Fairfax County, Virginia, Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano (D) is obstructing a congressional investigation into whether his office gives preferential treatment to illegal alien defendants, members of the House Judiciary Committee allege.
At the start of the year, the House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation into Descano’s office and whether prosecutors in Fairfax County are offering deals, requesting less prison time, and dropping charges against illegal alien defendants preferentially to their American counterparts.
Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) sent letters to Descano in January and June of this year requesting documents related to his office’s policies when handling foreign defendants.
In a letter sent to Descano this week, Jordan and McClintock allege he is obstructing their investigation by refusing to hand over such documents by claiming that Congress has no oversight over his office.
“We reject those arguments and assertions and reiterate our requests for your cooperation,” Jordan and McClintock write:
The assertion in your July 2 and July 24 letters that the Committee lacks authorization to “investigate and gather information about individual criminal cases prosecuted by a local prosecutor’s office in state court” is incorrect. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed Congress’s oversight powers as “broad and indispensable,” “encompass[ing] inquiries into the administration of existing laws, studies of proposed laws, and surveys of defects in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling the Congress to remedy them.” Congressional oversight has encompassed issues involving state criminal justice systems— among many other state and local matters—when they intersect with federal interests. [Emphasis added]
The problem of sanctuary jurisdictions like Fairfax County flouting immigration law clearly involves federal interests. Failing to prosecute or under-prosecuting foreign nationals so that immigration consequences can be avoided implicates Congress’s plenary power over immigration, which the Supreme Court repeatedly has described as the authority “to make rules for the admission of aliens and to exclude those who possess those characteristics which Congress has forbidden.” Your pro-criminal alien policies appear intentionally designed to thwart this authority. Moreover, preferential treatment of foreign nationals by your office may also violate federal civil rights laws. [Emphasis added]
The House Judiciary’s Immigration Subcommittee had Descano testify in May after the murder of Stephanie Minter in Fairfax County, allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien.
As Breitbart News reported, 32-year-old illegal alien Abdul Jalloh of Sierra Leone was arrested by the Fairfax County Police Department earlier this year and charged with stabbing Minter, a mother, to death at a Fredericksburg, Virginia, bus stop in a random attack.
Jalloh had more than 30 prior arrests before Minter’s murder, but Descano’s office repeatedly dropped charges against him.
“We would share a cup of coffee during early mornings. We butted heads like every other mother-daughter, but wanted to actively take steps together to make our relationship better,” Angel Mom Cheryl Minter said of her daughter. “We would share stories, memories, laughter, thoughts of the future, and more. This is something I will never get to experience again because of the failures of our justice system.”
At the hearing, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) said Descano helped an illegal alien, accused of raping an underage teen, evade prison by offering him a deal with reduced charges and a suspended sentence in 2024.
Likewise, Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC) said that in 2023, Descano dropped charges against an illegal alien accused of kidnapping a four-year-old with the intent to sexually assault her after the prosecutor’s office attempted to offer him a sweetheart plea deal.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com.
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