Steve Descano, Fairfax County Commonwealth attorney, could have saved Stephanie Minter if he had done his job.

by Drew DiMeglio

Abdul Jalloh from Sierra Leone has been arrested in Fairfax County more than 30 different times. Jalloh’s rap sheet is impressive. From five malicious woundings in two years to assault, battery and theft offenses in between his first arrest by immigration officials and his latest arrest in February, he has racked it up. Yet somehow, the list still wasn’t long enough for Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, who dismissed violent charges in every case.

Jalloh, who was allegedly released into the streets and went on to kill Stephanie Minter, an unmarried mother from Fairfax, earlier this year, is said to have been the result.

The Fairfax County Police Department had Warned Descano’s office that Jalloh was a threat to the community. The office of the attorney responded by remaining silent.

Jalloh’s egregious leniency was no accident. It was deliberate.

Descano’s website proudly displayed this statement up until recent, curiously timed changes: “If two persons commit the same offense, but only one person’s punishment includes removal, that’s not a true reflection of Fairfax County’s values.”

How is that possible? If one person entered the country in an illegal manner and the other didn’t, then they did not the same crime. That is, unless illegal immigration isn’t a crime.

Descano doesn’t stop with absolving illegal immigration as a criminal offense. His website recently said that “he will make charging and pleading decisions that limit immigration consequences or avoid them.”

Deportation triggers include sentences longer than one year, convictions for certain firearm crimes, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Descano’s Office can and does reduce these charges if an offender is a illegal immigrant.

Jalloh was not the only illegal alien to be granted leniency by Descano. Kevin Alexander Lemus was a Salvadoran citizen who was released two times between April and May 2022 for gun and drug charges. Lemus killed a man four months later.

Wilmer Osmany Giron, a Guatemalan citizen, was offered in 2025 a plea agreement that replaced a felony charge for allegedly strangling the woman with a misdemeanor of brandishing blade. The sentence was reduced from 15 years to just a few months. The victim explicitly denied the claim that the office of Descano cited as the reason behind the plea agreement was the victim’s wish. She and her children were concerned for their safety, as this criminal was on the street.

These examples demonstrate that Descano’s office prioritises the freedom of violent illegal migrants over the safety and security of legal residents of his own community.

Descano’s records expose the Left’s backwards logic. Illegal immigrants already reside in our country illegally, and there is no legal process that requires them to assimilate. They should, in fact, be given a shorter leash by the law due to their illegal immigration status. In Steve Descano’s Fairfax County however, native Virginians are afraid for their safety as criminal illegal immigrants receive preferential treatment.

Descano’s actions have led to calls calling for a possible recall and a federal civil right complaint asking that the Justice Department investigate his office for the “preference for illegal immigrants over citizens born in the United States.”

Descano has repeatedly run for the office of commonwealth lawyer with funding from Hungarian billionaire George Soros. During Descano’s 2019 campaign in which he narrowly beat the incumbent, two thirds of the million-dollar warches came from Soros-funded groups: the Justice and Public Safety PAC and New Virginia Majority PAC.

Descano and Fairfax County sheriff Stacey Kincaid are scheduled to appear in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration Subcommittee, on May 15, 2015. The hearing will examine the role that Descano played in Stephanie Minter’s death.

The message on May 15 will be clear: Protecting illegal immigrants should not come before public safety.

Drew DiMeglio, a contributor to Restoration News and a student at Hampden-Sydney College (Virginia), where he is studying government and the President of College Republicans. This article has been republished by Restoration News with their permission.