The sanctuary policies of Fairfax County, Virginia are actively obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law and shielding foreign national criminals from accountability, a House Judiciary report released Tuesday reveals.
The Judiciary Committee report, "Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies," details how Commonwealth Attorney for Fairfax County, in league with Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, have perverted justice and endangered the county by refusing to cooperate with federal immigration officers and by failing to prosecute criminal illegal aliens.
Descano is just one of the nation’s anti-immigration prosecutors with heavy financial backing by radical billionaire George Soros, the report explains:
“The Justice and Public Safety PAC, a group primarily funded by far-left activist George Soros, has provided $627,653 to Descano’s campaigns.
“In office, Descano has pursued a radical leftwing agenda. For years, Descano’s office has prohibited its employees from ‘assist[ing] federal agents with civil immigration enforcement.’ This sanctuary policy prohibits prosecutors from sharing arrest information and immigration status details with federal immigration officials and bans employees from cooperating in the enforcement of federal administrative warrants for illegal and criminal aliens.”
Key findings of the Committee include:
- Fairfax County treats illegal aliens differently than it does American citizens under the same circumstances.
- Descano routinely fails to prosecute or under-prosecutes criminal aliens in Fairfax County and has de facto decriminalized numerous offenses in his jurisdiction.
- The criminal aliens shielded by Descano’s policies include serial fraudsters, domestic abusers, and violent offenders.
- Descano refuses to take accountability for the consequences of his policies and blames victims instead.
- Descano’s pro-criminal alien policies apply to legal and illegal aliens alike, despite his testimony to the Immigration Subcommittee that indicated otherwise.
- Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies have allowed thousands of criminal aliens to be released back into American communities.
The report finds that Descano rarely pursues charges against illegal aliens arrested for a wide variety of crimes, such as:
- Driving under the influence.
- Felony drug possession.
- Felony grand larceny.
- Larceny.
- Shoplifting.
- Fraud.
- Trespassing.
- Destruction of property.
- Assault of a law enforcement officer.
“Fairfax County's sanctuary policies have allowed thousands of criminal aliens to be released back into American communities,” the report explains, noting that the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office declined at least 1,670 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers in the past three years alone (2023-25).
For example, the report says, “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.”
In a preliminary review of nonpublic documents and public records, including more than 1,100 criminal cases, the study identified “more than 100 previously unreported criminal aliens who benefited from Descano's repeated refusal to prosecute and his under-prosecution.”
What’s more, even when Descano’s office does prosecutes cases against criminal illegal aliens, it often gives them “sweetheart deals or other preferential treatment that shield them from the harshest penalties,” the report says, providing multiple examples.
In one case, when two illegal aliens with criminal histories murdered a man in Fairfax County, Descano’s office offered them a plea deal requiring them to serve only five years for the murder.
In another, an illegal alien’s charges were reduced from “Rape by Force/Threat” to misdemeanor “Sexual Assault of Child 13-14.” He received a fully suspended jail sentence – but, within two weeks, he was arrested twice more and charged with eight counts of possession of child pornography and “DUI with elevated blood alcohol content.”
“Fairfax County, Virginia, is just one example of Democrats’ efforts to erase national borders and undermine immigration enforcement,” the report explains, concluding with a warning to the nation:
“Democrats’ open-borders policies and sanctuary jurisdictions have had devastating consequences for U.S. citizens. Even after the American people resoundingly rejected Democrats’ pro-illegal alien policies in November 2024, Democrats across the country reinforced sanctuary policies to ensure that the millions of illegal aliens who entered the U.S. are never removed from the country.”
