The Justice Department previously notified Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano of a federal investigation into the Commonwealth's Attorney Plea Bargaining, Charging Decisions, and Sentencing Policy.
According to the press release, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is investigating whether the Office of the Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney has discriminated against U.S. citizens by offering preferential treatment only to illegal alien criminal defendants.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the OCR “will not allow local prosecutors to pick and choose winners based on their immigration status.”
Robert Knight is a columnist for the Washington Times.
"District Attorney Steve Descano, who was put into office with a lot of help from George Soros and other left-wing funders, has been openly discriminating against U.S. citizens by favoring illegal aliens, letting them off the hook for very serious crimes,” says Knight. “This has now engendered an investigation by the Justice Department as to whether he's violating the civil rights of regular Americans by favoring illegal immigrants over them.”
Knight says this would be clearly unconstitutional.
Last Thursday, Descano attended a hearing on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee, where he struggled against arguments regarding his office’s lenient treatment of illegal immigrants, reports the National Review.
Descano was questioned on a now-deleted statement on his website that said immigration consequences will be considered in prosecuting decisions. He claimed this was a campaign statement and not office policy, which he said has no preferential treatment.
He also stood by Fairfax’s “Trust Policy,” which allows illegal immigrants county benefits and services without fear of their information being sent to federal immigration officials.
Abdul Jalloh is one such illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone that has benefited from Descano’s preferential treatment to the detriment of U.S. citizens. He has had many charges including aggravated assault, malicious wounding and rape brought against him, but Descano’s office dropped over half of them.
Jalloh is now facing second-degree murder charges for allegedly stabbing Stephanie Minter earlier this year.
Cheryl Minter, Stephanie’s mother, spoke at the hearing and demanded accountability.
Knight believes this action against Descano is long overdue.
"This is so clearly wrong that, at last, the Justice Department has stepped in and said, ‘We're investigating them for violating civil rights’,” Knight says.
