked Descano’s office for information on how many charges have been dropped (nolle prosequi) against criminal illegal aliens over the past two years, however Descano’s office has refused to provide an accounting by immigration status. While some high-profile individual cases have been reported in local and national media, an aggregate total remains unavailable.
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