Local authorities in Fairfax County, Virginia, ignored nearly 1,700 immigration detainer requests over a two-year period and routinely released illegal criminals back into the community, according to a House Judiciary Committee report.
The sanctuary county has been under fire by the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers after several heinous crimes allegedly committed by illegal aliens.
The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, chaired by U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., released the interim staff report on Tuesday, Oct. 20, with several damning findings.
Soros-backed Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano “routinely fails to prosecute or under-prosecutes criminal aliens in Fairfax County and has de facto decriminalized numerous offenses in his jurisdiction,” the committee said in its report.
The Committee found Fairfax County treats illegal immigrants differently than similarly situated American citizens. Descano’s office “will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences” and ensure that criminal illegals remain in the United States indefinitely.
From 2023 through 2025, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office declined at least 1,670 detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As a result, criminal illegals were let out of jail and many went on to commit more crimes.
In a preliminary review of more than 1,100 criminal cases, the Committee “identified more than 100 previously unreported criminal aliens who benefited from Descano’s repeated refusal to prosecute and his under-prosecution.”
The report, titled “Fairfax County, Virginia: The dangerous consequences of sanctuary policies,” also alleges that Descano misled Congress about the scope of his policies, Fox News reported.
In a review of numerous cases, the committee said criminal defendants benefited from reduced or dismissed charges, including cases involving defendants accused of child pornography, rape, abduction, firearm offenses, drug possession, larceny, driving under the influence and assault.
In one example, prosecutors allegedly reduced felony charges involving the sexual assault of a child to misdemeanor “consensual sex with a child” and offered a 90-day suspended jail sentence.
In some cases, the report said, defendants were released despite ICE detainers and later arrested again.
“In most cases reviewed by the Committee and Subcommittee, the criminal aliens reoffended—even escalating their criminal behavior to violent offenses and even murder,” according to the report.
The review found Descano’s policies protect serial fraudsters, domestic abusers and violent offenders. In one example, he dropped more than 50 charges against a serial fraudster from China.
Cheryl Minter, the angel mom of Stephanie Minter, testified before the Subcommittee regarding her daughter’s fatal stabbing at a bus stop. The suspect was identified as Abdul Jalloh, a 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, who had more than 30 prior arrests.
She continues to speak out about how the system failed Stephanie, maintaining Descano does not listen to or advocate for victims of violent crime and that Stephanie’s murder was preventable.
Minter also spoke to Fox News and has called for Descano’s removal after her daughter’s murder. On Feb. 23, 41-year-old Minter of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was fatally stabbed at a bus stop in Hybla Valley, Fairfax County.
“What’s the reason behind what you’re doing,” Minter said in a video regarding Descano’s lack of prosecuting illegal immigrants. “I think my biggest question would be ‘Why are you doing this?’ …His job is to protect citizens and he is not doing it.”
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Jalloh illegally entered the U.S. in 2012 and racked up more than 30 prior arrests, including charges related to assault, rape and malicious wounding, trespassing, larceny and drug possession.
In one case involving a twice-deported illegal alien from Guatemala, prosecutors in Descano’s office “dropped his felony charge for allegedly strangling a woman in exchange for a guilty plea” to a misdemeanor offense, the Committee noted.
In 2024, two illegal immigrants with criminal histories murdered a man in Fairfax County. Two years later, Descano’s office offered the criminal aliens a plea deal that means the men will only serve five years for the murder.
In December 2025, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office released Marvin Morales-Ortez, an alleged MS-13 member, after his charges were dropped. This was after Descano’s office previously dropped a murder charge against Morales-Ortez in 2021.
The report said Morales-Ortez allegedly murdered a man in Reston, Virginia, one day after his release in 2025.
Minter said she has run into hundreds of people where she lives and they have no clue that illegal immigrants receive preferential treatment and are released back onto the streets.
“The illegals are being treated differently than the U.S. citizens, completely differently, and they are getting easy time, easy everything,” Cheryl Minter said, adding a normal resident will go to jail for speeding but “they let the illegals off or drop the charges down to where they don’t get in trouble for it.”
Fairfax County officials have enacted their own sanctuary policies to “shield illegal aliens from accountability for their criminality,” the committee said.
In 2018, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid terminated an agreement with ICE. The sheriff’s office refuses to honor detainer requests unless immigration officers have a judicial warrant.
However, Sheriff Kincaid has openly admitted and criticized the overall lack of prosecution in Fairfax County, stating, “It’s shameful the way things have not been prosecuted.”
In addition, the sheriff’s office does not notify ICE about an illegal immigrant’s pending release.
A judicial warrant is not required under federal law and is not possible in the “overwhelming majority of immigration cases unless a foreign national is charged with a federal crime.” They are not issued for local or state charges.
“Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies threaten public safety and undermine the safe and effective enforcement of federal immigration law,” the report states. “The lack of criminal prosecution and prohibition on ICE cooperation have already led to multiple deaths and injuries and will no doubt continue to result in tragic consequences in Fairfax County and beyond.”
Descano’s office refuted the allegations in the report and claimed it’s “nothing more than recycled Republican talking points put out weeks before the midterm elections” in a statement sent to WJLA 7News.
His office also said 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.”
In the report, the Committee concludes that Fairfax County and prosecutor Steve Descano are not outliers, but “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.”
Descano has served as the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney since January 2020. The Justice and Public Safety PAC, a group primarily funded by far-left activist George Soros, has provided $627,653 to Descano’s campaigns.
