Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano took a swing at the federal government yesterday (Wednesday), claiming that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is making it harder for prosecutors to effectively do their jobs.
“The first thing that I hear in our community over and over again is, not only does the federal government focus on fearmongering around crime, but they’re taking it a step further now by actually creating a culture of fear around law enforcement,” Descano said.
Descano, who has been Fairfax County’s top prosecutor since 2020, contended that the Trump administration’s focus on rounding up undocumented residents nationwide stands to dramatically influence local prosecutions, if it hasn’t already.
Though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has claimed that 70% of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have been of people convicted or charged with a crime, data obtained by the Deportation Data Project last month found that detentions of people without criminal charges or convictions have increased and now make up a majority of arrests in the D.C. region.
As of July 27, about 71% of people currently in ICE custody have no criminal record, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University project that collects and analyzes government data.
ICE agents have reportedly detained people showing up for scheduled hearings at the immigration court in Annandale and inside the Fairfax County Courthouse, creating apprehension among many visitors, Descano said, whether they’re appearing to settle their own cases or to testify against others.
“All that means is that people who have committed crimes in our community are not going to face accountability, because we can’t go forward when we don’t have witnesses, and crimes don’t get investigated when people are too scared to call the police,” Descano said.
“By driving this culture of fear, the federal government is very likely driving an increase of crime, and not only driving an increase in crime, but essentially putting a target on an entire community’s back and saying, these are individuals that are low-risk, high-value targets for crime, for people to pick on,” he added.
Descano, who was speaking on a Zoom call attended by numerous members of the media, did not answer questions regarding the case of Andres Caceres Jaldin, who is accused of attempting to abduct a toddler from Fair Oaks Mall last month.
Last Friday (Aug. 1), Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares said he intends to investigate Descano’s office, questioning why Caceres Jaldin was not kept in custody during court proceedings for previous charges.
“There is a shocking and unforgivable pattern in Fairfax County of releasing criminals back onto Virginia’s streets instead of keeping them behind bars,” Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said, echoing Miyares.
Two questions were asked about the case via the call’s “chat” feature, but Descano did not explicitly address them as the call had “run out of time,” one organizer said.
His office didn’t respond to previous comment requests from FFXnow and other media outlets.
Earlier in the call, however, Descano noted the importance of evaluating cases individually, saying that “not every problem has the same solution.”
“When there are people who do bad things, of course, we put them through the traditional process,” Descano said. “But we’ve also realized that jail time and long prison sentences for a lot of people, particularly at the lower, non-violent end, that doesn’t work to build community safety long term. That actually ruins community safety.”
Last month, a Fairfax-based restorative justice pilot program, Adult Accountability for Safer Communities (AASC), received a grant that will help it become permanent — just one avenue that the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office embraces as an alternative solution in the justice system to incarceration.
“We’ve built a number of programs to try to get at the root causes of why people commit crime,” Descano said.
