Fairfax County’s Political Ecosystem Protects Illegal Immigrants at the Expense of All Others

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a federal civil rights investigation into Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano over allegations that his office gave preferential treatment to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes.

This Thursday, mere days after that announcement, Descano—who has received more than $650,000 from Soros-backed PACs and affiliated groups—is scheduled to testify before Congress at a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining the dangerous consequences of sanctuary policies in Fairfax County, Virginia. 

Indeed, Descano is a key player contributing to the increasingly dangerous environment in Fairfax County. In February, police arrested Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, and charged him with the fatal stabbing of Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old mother, at a bus stop in Fairfax County. Jalloh had previously been arrested more than 30 times, only to be released back onto the streets. In more than a dozen of his arrests, Descano’s office entered “nolle prosequi,” a legal term meaning it chose not to pursue the charges. 

Sadly, Jalloh is one of many illegal immigrants in Fairfax County whom Descano was committed to keeping out of jail following violent crimes. In fact, Descano openly stated his intentions on his since-deleted 2019 campaign page. He wrote, “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 Department of Justice is right to investigate Descano for discriminating against Americans, but he is only the tip of the iceberg. Descano and other county leaders seem to believe that the “values of Fairfax County” include protecting illegal adult criminals in K-12 public schools. 

For background, English language learners are permitted to attend school until they are 22. The number of English language learners in Fairfax County’s schools increased precipitously due to Biden’s open southern border and the inception of the sanctuary policy, up to a total of 47,438 English language learning students in 2025. 

Disturbingly, a recent Freedom of Information Act request found that there are 339 adult male English language learning students attending K-12 public schools throughout the county. By design, it is unclear how many of them are in the country illegally.

One of them, Israel Flores Ortiz, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who turns 19 in June, was found guilty on nine counts of assault on female students at Fairfax High School this year. Despite the fact that he groped their genitals in the hallways, Descano’s office charged him with lesser misdemeanor charges of assault, instead of sexual assault, as the case should warrant. Ortiz was convicted last month and is scheduled to be released in September after only spending about six months in custody.

Descano and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, who refuses to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are not the only officials protecting illegal immigrants such as Ortiz. A Freedom of Information Act request found that, in seeming violation of federal law, Fairfax High School administrators did not file Title IX referrals when female students told school staff that Ortiz sexually assaulted them. 

Only after Ortiz’s arrest and under pressure from the victims’ families did the school principal, Georgina Aye, send a delayed, sanitized email notifying the community, stating that “the incidents involved the student touching other students’ buttocks while they were transitioning in the hallways.”

The attempts at secrecy and obfuscation run deep, protecting illegal immigrants at the cost of all other students in the district’s schools. To that end, the district’s senior administrators ordered all student identification documents on record to be destroyed.

On July 1, Dave Anderson, Fairfax County Public Schools’ senior district manager for student registration, sent an email to school-based registrars that stated, “Based on recent Division Counsel guidance … FCPS will no longer retain copies of identification documents, including the student birth certificate, in the student’s cumulative file … For clarification purposes, identification documents refer to copies of a parent’s photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, etc.” 

Fairfax County’s 199 public schools are decorated with sanctuary policy flyers, written in nine languages, promising, “We will not collect or maintain any information on the citizenship or immigration status of students or their families.”

Taken together, these incidents and policies raise serious questions about accountability, transparency, and public safety in Fairfax County. From prosecutorial discretion in the handling of repeat offenders, to school system policies affecting reporting and record-keeping, it is clear that county leadership has prioritized ideological commitments over the protection of students and the broader community. 

Fairfax County has become a focal point in the broader national conflict over immigration enforcement, criminal justice reform, and the role of local institutions in upholding public safety. The outcome of these investigations and hearings will likely shape not only the future of county policy, but also the wider national debate over the dangers of local “sanctuaries.”

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.