Virginia sanctuary county ignores 1,670 detainer requests over 2

A new House Judiciary Committee report reveals that Virginia's Fairfax County Sheriff's Office released criminal illegal immigrants back into the community rather than handing them to federal custody, ignoring at least 1,670 ICE detainers between 2023 and 2025. The interim staff report, obtained by Fox News ahead of its Tuesday noon release by the committee's Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, also alleges that Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano gave illegal immigrant defendants preferential treatment compared to American citizens facing similar charges, aiming to minimize immigration fallout.

Report Alleges Pattern of Preferential Treatment

"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," concluded the report, issued under House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chair Tom McClintock, R-Calif. "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." According to the committee, a preliminary examination of over 1,100 criminal cases uncovered more than 100 previously unreported illegal immigrants who received favorable outcomes from Descano's prosecutorial decisions. The report stated that his office seldom pressed charges against illegal immigrants accused of offenses such as driving under the influence, felony drug possession, felony grand larceny, shoplifting, fraud, trespassing, property destruction and assaulting a law enforcement officer. The committee claimed Descano's office effectively decriminalized certain crimes and noted that most defendants reviewed went on to commit new offenses, sometimes escalating to violence and murder.

Committee Accuses Descano of Misleading Congress

Titled "Fairfax County, Virginia: The dangerous consequences of sanctuary policies," the report further alleges Descano misled Congress regarding the extent 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." During May testimony before the committee, Descano described his policy as "written with legal permanent residents in mind for minor crimes." However, in a September letter, the committee said Descano conceded that prosecutors could weigh immigration consequences in cases involving illegal immigrants too. His campaign website had previously said that when "possible," his office would "make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences." Descano also contended 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." The committee highlighted multiple cases where it said defendants received reduced or dropped charges. In one instance, prosecutors allegedly downgraded felony charges involving child sexual assault to a misdemeanor of "consensual sex with a child" and proposed a 90-day suspended jail term. The report also said Descano's office dismissed over 50 charges against a serial fraudster from China and let defendants facing malicious wounding, strangulation, assault and battery and other violent charges "escape accountability and reoffend."

Cases Involving Violent Offenders Detailed

Additional cases described by the committee involved defendants accused of child pornography, rape, abduction, firearm offenses, drug possession and assault. In some instances, the report said, defendants were freed despite ICE detainers and subsequently 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. According to the report, Morales-Ortez allegedly killed a man in Reston, Virginia, a day later. Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid attributed the release to the absence 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 shame