New Report: The Dangers of Fairfax County's Radical Sanctuary City Policies

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement released an interim staff report titled, "Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies." The report details the startling extent to which Fairfax County, including the Commonwealth's Attorney for Fairfax County Steve Descano, actively obstructs the enforcement of federal immigration law and shields foreign national criminals from accountability.

The Committee and Subcommittee's oversight has revealed the shocking extent to which Descano's routine failure to prosecute and his under-prosecution of criminal aliens in Fairfax County has de facto decriminalized numerous offenses in his jurisdiction. Descano rarely pursues charges against criminal aliens arrested for driving under the influence, felony drug possession, felony grand larceny, larceny, shoplifting, fraud, trespass, destruction of property, and assault of a law enforcement officer, among numerous other crimes.

The Committee and Subcommittee's oversight reveals:

• Fairfax County's sanctuary policies have allowed thousands of criminal aliens to be released back into American communities. From 2023 through 2025, the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office declined at least 1,670 ICE detainers and allowed the criminal aliens back onto northern Virginia streets instead of cooperating with ICE;
  
• Steve Descano boasted for years about how he would make consideration of someone's immigration status a crucial component of his prosecution decisions. For seven years, his campaign website promised that, Descano "will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences." Descano has fulfilled that promise and ensured that criminal aliens, including even repeat, violent offenders, can remain in the United States indefinitely;
  
• The criminal aliens shielded by Descano's policies include serial fraudsters, domestic abusers, and violent offenders. As just a few examples, Descano dropped more than 50 charges against a serial fraudster from China and allowed multiple aliens charged with malicious wounding, strangulation, and assault and battery to escape accountability and reoffend;
  
• Descano refuses to take accountability for the consequences of his policies and blames victims instead. Despite ample opportunities to reform his policies and take accountability for the tragic consequences of his decisions, Descano has refused to do so. In a letter to the Committee in September 2026, Descano blamed multiple crime victims for his office's repeated lack of prosecution in certain cases. He also has refused to identify the cases in which his office considered immigration consequences pursuant to his own written policy. As a result, the Committee was forced to issue a subpoena for this information;
  
• Descano's pro-criminal alien policies apply to legal and illegal aliens alike, despite his testimony to the Immigration Subcommittee that indicated otherwise. In public testimony before the Subcommittee in May 2026, Descano claimed his policies were "written with legal permanent residents in mind for minor crimes." After months of refusing to clarify the categories of aliens to whom his policies apply, Descano finally admitted in his September 2026 letter to the Committee that prosecutors in his office may also consider immigration consequences for cases involving illegal aliens;
  
• One victim of Descano's policies appeared before the Subcommittee and blamed Descano and Fairfax County for failing her daughter. Cheryl Minter is the mother of Stephanie Minter, who was murdered by an illegal alien who Descano repeatedly failed to prosecute and who the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office repeatedly released back onto the streets despite ICE detainers. Cheryl testified that the system failed Stephanie, that Descano does not listen to victims, and that Stephanie's murder was preventable.

Fairfax County's sanctuary policies threaten public safety and undermine the safe and effective enforcement of federal immigration law. In a preliminary review of nonpublic documents and public records, including more than 1,100 criminal cases, the Committee and Subcommittee have identified more than 100 previously unreported criminal aliens who benefited from Descano's repeated refusal to prosecute and his under-prosecution.

In most cases reviewed by the Committee and Subcommittee, the criminal aliens reoffended-even escalating their criminal behavior to violence and even murder. 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.

Read the full interim staff report here.

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