Shutdowns left DHS officers unpaid while Fairfax kept releasing ICE targets

Many of the people who carry out federal immigration enforcement live in Northern Virginia. According to the House Judiciary Committee's Oct. 20 staff report, they went through the 2025 and 2026 shutdowns without paychecks.

The report says congressional Democrats "shut down the federal government for months in 2025 and 2026" to block the administration's enforcement agenda. It says the shutdowns left "many of the hardworking men and women of the Department of Homeland Security" both "unpaid and unable to fully carry out their mission to protect the homeland."

Meanwhile, according to the same report, the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office declined 705 ICE detainers in 2024 and at least 448 in 2025. The report cites former ICE officials who told the committee that ignored detainers force officers to make arrests out in the community rather than inside a jail, which it says endangers both the officers and the public.

The report does not give a count of unpaid DHS workers, and it does not break the figures out for Virginia. DHS employees who worked through the shutdowns can contact RVN.

RVN has asked Descano's office for comment. The report's claims are drawn from records the committee says it holds, which have not been made public.

Source: "Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies," interim staff report of the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, released Oct. 20, 2026. Read the report (PDF).

Fairfax County is a county in Northern Virginia. Its county seat is Fairfax, an independent city.