After being presented with piles of evidence showing his office systematically allows violent criminal illegal aliens back on the street, Steve Descano, the George Soros-backed Fairfax County, Virginia, Commonwealth’s Attorney, continued to claim his office does everything in its power to prosecute them properly.
Descano testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement in a hearing titled “Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies,” alongside Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, former Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Cheryl Minter, the mother of a woman murdered by an illegal, and others.
In a heated exchange with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, regarding Descano’s preferential treatment of illegals in sentencing — requiring that their immigration status be considered in a way that will protect them from deportation — Descano claimed the promise to shield illegals was merely an empty campaign promise.
“I didn’t realize people were so obtuse that they could not realize what the difference between a campaign statement and an actual office policy is,” Descano said. “We’re not protecting undocumented individuals, we prosecute people who commit crimes in Fairfax County regardless of their status.”
However, a since-deleted portion of Descano’s website, which had been up for six years until last week when he was asked to testify, stated, “Our office will take immigration consequences into account when making prosecuting decisions. … 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.”
Descano refused to answer how many times his office took immigration status into account when reducing the sentences of violent illegal aliens, but maintained that there was a difference between what his campaign website said and his office’s official policy.
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, confronted Descano with his office’s official policy, which reads nearly the exact same way.
The guidelines for plea bargaining, charging decisions, and sentencing, signed by Descano himself, state, “Although not outcome determinative, prosecutors shall consider: (i) the collateral immigration consequences of the specific crime(s) the defendant is charged with, and (ii) the detrimental impact that deportation/removal has on the families and communities those removed or deported leave behind.”
That policy is in line with the county’s “public trust and confidentiality policy,” which allows illegal aliens in Fairfax to “access county benefits and services without fear that the information they share will be disclosed to federal immigration officials.”
Shielding illegal aliens is necessary, Descano argued, because 30 percent of residents of Fairfax County are immigrants, and their testimony is needed to obtain convictions. David Bier of the Cato Institute said that 20 percent of Fairfax’s residents are “here illegally or lives in a household of someone here illegally.”
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