Virginia sanctuary county ignores 1,670 detainer requests over 2 years, House Judiciary Committee finds
A House Judiciary Committee report accuses prosecutor Steve Descano of limiting immigration consequences for defendants
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia ignored at least 1,670 immigration detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2023 and 2025, releasing criminal illegal immigrants back into the community instead of transferring them to federal custody, according to a new House Judiciary Committee report.
The interim staff report – obtained by Fox News before its noon Tuesday release by the committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement – also accuses Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano of treating illegal immigrant defendants differently from similarly situated American citizens to limit 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 under House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chair Tom McClintock, R-Calif., concluded.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano, left, and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Ann Kincaid, right, testify before Congress. (Tom Williams/Getty Images)
"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 added. "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."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The committee said a preliminary review of more than 1,100 criminal cases identified more than 100 previously unreported illegal immigrants who benefited from Descano’s prosecutorial decisions. The report said Descano’s office rarely pursued charges against illegal immigrants accused of crimes including driving under the influence, felony drug possession, felony grand larceny, shoplifting, fraud, trespassing, destruction of property and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
The committee accused Descano’s office of "de facto" decriminalizing some offenses and said most of the defendants reviewed went on to reoffend, in some cases escalating to violent crimes and murder.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The report, titled "Fairfax County, Virginia: The dangerous consequences of sanctuary policies," also alleges that Descano misled Congress about the scope of his policies.
"The Biden-Harris Administration worked to weaken the first Trump Administration’s efforts to hold sanctuary jurisdictions accountable for undermining immigration enforcement," the report read. "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."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}During testimony before the committee in May, Descano said his policy was "written with legal permanent residents in mind for minor crimes." But in a September letter, the committee said Descano acknowledged that prosecutors could consider immigration consequences in cases involving illegal immigrants as well.
Descano’s campaign website previously stated that when "possible," his office would "make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences." He also argued 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."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The committee cited numerous cases in which it said criminal defendants benefited from reduced or dismissed charges. 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.
The report also said Descano’s office dropped more than 50 charges against a serial fraudster from China and allowed defendants charged with malicious wounding, strangulation, assault and battery and other violent offenses to "escape accountability and reoffend."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano is facing heavy criticism following a string of violent crime by illegal immigrants, including the killing of Stephanie Minter (left). (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images; Fairfax County Police Department)
The committee detailed additional cases involving defendants accused of child pornography, rape, abduction, firearm offenses, drug possession and assault. In some cases, the report said, defendants were released despite ICE detainers and later arrested again.
One case involved Marvin Morales-Ortez, an alleged MS-13 member whose charges were dropped before the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office released him in December 2025. The report said Morales-Ortez allegedly murdered a man in Reston, Virginia, one day later.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid blamed the release on the lack of prosecution, writing that "the system must work as a whole." She added: "When criminal defendants are prosecuted, authorities are better able to track court dates and monitor releases."
Kincaid has also previously criticized the county’s prosecution practices, stating, "It’s shameful the way things have not been prosecuted."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Virginia mom Cheryl Minter, left, whose daughter, Stephanie, was stabbed and killed in an attack prosecutors have charged an illegal immigrant with committing, is leading an effort to recall Fairfax County Democratic Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, right. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The report highlighted the case of Stephanie Minter, who was fatally stabbed in February. The suspect, Abdul Jalloh, is an illegal immigrant with more than 40 prior charges in Fairfax County. The committee said Descano’s office had dropped charges against Jalloh in almost every case and that police warned prosecutors before the killing that "it is not a question of if, but rather when [Jalloh] will maliciously wound — or worse — again."
Cheryl Minter, Stephanie’s mother, told 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."
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The committee said Fairfax County’s policies "threaten public safety and undermine the safe and effective enforcement of federal immigration law." Descano has rejected the allegations and previously said that "the idea that [his office] favor[s] one group over another is completely wrong."