A controversial Virginia prosecutor apologized to the mother of a daughter slain by an illegal immigrant but still defended his county’s sanctuary policy during a contentious House hearing Thursday.
“I am deeply sorry for your loss, I say that not only as a prosecutor but as a parent of a daughter,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said to Cheryl Minter, mother of Stephanie Minter, during a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.
“I’m sorry for what you are having to endure and I promise that my office is doing everything we can to prosecute the man responsible,” Descano added.
Fairfax County law enforcement refused to honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer for Abdul Jalloh, who was released and allegedly killed Stephanie Minter at a local bus stop in February.
Jalloh, 32, is an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Jalloh in 2020.
“We do not have the budget or personnel to enforce federal civil immigration law, and it is simply not our job,” Descano said. “ … Our policy of not diverting our resources to federal immigration enforcement also makes our communities safer.”
TRENDING ARTICLES
Similarly, during the hearing, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid told the House panel, “My agency is not staffed for, budgeted for, or mandated to perform the duties of the federal government.”
However, Cheryl Minter called for Congress to take action, asserting the justice system failed her daughter.
“I should not have to carry this pain because of a preventable failure,” she said. “Stephanie deserved to come home that day. She deserved to watch her child grow. She deserved more time. I am asking you, please do not let her story be ignored. Do not let another family stand where I am standing. Make changes. Take responsibility, protect your community.”
The House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill in March to withhold federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, noted the killing of Minter wasn’t just a failure of law enforcement, but the result of an actual policy.
“Here’s the craziest part of all. Mr. Descano told us he was gonna do it,” Jordan said, and noted the office’s official policy was to “take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions.”
Descano later contested that Jordan was misrepresenting his position.
The chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., compared the sanctuary policies of 11 states to the Confederacy and the philosophy of former Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued that states should nullify federal laws.
“The doctrine of nullification, first proposed by John C. Calhoun, holds that local or state governments may simply ignore federal laws that they disagree with,” McClintock said. “This doctrine, fatal to a federal republic, was thought to have died with the Confederacy. These nullification or sanctuary jurisdictions are now extended to 11 states, coincidentally, the same number as the old Confederacy.”
Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE
Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.
The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.
In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.
TRENDING ARTICLES
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you.
RELATED ARTICLES
Don’t miss the
Don’t miss the signal
