Lawmakers spar with Fairfax County leaders over sanctuary policies

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

Lawmakers held another hearing on sanctuary policies Thursday, one of a series coinciding with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and a nationwide crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This time, the House of Representatives subcommittee focused on Fairfax County, Virginia.

Just 30 minutes outside of Washington, D.C., Fairfax County is Virginia’s most populous county, with more than 1.1 million residents. The county borders one of the most diverse counties in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, and is itself notably diverse, with more than 30% of its population born outside of the U.S.

Its commonwealth’s attorney and sheriff testified before the House committee Thursday, as the locality promotes non-compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers.

Another witness who testified Thursday was Cheryl Minter, mother of the deceased Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old single mother killed at a Fairfax County bus stop in February.

Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, has been charged with her murder.

Jalloh is one of three illegal immigrants on trial for an alleged 2026 murder in Fairfax County, and as of early April, the Department of Homeland Security reported “illegal aliens have allegedly committed 75% of all murders in the far-left county” in 2026, as there had been four alleged murders at the time.

Jalloh had been arrested more than 30 times before being charged with fatally stabbing Minter, according to DHS.

“His criminal history includes more than 30 arrests for charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pick pocketing,” reads a DHS press release following Jalloh’s February arrest.

But via its Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy adopted in 2021, Fairfax County is one of a number of localities across the country, in addition to 17 states and Washington, D.C., that seeks to protect people who have immigrated to the U.S. illegally from deportation, according to advocacy group the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger also signed an executive directive earlier this year effectively repealing an executive action by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that called for Virginia localities’ compliance with ICE.

Lawmakers questioning Stephen Descano, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney, contended that it was Fairfax’s so-called sanctuary policies that repeatedly allowed Jalloh back on the street.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said that Jalloh had been arrested more than 15 times from Jan. 2023 to Feb. 2026, that Descano had “dismissed almost all of these charges” and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid had been instrumental in Jalloh’s evasion of ICE.

Jalloh concerned the Fairfax County Police Department – which operates in the county in addition to the sheriff’s department – enough that it issued a warning to Descano, according to Van Drew.

“The Fairfax County Police Department became so alarmed at these decisions that they took the extraordinary step of warning Descano that Jalloh had stabbed multiple people, sexually assaulted at least one woman, and committed numerous other criminal offenses,” he said.

“The police then issued this grim prophecy: It is not a question of if, but rather when, he will maliciously wound – or worse – again,” Van Drew added.

In a particularly tense moment during the hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned Descano over a statement Jordan said had been on Descano’s campaign website for six years, but was taken down not long after the House committee reached out to Descano to testify before Congress.

The exchange involved the case of a 23-year-old Salvadoran national and Fairfax County resident named Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez, who was charged in late December with second degree murder.

Jordan quoted Descano as having said on his website that his office would “take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions.”

“Immigration consequences were certainly part of the game here.. with Mr. Morales-Ortez,” Jordan said.

Video footage had shown Ortez fleeing the home of a man who appeared to have been shot to death, and Ortez was also charged with possession of a firearm.

Ortez had been released from jail the day before and had previously been charged with various crimes, including a first-degree murder charge in 2021, but Descano’s office had not prosecuted him, according to Washington, D.C., ABC affiliate WJLA.

Descano said that Jordan was misrepresenting his policies by quoting the “campaign statement that was made before” he became the commonwealth’s attorney.

“Why’d you change your website?” Jordan asked.

Descano responded, “Because I could not believe that people were so obtuse that they could not realize what the difference between a campaign statement and an actual office policy is.”