A new House Judiciary Committee report reveals the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia ignored at least 1,670 immigration detainers from ICE between 2023 and 2025.

Rather than transferring criminal illegal immigrants to federal custody, the county released them back into the community, according to the interim staff report.

The report was issued under House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chair Tom McClintock and obtained ahead of its official release.

The report also accuses Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano of treating illegal immigrant defendants differently from similarly situated American citizens in order 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 concluded.

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 committee said Descano’s office rarely pursued charges involving offenses such as driving under the influence, felony drug possession, felony grand larceny, shoplifting, fraud, trespassing, and assaulting a law enforcement officer.

The committee accused Descano’s office of “de facto” decriminalizing some offenses, with most reviewed defendants going on to reoffend, in some cases escalating to violent crimes and murder.

One particularly alarming 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, after which he allegedly murdered a man in Reston, Virginia, one day later.

Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid blamed the release on the lack of prosecution, writing that “the system must work as a whole” and adding that “when criminal defendants are prosecuted, authorities are better able to track court dates and monitor releases.”

Kincaid had previously criticized the county’s prosecution practices, stating plainly, “It’s shameful the way things have not been prosecuted.”

The report also detailed the case of Stephanie Minter, who was fatally stabbed in February, with suspect Abdul Jalloh identified as an illegal immigrant carrying more than 40 prior charges in Fairfax County.

The committee said Descano’s office had dropped charges against Jalloh in nearly every prior case, and that police had 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,” and that “when policies protect people who are a known threat, innocent lives are put at risk.”

“When warnings are ignored, families like mine pay the price,” she said, delivering a direct condemnation of how the county’s policies played out in her daughter’s death.

In another case cited by the committee, 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 violent offenses including malicious wounding and strangulation to “escape accountability and reoffend.”

During testimony before the committee, Descano said his policy was “written with legal permanent residents in mind for minor crimes,” though he later acknowledged prosecutors could consider immigration consequences for illegal immigrants as well.

Descano has rejected the committee’s allegations and previously stated that “the idea that [his office] favor[s] one group over another is completely wrong.”

The committee concluded that Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies “threaten public safety and undermine the safe and effective enforcement of federal immigration law” and said it would continue oversight to inform potential legislative reforms.