Republicans GRILL Fairfax Prosecutor Steve Descano Over Sanctuary Policies – LIVE Hearing

[0:00] service they are always contact the federal agency or they call them to coordinate with them [0:07] all right welcome to virginia insider you're watching live coverage of the capitol hill [0:12] we're hearing steve descano fairfax county prosecutor source funded prosecutor steve [0:17] descano is being grilled by republican lawmakers on capitol hill right now he's uh sitting alongside [0:24] fairfax county sheriff stacy kincaid uh both are responsible for upholding fairfax county's [0:31] sanctuary city policies where we have seen uh at least 75 percent of the murders so far in 2026 [0:39] carried out by illegal criminal aliens in fairfax county so far in 2026. so uh we're going to be [0:48] listening in on this hearing we are um well into the hearing uh so welcome into virginia [0:53] insider live stream also on this uh hearing today is former attorney general jason miarez [0:58] and i'm going to bring up the audio of the list of the authorized compliance with ice detainers within [1:04] five days of a criminal alien's release from your custody based on the the judicial or the i'm [1:12] sorry the administrative warrant there is law that that allows for us to turn an individual over to [1:18] ice five days prior to when they are set to be released and ice does know that yeah and we do you [1:23] do okay is your office conducted an audit of what happens to individuals you've released [1:29] instead of honoring ice detainers or do you always honor the in terms of we we honor detain we honor [1:36] detainers it is when we are presented with a judicial warrant that we will continue to detain [1:41] somebody because it's authorized by a judge okay uh mr mayaris um can you give a high-level overview [1:50] the findings of your september 2025 investigation into fairfax county's fairfax county commonwealth's [1:57] attorney's office yes yes sir yeah we we conducted one and saw that uh in our opinion um mr descano [2:06] views himself more as a social worker than a prosecutor and that as a result he has systematic [2:11] failed uh the victims in fairfax county we talked to so many not just those and including the victims [2:18] that were uh immigrants but everyday citizens that had felt that the fairfax county commonwealth's [2:23] attorney's office had failed them okay could you respond or do you agree with everything sheriff can [2:28] gain i i do find it curious what we have is they keep trying to say uh they need a judicial warrant as [2:34] you know uh dhs and others said that that is not required in this case and what you've seen actually [2:41] in virginia disturbingly is that we we just had our current governor pass an executive order first one e01 [2:48] that banned cooperation with federal immigration authorities not just with the state police or [2:52] returning governor youngkin's policies but also the department of corrections in other words someone [2:57] that is a convicted felon in a virginia prison even then and so you're seeing a lot of bad policies from [3:03] fairfax being brought statewide okay uh that that's kind of shocking and i i guess if you'd elaborate on [3:11] it a little bit and what would happen in this country if uh or what effect that has on uh people who [3:18] are illegally and are illegally committing crimes we as a nation allow roughly 1 million legal [3:23] immigrants a year we are a good and decent and generous people that's who we are i'm the child [3:28] of an immigrant what americans do not like is be saying that they're being taken advantage of [3:33] during the biden administration between 8 to 10 million illegal immigrants came into this country [3:38] that is larger than the population of 32 u.s states that is not tenable people are not doing [3:45] it the right way we there is not a country on the planet that is generous with legal immigration as [3:50] we are it's not even close but what we don't appreciate right now are people that are cutting [3:54] in line and breaking our laws it's something we all learned in grade school we have too many policy [3:59] makers who decide that's okay and they shrug their shoulders they turn the blind eye in this case [4:04] steve descano deciding to adopt policies taking someone's illegal immigration status and under [4:11] prosecuting cases in which we're seeing the tragic results as we're seeing today gentlemen's time [4:16] is expired uh ms gammon thank you mr chairman um you know i i practiced alongside immigration [4:25] attorneys for a period of time before coming to congress so have a sense of just how broken our [4:31] immigration system is and how hard it is even for people who are trying to follow the rules to [4:36] actually follow the rules so um a lot of the conversation we have in congress seems to come from folks [4:42] who don't understand how the system is actually uh working or not working and if our republican [4:50] colleagues want to talk about who and what is making americans less safe today it's this white [4:56] house and it's chaos and it's reckless mass deportation agenda families and communities are being torn [5:04] apart citizens have been ripped from their homes with no warrants in cases of mistaken identity federal [5:11] agents have shot and killed americans in our streets for daring to question their unlawful tactics the [5:20] white house has prioritized meeting deportation quotas and in doing so has targeted all immigrants [5:27] including those who have followed our rules and who until this administration changed the rules those [5:35] folks were in our country legally but the majority of folks who have been detained by ice have no criminal [5:43] record here or in their home countries and that's according to the agency's own data while ice and cbp [5:50] claim to be folk claim to be focusing on the worst of the worst instead they've gone after toddlers with [5:57] spider-man backpacks parents taking their kids to school or to the hospital for cancer treatment [6:04] hard-working people showing up at work spouses of military veterans and active duty service members [6:12] and law-abiding people who are showing up for their interviews and court hearings as they are following [6:20] the rules to do what they need to do to become citizens or obtain other forms of legal status so [6:26] who does any of this make more safe aside from the trauma and the heartbreak that these policies [6:32] have inflicted on individual families and communities the damage to our economy is mounting by the day [6:41] that damage comes from companies rethinking their investments in the us because they see their [6:48] citizens their folks getting abused by our immigration agents tourists who've decided not to visit disney world [6:57] or celebrate our 250th anniversary or attend the world cup this year we've seen uh bookings from overseas are [7:06] down 20 to 30 percent across the country but we're particularly sensitive to it in philadelphia and [7:12] we're seeing physicians researchers and students from around the world who've been deterred from bringing their [7:19] talents and their um you know what they can bring to our country by additional visa fees and by the risks [7:28] of being targeted by misguided immigration agents so throughout our country's history immigrants have [7:34] been drawn here by the promise of america you know not to mention that they did the democrats are saying [7:41] not to come to the world cup because you may be obtained detained by ice they're the ones putting that [7:47] out there it's ridiculous fixing our outdated broken immigration system to make it better and more [7:53] efficient not undermining it or just trying to gut it entirely because failing to do that work is a [8:01] huge disservice to all of us and to the future success of our nation our republican colleagues have [8:08] tried to say this is about fighting crime but in pursuit of this administration's indiscriminate crackdown [8:14] they're diverting federal law enforcement prosecutors and resources away from serious threats [8:20] including child exploitation fentanyl trafficking domestic terrorism so um this is really misguided [8:28] it seems to be entirely about politics and not about actual safety um mr discano in the few seconds [8:36] we have left is there anything you would like to add because you seem like you've been a very [8:40] practical and engaged public servant well thank you congresswoman and there are i'd love to add first [8:46] of all let me be clear my policy that we're talking about was written with legal permanent residence [8:52] in mind for minor crimes it was based off of the padilla versus kentucky u.s supreme court case [8:58] that said it is a good idea for prosecutors and defense attorneys to take into account and to know [9:03] collateral immigration consequences the la the other thing i'd like to say is mr miyars and mr kennedy [9:09] they've never been in my office they've never seen the case files that i've seen they jumped to a [9:13] bunch of conclusions the gentleman's time has expired but i'll let you finish that sentence thank [9:20] you sir um they jumped to conclusions about case outcomes that we may not be thrilled about and give [9:26] it and ascribe reasons that simply aren't the reason i see mr honor thank you thank you mr chairman [9:32] mr discano in your written testimony you wrote the system failed ms winter do you consider yourself part of [9:40] that failure sir i do believe that the entire system did fail i will tell you that i wish that [9:47] there were things that we could have done and have to go forward with on you said that okay did the [9:52] police fail ms winter mentor no sir i think what the sheriff kincaid fail ms mentor no sir but i think [9:59] everyone failed ms mentor the the system failed the the amorphous system not you you a soft on crime [10:08] soros prosecutor not you who do not honor ice detainers neither of you believe in honor honoring [10:16] ice civil detainers no judicial detainers that in most cases are not even possible to obtain [10:23] ms mentor do you feel the system failed you and your daughter stephanie yeah do you feel ms winter that [10:33] and you can opine or not if you don't do you feel that mr discano's prosecutor's office [10:41] hears victims years victims takes victims into account and potential victims no because i think [10:54] based on the policies of fairfax county both the sheriff's office and the prosecutor's office what [11:01] happened to you and your family was entirely preventable i believe it was we have the when you [11:09] have the policy of not cooperating with ice by the way in violation of federal law these things are [11:17] going to happen people who should not have been in the united states of america at all criminal illegal [11:24] aliens in our solicitousness to appease the radical left base of the democrat party and their open borders [11:32] policies it's the policy we don't want to deport anyone mr descano even said it on his campaign [11:39] website well that's not really the policy of the fairfax county's county prosecutor's office okay [11:47] were you lying to the voters are you lying to us now he's referencing an earlier quote where [11:51] descano said that uh his policy on the campaign trail is not the same as it is when he's in office [11:56] his criminals the criminals that keep hurting our people should be out of here they need to be deported [12:08] and you know what i don't think it has to do with ice i think it has to do with having i mean we're [12:18] nowhere we're not a country without illegals coming in without and without people coming in from the [12:25] other country that's what our country is built on there is no such thing as a sovereign nation without [12:30] secure borders well thank you that's cheryl mentor mother of stephanie mentor who was killed at a fairfax [12:37] county buzzed up on february 23rd oh the system failed you miss mentor but it's another thing to [12:44] do something about it especially when the radical base of your party doesn't want you to do anything [12:50] about it and i think we know the two elected officials to your left today we know where they [12:56] sided we know did they side with victims or did they side with their radical left open borders base i [13:03] think we know the answer to that um miss mr beer buyer um you you kind of implied in that somehow [13:12] because the united states is is so dysfunctional regarding legal immigration that that somehow [13:20] encourages illegal immigration in some way i may may believe believe that but i want to i want to i want [13:28] to just want to give you some numbers you know in in 2024 the united states admit it gave 1.36 million [13:36] uh million um you know foreign nationals uh green cards uh 226 000 family-sponsored visas 150 000 [13:48] employment-based visas 52 000 diversity uh legal lottery uh visas in early 26 there was an asylum backlog of [13:58] 3.5 million cases um mid-2025 temporary protected status backlog 1.2 million cases um mr maires said [14:10] said and i think i got this right there's no country on this planet that's more generous [14:15] uh to legal immigrants than the united states of america if the numbers i read to you mr buyer are not [14:22] enough what is the right number because roughly roughly a billion people on this planet live on two [14:27] dollars or less per day and i imagine quite a few of them would like to immigrate to the united [14:33] states what is that number is is there a number or should they all all billion be able to immigrate [14:39] into the united states legally or illegally well the united states ranks in the bottom expired mr beer [14:45] i'll give you a few seconds to respond the united states ranks the bottom third of wealthy countries [14:49] for its foreign-born share of the population for the rate at which it admits people we're a very large [14:54] country we have 338 million people in here so one million people is a third of a percent of the [14:59] population that's half of what it was in the early 20th century and we survived that and thrived as a [15:04] result of it so yes we can allow more legal immigration to the united states we should have [15:10] processes that are fair that allow people an opportunity to come and protect our rights as [15:15] americans to associate and contract thank you mr chairman people born in other countries [15:19] in the case of mr rodriguez whose charges you dropped in the case of the four-year-old who's [15:48] attacked in her own bedroom uh i understand he was later taken into custody by ice and deported i'm [15:53] just curious did you notify ice of that release so that they could deport him or was it the little [15:58] girl's mother who had to call ice to get him out of your community sir we did not we did not uh cause [16:05] the mother had to call to get him out of your community mr mayoris we keep hearing from sheriff [16:12] kinkade among others and that they'd be happy to respond to a federal judicial warrant to honor a detainer [16:17] request well is a federal judicial warrant possible to obtain an estate crime no it's not and they know [16:23] this and if deportation is a civil matter how does one get a federal judicial warrant you can again they [16:29] know this so they're basically lying to the public they're they're counting on the public not [16:35] understanding what they're asking for is legally impossible it's legally impossible yes mr chair um [16:43] mr kennedy do you find it odd that the democrats are blaming ice for not deporting uh this particular [16:50] suspect who's accused of murdering of stephanie minter um and yet at the same time they refuse to [16:59] notify ice so they can deport such suspects and they refuse to fund ice so that they can deport such [17:05] suspects i do find it odd but i'm actually going to extend agreement to the democratic side because i believe [17:13] that mr jollo should never have been deported whatsoever he should have spent the rest of [17:19] his natural life before stephanie minner's death in the virginia department of corrections and short of [17:24] that he should have been deported to sierra leone after he served his sentence none of that came about [17:29] he was never sent to prison mr descano said that he was obtained a sentence for him for multiple years he [17:37] never left fairfax county he never was sentenced to prison he spent time in the jail and was released [17:44] because of good time credits mr jollo should have spent the rest of his life in prison and then been [17:48] deported should have to go on we keep hearing these sanctuary policies enhance public safety what have [17:54] your studies shown that these aren't the same thing that every single person who is injured or is a [18:02] victim of a property crime a person crime let alone a homicide was a completely preventable homicide [18:07] was a completely preventable crime and so these are all excess things that didn't have to happen [18:13] and when it comes to repeat offenders i identify my testimony 25 incidents 25 and half of them are [18:20] unknown to the rest of the public we're escalating violence occurred escalating that's including [18:25] three out of seven homicides in fairfax county uh the center for immigration studies looked at the [18:31] escape documentation from states seeking reimbursement for illegal aliens held in their state prisons [18:37] they found that illegal aliens are typically at least three times as likely to be incarcerated than [18:42] citizens or lawfully present uh aliens uh mr mayoris um democrats say this is all necessary to get [18:50] illegal immigrants to report crimes but in fact if an alien is the witness to or victim of a crime [18:57] don't they qualify for a uv to remain in this country under current law well i don't think it builds [19:03] community trust either when you see a catch and release program being instituted by this commonwealth [19:08] attorney's office that does not build trust for you to come forward to testify someone's not going [19:12] to report a crime if they knew that criminal is going to be back on the streets later that afternoon [19:17] to take vengeance that is correct and so what you have seen is a revolving door every policy mr [19:24] descano advocates for policies he supported in the general assembly is to allow a revolving door [19:30] for changing our bond policies in virginia and his own personal policies that they have in virginia [19:35] is to release criminals back into the community time and time again and we know from his official [19:41] policy that he takes takes uh in factor their immigration status as well and ironically when [19:46] these criminals are released back into the community they tend to prey on uh the illegal immigrant [19:52] community where they've come from do they not no question that we we had uh just a case recently [19:58] where a legal immigrant from bangladesh had her head bashed in by an illegal haitian national [20:04] with a long rap sheet had been allowed to remain in this country uh under the tps program uh you [20:10] mentioned um uh that governor spanberger is expected to sign legislation that would forbid cooperation with [20:16] ice i assume that would forbid notifying ice uh if and when stephanie minters killer is released [20:21] correct correct he will be presumably uh uh in the virginia department of corrections and under a [20:27] current executive order as we noted there's a there's no requirement of a judicial warrant they [20:33] won't notify ice and so despite all of her public pronouncements yes miss minter um sheriff kinkade [20:40] said that she didn't have in her budget to make a phone call to ice uh to uh to uh honor a detainer [20:47] does that make you feel more safe what's your response to sheriff kinkade i think i'm just [20:56] gonna start keeping a listing calling ice myself might be my time's expired mr chairman i have a [21:04] few more unanimous consent requests go ahead uh ask unanimous consent to enter to the record cato [21:10] institute mr beer's policy analysis titled immigrants cut victimization rates and boost crime reporting [21:17] yes we've seen it without rejection another one that is titled family says virginia domestic violence [21:24] victim didn't seek help due to immigration fears and another one entitled she testified about being raped [21:32] then ice showed up from the atlantic without objection thank you mr chairman and if there's [21:39] no further business to be brought before the committee i want to thank our witnesses for appearing [21:44] before the subcommittee today without objection all members will have five legislative days to submit [21:49] additional written questions for the witnesses or additional materials for the record and without [21:55] objection the hearing is adjourned all right so that was uh the tail end of the hearing today just to [22:02] recap steve descano fairfax county soros back prosecutor was on capitol hill being grilled by republicans [22:11] in congress and we caught the last 20 minutes or so of that meeting i'm gonna let the uh video refresh [22:19] here i'm gonna go back and watch the first half of the meeting so uh the hearing i should say so thank you all [22:26] for coming on i'm gonna keep the live stream going uh if you are new to the channel this is virginia [22:31] insider where we bring you the news and information you need to take back your commonwealth and to [22:36] connect with your community please like this video share it hit that bell notification and subscribe [22:42] button so you know when we share news about virginia my name is uriah kaiser and i'm the founder of [22:48] this channel i've been with you uh for many months now as we go through what's been happening with the [22:53] this this soros back prosecutor in fairfax county who continually lets out illegal immigrants releases [23:02] them it's a sort of a catch and release thing is what he's got going on up there uh and he really [23:07] he and fairfax county sheriff stacy kincaid are the architects of virginia's soft on crime sanctuary city [23:14] policies and what you heard if you were listening that last half of that hearing um jason miara is [23:21] former attorney general who served under glenn youngkin as governor uh basically said look this [23:27] is what spanberger based her policy off of in the operation in fairfax county when she came into [23:33] office in january and the first executive order she signed was to stop ice from working with state and [23:42] local law enforcement to essentially arrest and detain and deport illegal criminal aliens that are [23:50] murdering and raping virginians u.s citizens stephanie mentor the 41 year old mother who was killed [23:58] at a virginia bus stop in fairfax county uh was her mother was there cheryl mentor uh you heard her [24:06] uh say that uh mcclintock there asked her you know with the scando not working with ice not and stacy [24:15] kincaid the sheriff in fairfax county not calling ice to remove giallo the illegal criminal alien that [24:22] killed her daughter who had been known to police since since a very long time he's had a rap sheet [24:31] of 40 charges and 30 different incidents came to the united states in illegally from sierra leone in 2012 [24:41] and just after just following the death of stephanie mentor at that fairfax county bus stop wjla tv in [24:48] washington dc published emails from fairfax county police begging steve descano is there anything we [24:56] can do to keep giallo from going back onto the streets because if he does something horrible is going to [25:03] happen this is a guy that had been in federal uh federal prison for 740 days until a leftist woke [25:12] immigration judge decided that he should walk he should get out he was then released and ex what [25:20] happened with the police the worst fear for the police it's exactly what happened jollo walked free [25:25] and killed 41 year old stephanie mentor mentor leaves behind a child who is now being presumably raised [25:34] by cheryl mentor the child's grandmother so um i'm gonna refresh the the page here i'm gonna go back [25:41] and see if we can uh start this hearing back over again i'm i'm taking your comments i'm reading the [25:46] comments and uh appreciate your comments and your support here uh i'm gonna go back and if if this [25:53] will restart i'm gonna share the screen and see the just take it back because i do want to hear the [26:02] entire um the entire um the entire beginning of this so we have a full context of what's going on here [26:09] but again uh so respect prosecutor steve descano and um leftist sheriff stacy kincaid appeared and were [26:19] grilled by congress today on capitol hill for their for fairfax county's leftist policies and then uh you [26:29] heard the uh representative from uh washington state continually entering in leftist written [26:37] articles about how sanctuary city policies actually keep us safe and how somebody reported they were [26:44] raped but then were then detained by ice and how awful ice is and and and how the rule of law obviously [26:51] doesn't it only benefits whatever it's ridiculous it it absolutely ridiculous you had nothing other than [26:58] and entering something in from the atlantic well gosh if the atlantic writes it then you know it must [27:04] be true i mean when's the last time you picked up a copy of the atlantic magazine and you weren't [27:10] scrambling for something to read on a flight maybe in the back of your chair or in a doctor's office i [27:16] don't know when's the last time you did that all right you could bring pull back up the video here [27:22] and we will go from there illegal aliens who are already in their custody to federal authorities for [27:36] deportation or at the very least notify federal authorities about a criminal's release instead [27:42] these jurisdictions release these criminals back into our communities often with devastating [27:48] consequences the doctrine of nullification first propounded by john c calhoun holds that local or [27:56] state governments may simply ignore federal laws that they disagree with this doctrine fatal to a federal [28:02] republic was thought to have died with the confederacy these nullification or sanctuary [28:08] jurisdictions now extend to 11 states coincidentally the same number as the old confederacy fairfax [28:14] county has become an epicenter of this movement his commonwealth's attorney boasted that he quote [28:20] will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences [28:25] he wrote quote if two people commit the same crime but only one's punishment includes deportation [28:32] that's a perversion of justice end quote thus an illegal alien would be charged with a lesser crime [28:38] than an american citizen in order to protect that illegal alien from deportation that is the true [28:45] perversion of equal justice under law and is now prompted an investigation by the civil rights division [28:51] of the department of justice fairfax county sheriff takes a similar position that her office quote will [28:58] not detain an individual based on an informal request or detainer instead of safely allowing ice to return [29:05] that criminal to his own country as federal law requires she prefers to release him back onto her [29:11] community's streets ironically both claim this is to foster trust between residents and law enforcement [29:18] this begs the obvious question and residents trust law enforcement to protect them and their families [29:25] a long list of violent crimes perpetrated by criminal illegal aliens that these officials had in their [29:31] custody and refused to prosecute and refused to remove from their communities answers this question with [29:38] poignancy the most recent case is the tragic and entirely preventable murder of stephanie mentor the [29:44] young lady stabbed to death as she waited for a bus her accused murderer is abdul jolla illegally present [29:51] in the united states since 2022 jollo's criminal history has included trespass disorderly conduct [29:58] drug possession theft larceny and repeated arrest for malicious wounding between january of 2023 and [30:06] february of 2026 he had been arrested at least 18 times commonwealth's attorney descano dismissed almost [30:14] all of these charges at least once sheriff kincaid instead of informing ice that she was in custody so [30:21] that he could be deported and despite a detainer request from dhs to do so deliberately released him back [30:28] onto fairfax county streets last year the fairfax county police department became so alarmed at [30:35] these decisions that they took the extraordinary step of warning desconzo that jola had quote stabbed [30:41] multiple people sexually assaulted at least one woman and committed numerous other criminal offenses [30:48] the police then issued this grim prophecy it is not a question of if but rather when he will [30:56] maliciously wound or worse again well the wind came on february 23rd that's the day this monster is [31:06] accused of hacking stephanie minter to death she was 41 years old she leaves behind a grieving family [31:13] now sheriff kincaid says she doesn't have the budget to call ice to pick up such criminals before she [31:19] releases them back onto the streets that begs the question how much does a phone call to ice cost and what [31:27] was the cost of the midter family of not making that call nor is this an isolated incident there's [31:36] a growing list of other criminal illegal aliens whose these authorities had in custody and released [31:41] back onto the streets instead of making a simple phone call to ice to pick this person up it includes [31:48] illegal aliens who had their charges reduced or even dropped altogether despite crimes ranging from [31:54] child sex offenses to murder of the seven homicides in fairfax county last year three were committed by [32:01] illegal aliens who could have been deported before they committed these crimes mr descansos empty claim [32:08] to be the safest city of its size and the country rings hollow against this reality justice stephanie [32:15] minter's murder wasn't an isolated event in fairfax county neither is fairfax county an isolated example in [32:22] our country this utter dereliction of duty is rampant across jurisdictions of democrats control including [32:29] my state of california where the tulare sheriff recently testified that fully half of the crimes [32:35] he's dealing with involve illegal aliens yet state law forbids him from cooperating with ice because [32:41] the democrats don't want to enforce our immigration laws even against criminals in custody most americans [32:48] these policies seem reckless dangerous crazy wanton and cruel today this subcommittee seeks to [32:58] understand how elected officials entrusted with the sacred responsibility to protect innocent and law [33:03] abiding residents would deliberately act in this manner you'll soon hear their rationale we hear from [33:11] witnesses the democrats have chosen in support of these policies we'll also hear from the former attorney [33:17] general of virginia and the president of virginians for safe communities who take a very different view [33:24] and finally we'll hear from stephanie's mother who has bravely come here today to provide a victim [33:29] statement of the toll these policies have taken on her family and who offers a grim warning to all [33:35] americans what could happen to them at any time where these dangerous policies are practiced i look forward [33:41] to hearing from our witnesses and i now yield to the ranking member for her opening statement thank you so [33:47] much mr chairman and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today i want to start by offering my [33:53] deepest condolences to you mrs mittner uh as a mother myself i just cannot imagine the pain that you are [34:00] experiencing and losing your daughter far far far too soon i'm sorry for your loss um i also understand [34:08] that we're joined by uh people from the fairfax community today and i want to welcome you if you're [34:14] willing would you please stand up if you're from fairfax county wow a lot of you and please remain [34:22] standing if you support immigrants and support policies that make sure that everyone feels safe [34:27] in calling 911 i want to note for the record that everyone has remained standing and it looks to be a [34:34] crowd of over 50 people so thank you so much for for being here um you may be seated this hearing is [34:41] unfortunately another in a series of hearings that the majority has held that consistently attack trust [34:46] policies that have upheld the necessary and important division between the enforcement of federal [34:53] civil immigration law and the enforcement of local criminal laws this division has proven over and [34:59] over again in documented research to be essential in keeping all communities safe and ensuring that [35:05] people come forward to report crimes immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and last year [35:12] republicans gave the department of homeland security over 170 billion dollars in their big bad betrayal bill [35:19] to meet the arbitrary immigrant arrest quotas of stephen miller and to carry out donald trump's cruel [35:26] mass deportation agenda using this funding ice doubled in size dhs officers killed two u.s citizens in cold blood in [35:36] minnesota beat and detained countless u.s citizens for exercising their first amendment rights and broke [35:43] down doors of u.s citizens without a warrant in violation of the fourth amendment we know of at least [35:49] one u.s citizen who has been arrested by ice three times despite repeatedly informing agents that he is a [35:57] u.s citizen another 18 year old u.s citizen with terminal cancer spent the last weeks of his life begging [36:03] ice to release his parents so that he could see them before he died they reunited one day before he [36:10] died and that is just what they've done to americans ice is also subjecting hundreds of parents and [36:17] children to months in immigration prisons conducted senseless deportations of military veterans separated [36:24] families massively increased immigration detention resulting in a record 48 deaths in ice detention just [36:33] since president trump took office a recent political analysis revealed that judges have ruled [36:39] in at least 10 000 cases that the detention was illegal with no due process no opportunity for detainees to [36:48] plead their cases 10 000 people including a nursing mother who was separated from her one-year-old child [36:56] despite active legal refugee status and a five-year-old boy detained by ice on his way home from school more [37:04] than 425 judges have heard cases and reached the same conclusions about the illegality of donald trump's [37:13] mass detention policies including by the way a majority of trump appointed judges three circuit courts have [37:20] also now ruled the policy illegal the impact of these illegal policies is not just being felt by immigrants [37:27] it's ripping apart entire communities across the country creating fear and terror and also negatively [37:35] impacting opportunities for all americans a new study by the national bureau of economic research [37:41] just concluded that trump's immigration raids are now even weighing on the labor market leading to fewer [37:48] jobs for u.s born men without a college degree despite all of this republicans have refused to stop these [37:56] illegal unconstitutional and cruel policies they have refused to address the fact that while their [38:02] anti-immigrant strategies may have worked before they don't work anymore today more than 60 percent of [38:09] americans disapprove of trump's immigration policies americans want trump and republicans to focus [38:16] on lowering their gas prices lowering their grocery costs they want republicans to stop tax breaks to [38:23] billionaires while stripping health care from tens of millions of americans but donald trump said it [38:29] himself just a few days ago in his own words trump said quote i don't think about the financial situation [38:35] of americans really that is exactly why republicans are now planning to give ice and border patrol an [38:43] additional 70 billion dollars with no oversight or accountability and yet having a hearing this [38:49] morning to complain that fairfax county will not do ice's job for them give me a break dhs has plenty of [38:57] money to hire all the new immigration enforcement agents they want they don't need to commandeer the [39:03] local police officers who are hard at work maintaining fairfax's status as the safest county of its size in [39:10] the united states so local police shouldn't work with federal police it's not a team sport it's [39:17] it's us versus them this is the way the democrats set this up and the jail policies and i don't know [39:23] about you but i voted for trump because he said he would take illegal criminal aliens off the street [39:29] so i don't know where this is coming from i think in 2024 we were winning and and hopefully we're [39:34] going to continue to win here immigration enforcement on behalf of the federal government numerous [39:39] court orders have declared immigration detainers unlawful violations of the fourth amendment and [39:45] state and local officials don't want to spend huge amounts of money on court cases state constitutions [39:50] often contain prohibitions and local police departments want to prioritize their already [39:55] scarce resources to encourage the trust of people to come forward and report crimes without worrying [40:02] about their own immigration status the major cities chiefs association has repeatedly reaffirmed [40:08] that cooperation with the immigration immigrant community is essential to solve crime and prevent [40:15] further criminal activity within the entire community including ensuring protections for victims [40:21] of domestic violence and sexual assault in 2019 my home state of washington passed the bipartisan [40:28] keep washington working act for all these reasons as have many states across the country courts have [40:34] ruled multiple times that states have the right to enact laws like the keep washington working act [40:40] these laws do allow information sharing with the federal government when necessary for an ongoing [40:46] criminal investigation or pursuant to a court order or judicial warrant this committee should be holding [40:54] hearings on the unconstitutionality of these this administration's policies on the killing of american [41:01] citizens by ice and cbp but instead we're doing yet another hearing designed to further this [41:08] administration's anti-immigrant agenda and distract people from the real issues at hand the american [41:15] people deserve better i look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today and i yield back thank [41:21] you i now recognize the chairman of the full judiciary committee mr jordan for his opening statement thank [41:26] you mr chairman first they let in 10 million illegal migrants during the biden administration [41:31] second step create sanctuary jurisdictions which makes it tough to remove those illegal migrants [41:37] even when they commit another crime and then third the democrats say we're not going to fund the [41:42] guys to do the removing we're not going to fund ice they shut down the government for 70 some days [41:46] and understand this sanctuary jurisdiction policy in simple terms is politicians tell local law [41:54] enforcement don't work with federal law enforcement when it comes to enforcing federal law and that is the [42:01] situation in 18 states 11 cities actually the other way around 18 cities 11 states three counties and [42:07] the district of columbia but because those are big cities big states that's almost a third of the [42:12] population lives in a jurisdiction where again local law enforcement is not allowed to work with federal [42:19] law enforcement to enforce federal law let in 10 million create sanctuary jurisdiction so it's tough to [42:26] remove them even when they commit a crime defund ice but mr descano takes it even a step further [42:34] he takes it a step further and says i'm not even going to prosecute the guys who do terrible things i'm [42:41] not going to prosecute them we're not going to honor detainers we're going to let them out on the street [42:45] and of course what happens when you do that miss minner is going to talk about that in a few minutes [42:52] that's what happens take the example take another example marvin morales ortiz had this long rap sheet [42:58] but on september 12 2025 he's arrested for malicious assault and brandishing a gun mr descano says we're [43:06] not going to prosecute this guy sheriff kincaid says we're not going to honor the detainer and they [43:13] release him on december 16th 2025 and what happens on december 17th 2025 he kills someone that's the [43:22] consequences of this dumb stupid crazy policy and again miss minner is going to talk about stephanie [43:32] minner the chairman talked about abdul jala who had this 40 past charges at all kinds of things [43:37] this guy had been arrested and charged with multiple crimes malicious wounding stealing property [43:43] larceny trespass disorderly conduct malicious wounding 100 involvements with the local police [43:48] and as the chairman pointed out the local law enforcement told mr descano's office if you let [43:54] this guy out he's going to do something bad it's going to be bad and sure enough they were right and [44:02] he stabbed and killed someone that's the consequence now here's the craziest part of all here's the [44:07] craziest part of all and the chairman mentioned this mr descano told us he was going to do it he [44:12] told us he was going to do this statement i think the chairman read mr descano's office will take [44:19] immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions excuse me this is [44:27] unbelievable so i want to thank the chairman the democrats can say all they want it well why are we [44:30] have another hero we're having a hero on this because this is the dumbest thing we've ever heard [44:33] so i want to thank the chairman for this hearing and i want to thank him for the legislation that [44:38] he sponsored this committee has already passed sanctuary jurisdiction shutdown act of 2026 and [44:44] hopefully that's going to be passed in the full house soon love to get that into law so we can stop [44:49] what's going on in fairfax county with that i yield back thank you i now recognize the ranking [44:55] member of the full committee mr raskin for his opening statement thank you very much mr chairman uh welcome [45:01] to all of our witnesses i would especially like to thank ms minter for coming today there's no [45:07] greater pain than the pain of losing your child and so i thank you for having the strength um and the [45:14] courage to speak publicly and to appear before us about um all of these matters today i also want to thank [45:20] the uh busy public officials from virginia uh sheriff kincaid and commonwealth attorney descano we know uh how [45:28] busy your schedules are and we thank you for coming to be part of this uh process uh i have family in [45:36] virginia not everybody in my family is in maryland i once spent a summer in richmond virginia uh and i [45:43] feel somehow like i'm back in virginia with all these great virginians here uh and we're on a mission of [45:50] analyzing virginia law and public policy today this hearing would probably be better taking place in [45:57] richmond before the general assembly because we're doing a deep dive into the prosecutorial and jail [46:04] policy decisions of one county fairfax yeah well good luck with the super majority of democrats richmond [46:09] i noted by the major cities here this chief's association is the safest county of its size in [46:16] the entire united states of america so its people its elected officials certainly do not deserve the contempt [46:23] in the derision of this committee uh if we were going to super intend and scrutinize the actions [46:31] taking place within the government of virginia perhaps we should be looking at the recent decision [46:36] by the virginia state supreme court to overturn the express will of the people of virginia in [46:42] redistricting their congressional overturn mob rules but that investigation into an episode of extreme [46:49] judicial activism might not suit the ideological purposes of the majority quite so much the ranking [46:57] member has done an excellent job of providing an overview of the problems and limitations with the [47:04] particular conception of this hearing what we have on one side is a massively funded federal bureaucracy [47:12] which just got 175 billion dollars last year accomplished by slashing funds for medicaid [47:20] children's health insurance rural hospitals and so on uh dhs now has a quarter of a million employees [47:29] in a budget larger than that of 150 countries on earth it has over 80 000 sworn officers more than the [47:40] number of police officers check this out in new york city chicago los angeles houston washington dc [47:47] las vegas and dallas combined and yet despite this massive bureaucracy and this awesome budget the [47:59] administration is trying to blame the problems in immigration law and policy over which the people of [48:09] fairfax county have no control other than as citizens voting for representatives in congress [48:16] um trying to blame these local jurisdictions like the sheriff's office whose annual budget is not 175 [48:26] billion dollars but if the internet is correct i just looked it up is 85 million dollars which is [48:33] much less than one thousandth of the homeland security budget and yet the federal government or congress [48:42] rather than actually engaging in the process of studying and passing comprehensive immigration [48:50] reform prefers to bully and scapegoat local jurisdictions which are trying to deal with the failures [48:59] of federal policy look ice and the department of homeland security have a job to do and they should [49:05] do it and they should do it without violating the law they should do it without violating the constitution [49:10] they should do it without killing u.s citizens like renee good and alex preddy but they have a job to do [49:17] and the government of fairfax county has a job to do and these public officials have the job [49:23] of enforcing the criminal laws of virginia as chosen by the people of virginia within all of [49:30] the constraints of state and federal law now as i understand it and this is what i'm interested in because [49:37] i'm not familiar all right for those just coming in live here on virginia insider we are watching a recap [49:42] of the first part of the hearing today on capitol hill fairfax county prosecutor steve descano one of [49:49] those woke prosecutors in all of the u.s was grilled by republicans this morning on capitol hill also [49:56] appearing with him as fairfax county sheriff stacy kincaid both called to capitol hill to defend their [50:02] sanctuary city policies that governor evangile spanberger queen affordability has based her [50:08] anti-ice anti-immigration anti-safe streets anti-everything working keeping virginia safe [50:15] her first executive order based on descano and kincaid's policies in fairfax county just listen in [50:23] um but fairfax county as i understand it takes the position it cannot hold prisoners beyond the length and [50:32] duration of their lawful sentence and i want to hear about that but i'm curious why can ice not [50:40] pick up with its massive resources why can they not pick up the prisoners while they are still being [50:46] held or right before they're about to be released or at the point of discharge because governor [50:54] abigail spanberger stopped them from calling and working with local law enforcement mr raskin i don't know [51:00] if you remember that but that was her first executive order in terms of the specific terrible case we're [51:06] going to talk about today we're going to hear about this uh abdul jalo the sierra leone national who's [51:16] accused of brutally murdering ms minter's daughter stephanie um he was actually in ice custody from 2018 [51:27] through 2019 during the first trump administration before they released him back into the public before [51:34] he was released by a federal immigration judge not the trump administration why was he not removed back [51:41] to sierra leone when the trump administration held him in 2018 in 2019 that is a critical question [51:51] uh that i have um in terms of trying to define responsibility if all of this is just uh a blame game [52:01] that we're engaged in it would be far more meaningful for us to be talking about comprehensive immigration [52:08] reform i think that's what americans and virginians are looking to congress for not to be scrutinizing [52:17] and uh demonizing particular cities or counties around the country which does not strike me as a [52:25] very productive exercise nonetheless i'm delighted to hear from all of our witnesses here and i yield [52:31] back to you mr chairman thank you without objection all other opening statements will be included in the [52:38] record and we'll now hear from today's witnesses we have with us today ms cheryl minter she's a lifelong [52:45] virginia resident she's the mother of stephanie minter the young woman who is victimized by these [52:49] sanctuary policies we have with us the honorable stacy kincaid who serves as sheriff for fairfax county [52:56] virginia she has 35 years of experience working for the fairfax county sheriff's office a graduate of [53:02] langley high school in mclean virginia sheriff kincaid received her bachelor's degree in political [53:07] science and criminal justice from the rossberg state university in 1987 we have the honorable stephen [53:14] descano who serves as a commonwealth's attorney for fairfax county virginia he's served in this [53:19] role since january of 2020 mr descano earned his undergraduate degree from west point and his jd [53:25] from temple university mr sean kennedy is president of virginians for safe communities of public safety [53:32] and victims rights advocacy non-profit and sits on the fairfax county criminal justice advisory board as an [53:38] appointee of the fairfax county board of supervisors he's a graduate of the university of california [53:43] at berkeley and earned a master's degree in history from the university of cambridge [53:49] professor jane stover is a professor at the university of california irvine school of law [53:55] where she directs the domestic violence clinic and the uci initiative to end family violence [54:00] professor stover earned a bachelor's degree in english from the university of kansas in 2000 [54:06] she completed her jd at harvard in 2003 and earned an llm from georgetown university in 2008. mr [54:14] david beer is the director of immigration studies at the cato institute he has a ba in political [54:20] science from grove city college in pennsylvania we have with us the honorable jason mayores who served [54:27] as virginia attorney general from 2021 to 2025 and previously served in the house of delegates he [54:33] earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from james madison university in 1998 and earned his [54:39] jd from the college of william and mary in 2005. i want to welcome all of today's witnesses thank them [54:45] for appearing and we'll begin by swearing you in would you please rise and raise your right hand [54:54] all right so we've already seen the democrats kind of deflect on this and blame ice for not doing their [55:00] job prior to whenever before something bad happens and again you have to remember that this is [55:08] what spanberger wanted base again she based her policy her anti-ice anti-safety chaos across virginia [55:19] her policy to stop working with federal officials to keep virginians safe on descano and kincaid's [55:25] policies here good morning chairman mcclintock ranking member jpl and distinguished members of the subcommittee [55:32] thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today my name is stacy anne kincaid and i am the [55:37] sheriff of fairfax county virginia i was sworn in as a deputy sheriff in 1987 and i worked my way [55:44] through the ranks of my agency serving in every division with distinction after achieving the rank [55:50] of captain i ran for sheriff in 2013 and have since been re-elected three times with overwhelming [55:56] majorities as sheriff it's been an honor to serve fairfax county the safety and security of fairfax county [56:02] has been my absolute priority for the past 38 years i entered law enforcement to save to serve [56:09] my community and to help protect the vulnerable i believe all those that commit crimes should be [56:14] held accountable and i sympathize with all victims of crimes i am proud of the role my agency plays in [56:21] the fairfax county criminal justice system by ensuring the safe and orderly administration of justice [56:27] simply put the justice system comes to a halt without fairfax county sheriff's office we are [56:34] tasked with serving every document issued by our court system including protective orders and subpoenas [56:39] we are responsible for providing security to a courthouse and ensuring the safety of hundreds [56:44] of thousands of courthouse visitors every year including judges victims and witnesses we operate a [56:51] secure and humane adult detention center and we hold certifications from the american correctional [56:56] association the virginia law enforcement professional standards commission the virginia department of [57:02] corrections and the national commission on correctional health care in addition to our [57:06] accreditation i am proud of the groundbreaking nationally recognized programs that run daily in my jail [57:12] these efforts are critical to reducing recidivism and making our community safer the functions of my [57:18] agency are carried out daily to ensure the safe and orderly administration of justice in fairfax county [57:24] my agency is not staffed for budgeted for or mandated to reform the duties of the federal government [57:31] my operating budget is approved by state and local government and is allotted specifically [57:35] to carry out state and local mandated functions maintaining a safe and secure detention center [57:41] serving the civil process and ensuring the safety of the courthouse it is simply not the job of [57:46] the fairfax county sheriff's office to engage in federal immigration enforcement despite this we work [57:52] with ice in significant ways we treat them like every other law enforcement agency we interact with [57:59] they are allowed into our facility at any time they are notified of every undocumented immigrant [58:04] booked into our jail and they know their location if there is an individual they want to take custody of [58:10] they can do so by obtaining a judicial warrant calling to ask when the individual will be released [58:16] tracking the individual's court date or taking custody of the individual up to five days prior to their release [58:23] when ice does call we even coordinate high-risk transfers with ice to ensure their safety [58:27] we have no problem with ice conducting its lawful business but it is their business to conduct [58:33] not ours fairfax county is one of the top 50 most diverse counties in the entire nation [58:39] over 30 percent of fairfax county's population is foreign-born and over 40 percent speaks the [58:44] language other than english at home i am the share for each one of these residents of fairfax county [58:49] no matter their national origin native language and citizenship status ensuring trust between the [58:55] community and my agency is a key component of effective law enforcement to encourage all victims [59:01] to put their faith in law enforcement and report crimes a clear separation between local law enforcement [59:07] and federal immigration authorities is of vital importance local law enforcement must offer a safe place [59:13] for victims and witnesses to cooperate without fear of consequences this is the only way to hold [59:18] violators accountable of the law any violent crime or a crime against children is a tragedy unfortunately [59:25] we live in a time when such tragedies are used for political gain it is easy to point fingers at a [59:30] time of sadness and crisis and to look for blame for a terrible outcome even when everyone in the criminal [59:36] justice system does their job terrible people will do terrible things we are doing our job by following [59:42] the law and will continue to do so hopefully the other agencies involved will do their jobs as well [59:48] i look forward to continuing this conversation with anyone who wishes to find real solutions [59:54] devoid of politics thank you thank you for your testimony mr descano chairman mcclintock ranking [1:00:02] member jayapal chairman jordan ranking member raskin and distinguished members of this subcommittee [1:00:07] as a west point graduate federal prosecutor now the commonwealth's attorney for fairfax county [1:00:12] virginia i've devoted my life to public service and public safety i was the first in my family to [1:00:19] graduate from college i was inspired by west point's credo of providing a lifetime of selfless service to [1:00:25] the nation i was first elected as commonwealth's attorney in 2019 on a promise to adopt smart on crime [1:00:31] policies that prioritize the prosecution of violent crime i'm proud of what we have accomplished [1:00:37] fairfax county is one of the safest large communities anywhere in the country the public [1:00:42] safety of fairfax county motivates all my work our office has successfully prosecuted thousands of [1:00:48] cases including high profile murders sexual assaults and other serious offenses we've worked with our [1:00:54] law enforcement partners to more effectively prosecute gun crimes we expanded a diversion program [1:00:59] for struggling veterans and we spearheaded bipartisan statewide reforms to better protect child [1:01:04] victims and witnesses in partnership with a republican governor even in safe communities though crime [1:01:10] does happen like the tragic murder of stephanie minter whose mother cheryl is here today miss minter [1:01:17] i am deeply sorry for your loss and i say that not only as a prosecutor but as a parent of a daughter [1:01:24] i am sorry for what you are having to endure and i promise that my office is doing everything we can [1:01:30] to prosecute the man responsible except keeping in jail i've been asked to testify today about my office's [1:01:40] policies i welcome any conversation about how to reduce and prevent violence unfortunately i expect [1:01:48] some will instead promote a false narrative that gets us no closer to real solutions that americans [1:01:52] deserve let me be absolutely clear my office does not provide sanctuary or safe harbor to [1:01:59] undocumented immigrants in fact we routinely prosecute immigrants who commit crimes and we will [1:02:04] continue to do so our approach to prosecution of crime has helped make fairfax county one of the [1:02:10] the safest jurisdictions of its size in the country last year we had far fewer homicides than in almost [1:02:16] any other major jurisdiction in the united states including in states that many members of this [1:02:21] subcommittee represent serious violent crime in fairfax county is also lower than that of most other [1:02:26] large jurisdictions and fairfax residents know it's safe a washington post poll found that 94 [1:02:33] of northern virginia residents reported feeling safe from crime in their neighborhood and the citizens of [1:02:38] fairfax county have weighed in by re-electing me with 77 of the vote my office also works with our [1:02:44] federal partners to prosecute crimes and like many state and local prosecutors my office has a policy [1:02:50] of not assisting ice with federal civil immigration enforcement we do not have the budget or personnel [1:02:56] to enforce federal civil immigration law and it is simply not our job we handle 15 000 criminal cases [1:03:04] each year with just 52 full-time attorneys and a limited budget our policy of not diverting our [1:03:11] resources to federal immigration enforcement also makes our communities safer three in ten residents [1:03:16] in fairfax county are immigrants when crimes occur we need victims and witnesses including members of [1:03:23] our immigrant communities to report those crimes and come to court to testify if victims and witnesses [1:03:29] believe my office will report them or their neighbors to ice they will not trust us and they will [1:03:34] not provide the testimony we need to obtain convictions and get justice it is justice that my office is now [1:03:42] seeking by prosecuting the defendant abdul jalo in the tragic murder of stephanie minter the system [1:03:47] failed miss minter and we should all look for ways we can prevent tragedies like this in the future [1:03:53] that starts with understanding the facts the defendant was well known by ice as early as 2018 when ice held [1:03:59] him in custody for nearly two years during the first trump administration only to release him into the [1:04:04] community after that my office worked closely with law enforcement to prosecute him and obtain [1:04:10] convictions for his crime wherever possible and despite challenges in those cases we are fully [1:04:16] committed to holding the defendant accountable in this case as a local prosecutor i will continue [1:04:21] to focus on my job prosecuting defendants who commit crimes in fairfax county in carrying out that role [1:04:28] my office makes case decisions based on the law the evidence in the case the interests of the victim [1:04:33] and its service of seeking justice and keeping our community safe thank you for having me and i welcome [1:04:39] your questions thank you for your testimony uh we'll next hear from the former attorney general of the [1:04:44] state of virginia you're watching a recap of this morning's hearing on capitol hill steve discano and [1:04:49] stacy kincaid chairman ranking member members of the subcommittee policies before i say anything else [1:04:54] i want to acknowledge the woman seated with us today miss cheryl mentor the mother of stephanie she has [1:05:02] agreed to share her story with this committee and there's no one braver in this room i will let her speak [1:05:07] to what she has lost but what i want to give you is the context because what happened to stephanie did [1:05:14] not have to happen in this vacuum now i come to the immigration issue personally my mother fled communist [1:05:21] cuba literally penniless and homeless and not knowing where her next meal was going to come from [1:05:26] she came to this country legally stood in line filled out the forms and did everything the right way [1:05:33] because she believed in the rule of law and the promise of america she left behind everything [1:05:38] because she knew she wanted to come here the right way that's what legal immigration looks like i'm the [1:05:44] son of a legal immigrant i believe in immigration deeply but what i do not believe in what i cannot [1:05:51] accept is a system that extends preferential treatment to those who break our laws at the direct [1:05:57] expense of the american citizens whose laws are supposed to protect and in fairfax county virginia [1:06:04] that is precisely what happened not once not twice repeatedly cheryl will tell you about stephanie [1:06:12] the members of this committee i want you to understand that stephanie mentor is not an isolated [1:06:17] tragedy she is the most recent and visible name in a documented and ongoing pattern of preventable crimes [1:06:24] a pattern with a single common cause the sanctuary policies of fairfax county in december 2025 a man [1:06:32] was shot and killed inside his own home in reston one day after marvin fernando morales artez a criminal [1:06:38] illegal alien from el salvador was released from jail despite an active ice detainer he had prior arrest [1:06:45] for aggravated assault of a police officer fairfax refused to hold him he killed a man the very next day [1:06:51] a single phone call from fairfax to ice would have saved this man's life in november 2024 a woman was [1:07:00] raped on a hiking trail and hurt in virginia just days after her attacker was released from jail [1:07:05] following a felony assault charge reduction made without ever consulting the police the ice detainer [1:07:11] was ignored she became the next victim a four-year-old girl was nearly abducted in the middle of the night [1:07:17] by an illegal alien who broke into her bedroom charges were reduced progressively over 18 [1:07:22] months down to a misdemeanor and dropped entirely in july 2024 two illegal aliens stand that stabbed [1:07:29] a man to death at a park in oakton ice had lodged multiple detainers on one of the suspects that fairfax [1:07:35] county had refused to honor he was released back to the community then he killed in the last several [1:07:42] weeks girls as young as 13 were groped repeatedly in the hallways of a fairfax county high school by an [1:07:48] illegal alien enrolled as a student at age 19. ice asked that he be held fairfax refused same county [1:07:57] same prosecutor same policy over and over again members this is not incompetence this is not [1:08:04] coincidence this is policy commonwealth's attorney discano publishes it on his own website his office's [1:08:10] formal written policy states that prosecutors prosecutors shall whenever possible make charging [1:08:15] and plea decisions that quote limit or avoid immigration consequences that's not prosecutorial [1:08:20] discretion that is discrimination against american citizens in favor of those here illegally who [1:08:26] commit additional crime that is why the law enforcement legal defense fund petitioned the [1:08:31] department of justice which early this month has opened a civil rights investigation into mr [1:08:36] discano's office arguing that his policies violate the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment [1:08:41] let me be clear about the law immigration is not a shared power with states it belongs exclusively the [1:08:47] federal government and federal law expressly prohibits state and local governments from restricting [1:08:52] communication with federal immigration authorities fairfax county's policies do exactly that this is [1:08:58] not non-cooperation this is a deliberate choice to put a violent criminal back on the street we know what [1:09:05] works because virginia proved it under governor glenn youngkin his executive order 47 established a state [1:09:11] immigration task force within eight weeks over 130 gang members were picked up including the east coast [1:09:18] leader of ms 13 living freely in prince william county he was captured virginia was called the national [1:09:25] model our new governor span burger dismantled him her first day in office she signed executive order one [1:09:31] ending state cooperation with ice just 19 days before stephanie minter was killed she now has a bill [1:09:38] on her desk that would prohibit every jurisdiction in virginia from cooperating with ice i think we all [1:09:43] know what she will do government's first and most fundamental duty is to protect the people it governs [1:09:48] sanctuary policies represent a catastrophic and willful failure of that duty my mother came to this [1:09:54] country because she believed the law would protect her cheryl minter believed the same thing stephanie [1:09:59] minter deserved the same thing and virginians are paying the price i'm asking this committee to make this stop [1:10:06] thank you mr chairman i welcome the committee's questions thank you for your testimony we'll next [1:10:11] hear from professor stover chairman ranking member and distinguished members thank you for the [1:10:22] opportunity to testify my name is jane stover and i'm a law professor at the university of california [1:10:28] irvine school of law having first taught at georgetown and american directing domestic violence [1:10:33] clinics for over 20 years now today's hearing was prompted by an unthinkable tragedy and i extend my [1:10:40] deepest condolences to miss cheryl minter for the loss of her daughter stephanie minter all victims [1:10:46] deserve safety and justice and many have been failed by the systems that purport to help them [1:10:52] i'll be direct though focusing on immigration enforcement as the solution to violence against [1:10:58] women is rooted in false narratives not facts contrary to the premise of this hearing sanctuary policies [1:11:05] aren't obstacles to public safety they're essential to it study after study including by criminologist [1:11:12] sharis kubrin shows that immigrants commit fewer crimes and law enforcement leaders have warned that [1:11:19] when survivors fear the police crimes go unreported and communities become less safe all right so uh yeah [1:11:27] i'm not gonna immigrants illegal immigrants committed the first crime by coming here illegally all right so as [1:11:32] this goes on here um i'm gonna talk over this because i really just wanted to hear the elected [1:11:37] officials in terms of jason miares or the former elected official and the former attorney general jason [1:11:42] miares uh and of course steve descano and stacy kincaid i know we're gonna get into some questioning [1:11:49] here and that's uh gonna be very interesting based upon some of the things that i've learned again we're [1:11:53] watching a recap of the hearing here we started this live stream with about 20 minutes before uh before the [1:12:01] hearing ended so so we caught the tail end of this when we came on the live and then i'll recut this [1:12:06] up for you and make a video for you on virginia insider if you're not already a subscriber to this [1:12:10] channel please like and subscribe we cover virginia news here we are virginia insider we do our darndest [1:12:17] to tell you what's going on around the commonwealth to give you the information that you need to take [1:12:21] back your commonwealth from the democrat supermajority that is running richmond and prompting the need for [1:12:27] these types of congressional hearings on capitol hill to talk about virginia can you remember back [1:12:34] to where virginia was the basis of a congressional hearing on capitol hill things have gotten so bad [1:12:42] here in our state now the uh the members of congress are holding hearings on just how unsafe virginia's [1:12:48] streets are because of the sanctuary city policies put into place by the leaders of this state some of [1:12:57] you on the uh chat here have asked does this what they're talking about here does it just affect [1:13:03] fairfax county or is does it affect virginia as a whole and it does affect virginia as a whole because [1:13:11] governor spanberger queen affordability the first executive order that she signed on day one was to [1:13:20] end cooperation with ice effectively barring local and state law enforcement from working with ice [1:13:25] communicating with each other you heard um just a few minutes ago both descano and kincaid saying that [1:13:33] we allow ice in we allow them to this we can tell them if we have an illegal criminal alien in our jail [1:13:40] someone who should not be in this country and they're now accused of committing a crime [1:13:45] against somebody else in our community and we can tell them who's here but unless you produce [1:13:52] a federal warrant you cannot take them into your custody ice we're not going to give them up [1:14:00] and what's true and what was also discussed in this meeting is this hearing is you can't get [1:14:08] a federal warrant for a state level crime so and the democrats know this and they keep throwing this [1:14:16] well if you just did your job if you just caught the bad guy before he came into custody in fairfax county [1:14:23] then we wouldn't have to have this conversation or if you just went and got this federal level warrant [1:14:29] we would give you over this uh this prisoner that we have here in our jail and the fact is [1:14:34] enforcement actions they cannot get a federal warrant for a state level crime it doesn't work like [1:14:41] that again the democrats know it they keep pushing these false narratives they keep telling you that [1:14:46] they're working with federal officials and we continue to hear from ice every single day that [1:14:53] they're not and they want cooperation all they want is cooperation from governor queen affordability [1:14:59] abigail spanberger that's all they want all right thanks for the super chat here um really appreciate [1:15:05] that you're very welcome um yes pray pray for virginia virginia i'm gonna steal a line from if you've [1:15:15] been watching spencer pratt over in la and his his uh awesome really just impressive run for that that [1:15:23] city's mayor uh he he says la's worth saving so is virginia virginia is worth saving from this [1:15:30] group of democrats who are running it poorly managing it poorly uh having chaos everywhere [1:15:37] all right i'm gonna go and listen in here thrive in a free society our research finds that immigrants [1:15:45] legal and illegal work at higher rates generate more income and taxes and have reduced the national debt by [1:15:52] 14 and a half trillion dollars over the last 30 years immigrants improve public safety by reducing [1:15:59] violent crime rates meaning that you are less likely to become a victim fairfax highlights this reality [1:16:07] about half the county's residents are immigrants or children of immigrants its household income is [1:16:14] double the national average its murder rate is less than half the average if illegal immigrants in [1:16:21] fairfax were their own city they'd have a lower homicide rate than 90 percent of america's largest [1:16:27] cities and lower than the country's homicide rate overall nationwide illegal immigrants are half as likely to [1:16:35] commit serious crimes for which they're serving time as u.s born americans despite all this congress [1:16:42] refuses to allow most would-be immigrants to come legally which leads to illegal immigration just three [1:16:51] percent of all the people seeking permanent legal status in the united states were approved in 2024 [1:16:59] that was before the current administration banned a majority of the legal immigrants previously allowed [1:17:05] to come including half of all the spouses of u.s citizens it has cut legal immigration twice as much [1:17:14] as it has cut illegal immigration at the same time it terminated legal status for over two million [1:17:23] immigrants who are already here creating four times as many illegal immigrants as it has deported [1:17:31] america's cities must manage the fallout from this sabotaged system many have decided not to volunteer [1:17:39] their cops jails and resources to dhs dhs doesn't like that but under our constitution cities and states [1:17:48] don't take orders from the feds and thank james madison for that because we all know we wouldn't want [1:17:55] the feds to dictate environmental policy gun policy or covid policy to the states if you want fairfax to [1:18:04] change its policies you gotta convince them the first step would be to give up on the mass deportation [1:18:11] fantasy about one in five fairfax residents is someone who could be deported or who lives with [1:18:17] them it would destroy neighborhoods rip americans away from their spouses parents friends families [1:18:25] customers employees employers nurses nannies and teachers one people in fairfax non-citizens who [1:18:33] harm americans should be arrested convicted and deported i think cities can help with that but [1:18:40] deportation is dhs's job indeed you all passed the lakin reilly act in 2025 to require dhs to [1:18:51] immediately take custody of people charged with violence or theft dhs is ignoring that law it has [1:19:00] deprioritized threats to focus on easy targets they aren't tracking down the serious criminal fugitives [1:19:07] like the monster who killed stephanie minter instead dhs agents are racially profiling americans at home [1:19:16] depots arresting spouses of u.s citizens at green card interviews beating parents of u.s marines and [1:19:22] dragging legal immigrants and u.s citizens from their homes without warrants only six percent of ice arrests [1:19:32] have a violent criminal conviction ice has arrested 150 000 people who have no criminal convictions or [1:19:41] even charges and we know it's not because they got everyone with a serious record stephanie's case and [1:19:48] many others prove that it's because they care about as one ice agent put it quantity over quality how [1:19:58] many stephanies will get murdered before dhs follows the law and prioritizes serious criminals so how [1:20:06] many most americans don't want to wait for the answer they want to pause the mass deportation fantasy and [1:20:13] focus on public safety all right so this guy is obviously uh blaming trump same we saw this back when [1:20:22] stephanie was killed uh it's ice's fault that uh jollo was not in custody even though he was released [1:20:30] by a federal immigration judge thank you chairman ranking member and members of this committee thank [1:20:35] you for inviting me to testify my name is sean kennedy president of virginians for safe communities [1:20:40] a fairfax-based public safety and victims rights advocacy group and i'm an appointed member of the [1:20:45] fairfax county criminal justice advisory board i'm going to get straight to the point anyone who is in [1:20:51] the united states without legal status any violent criminal should be prosecuted to the fullest extent [1:20:59] of the law and if they don't have legal status they should be deported full stop those aren't my words [1:21:07] that was governor abigail spamburger yesterday but in fairfax county neither of those things are [1:21:13] happening first fairfax chief prosecutor steve descano does not prosecute to the fullest extent of the law [1:21:20] in fact one of his former prosecutors told me every time i hear discano say community values i cringe [1:21:27] because we should be following the law not his values in fact he openly flouts the law ordering [1:21:34] his prosecutors to seek lighter sentences for violent criminals and sex offenders including murderers [1:21:39] and child rapists second mr descano boasts that he chooses which charges to bring and what sentences [1:21:46] to seek based on who the offender is being illegally present earns an offender preferential treatment [1:21:54] but that grace is not afforded to those who need it the most something that the professor just spoke [1:22:00] about victims and make no mistake the vast majority of criminal aliens victims are themselves immigrants [1:22:08] they too deserve justice they too deserve safety they too deserve dignity but mr descano has shown a [1:22:15] callous disregard for them and their rights our laws and our public safety that is wrong and that is [1:22:22] illegal and it has appalling consequences at four o'clock in the morning on june 15 2023 a mother woke [1:22:31] to the screams of her four-year-old girl from the next room a man had broken in through the bedroom [1:22:35] window and carried off the toddler committing with burglary with the intent to rape according to the police [1:22:42] he was well known to the police and mr descano he was hiram baccadena rodriguez a honduran national [1:22:50] in 2021 two years before baccadena rodriguez was arrested for multiple incidents of indecent [1:22:55] liberties with a child each of the three counts carried up to 10 years in prison under virginia law [1:23:00] but mr descano who directs his prosecutors to avoid immigration consequences reduced the charges [1:23:06] despite committing a break-in while awaiting sentencing descano agreed to a six-month sentence [1:23:12] for prior crimes he was quickly arrested again for burglary to commit a felony punishable by 20 years [1:23:18] but that was reduced to property damage more arrests probation violations and dropped charges followed [1:23:24] he walked free and went fugitive in 18 months baccadena rodriguez racked up five arrests and 23 charges [1:23:32] requiring him to spend the rest of his life in the virginia department of corrections but mr descano's [1:23:38] policies prohibited that it stated that his deputies must make plea officers that avoid the legislatively [1:23:45] mandated minimum jail sentence so a criminal alien was free to abduct a sleeping little girl somehow this [1:23:54] parents worst nightmare in the words of judge randy bellows got worse when mr descano gave the kidnapper [1:24:00] a plea deal for less than two years in prison an outraged judge bellows rejected the plea agreement [1:24:06] saying the only way to protect the community is a lengthy period of incarceration when the same deal [1:24:11] came before judge susan j stoney the next year she too was incredulous the court is concerned about [1:24:17] the severity of the crime the fact the defendant's criminal history indicates a record of other [1:24:21] involvement with minors and that the potential sentence here in this case is too lenient the court has [1:24:26] grave concern in the interest of public safety in a vindictive and petty move mr descano then dropped [1:24:34] all of the charges the little girl's family was beside themselves he was set to be released within [1:24:41] hours denied justice by the same man charged with protecting the innocent their little girl and the [1:24:48] public that family had to act the little girl's grandmother had to call the ice hotline and said i gave [1:24:54] them all the information i had to the person on the other end when ice arrested him as he walked [1:25:00] out she said it was a sigh of relief according to the girl's mother christie god protected my little [1:25:07] girl but who is going to protect the next one certainly not mr descano and sadly since he has become [1:25:15] commonwealth's attorney this case is not the exception it is the rule under mr descano it is [1:25:21] policy fairfax's chief prosecutor has chosen to sacrifice victims on the altar of ideology [1:25:30] hundreds if not thousands of violent and sex crimes should never have happened if mr descano followed the [1:25:36] law not his values in shielding criminal aliens mr descano shows a depraved indifference to human [1:25:42] suffering that is not compassion it is cruelty that is not compassion it is cruelty thank you thank you for [1:25:51] your testimony we'll finally hear from uh miss cheryl minter the members of the oh thank you good [1:26:01] morning to the members of the committee i appreciate appreciate you granting me the time and space to [1:26:08] speak thank you for your attendance my name is cheryl minter i am the mother of stephanie nicole minter [1:26:15] i would like to open today's subject stephanie nicole minter with a point every good painting will take a [1:26:26] million strokes to make a good song you have to go mining to find the perfect notes and a castle is [1:26:33] created stone by stone with patience and care because great leaps come with small steps and time [1:26:41] this poem comes from my favorite coffee cup gifted to me by stephanie we would share a cup of coffee [1:26:48] during the early mornings we butted heads like every mother and daughter but wanted to actively take steps [1:26:56] together to make our relationship better we would share stories memories laughter thoughts of the [1:27:02] future and more this is something i will never get to experience again because of the failures of our [1:27:09] justice system stephanie was my daughter my heart she was a loving mother a daughter sister an auntie a [1:27:18] friend a mentor she believed in god she cared for people she showed up for others even when she was tired [1:27:27] stephanie was my memory since mine isn't that great anymore she always knew the right bible verse for [1:27:34] any situation always smiling always joyful always loved life even through the bad times stephanie was [1:27:43] a woman who faced many battles in life she always came out the other side of tough times with that bright [1:27:50] smile on her face that same smile is something i will never be able to see again a smile the world would [1:27:57] never bear witness to again on february 23rd 4th 2026 i woke up to the worst call a parent can ever [1:28:08] receive my daughter was gone taken in the most horrific way was simply waiting for a bus in fairfax county [1:28:16] on the night of february 23rd 2026 no mother should have to stand here and say these words no family should [1:28:24] have to bury their child like this stephanie's life mattered her voice mattered her future mattered and [1:28:33] today i stand here because her life was taken in a way that should have never happened the man who took [1:28:39] my daughter's life should not have been free to walk the streets he had been picked up many times he was [1:28:46] known there were warnings there were emails sent saying he was a danger and still he was released i am not here [1:28:55] for politics i am here for accountability i am here because a system failed my daughter if not for [1:29:02] these failures i could be sharing a cup of coffee with stephanie this morning rather than speaking with [1:29:08] you all today when policies policies protect people who are known threat innocent lives are put at risk [1:29:18] when warnings are ignored families like mine pay the price this is not just about stephanie this is about [1:29:25] every mother every parent every child every person who waits at a bus stop walks home or goes to work [1:29:35] trusting they will they will be safe we cannot ignore this we cannot look away compassion should never [1:29:42] come at the cost of public safety care for one group should not mean danger for another we can be a [1:29:50] community that is both caring and responsible we can have policies that protect people and also keep our [1:29:57] streets safe safe but that means we must act we must listen when there are warnings we must take threats [1:30:05] seriously we must make sure that people who are dangerous are not released back into our neighborhoods [1:30:11] i will carry my daughter's name for the rest of my life i will carry her memory but i should not have [1:30:18] to carry this pain because of because of a preventable failure stephanie deserved to come home that day [1:30:26] she deserved to watch her child grow she deserved more time i am asking you please do not let her story [1:30:34] be ignored do not let another family stand where i am standing make changes take responsibility protect [1:30:43] your community because no mother should ever have to wake up to this nightmare i'd like to read from psalms [1:30:55] 28. give them the punishments they so richly deserve measure it out in proportion to their wickedness [1:31:04] pay them back for all their evil deeds give them a taste of what they have done to others they care [1:31:12] nothing for what the lord has done or for what his hands have made so he will hear so he will tear them [1:31:21] down and they will never be rebuilt praise the lord for he has heard my cry for mercy the lord is my [1:31:29] strength and my shield i trust him with all my heart he helps me and my heart is filled with joy [1:31:37] i burst out of song out in songs of thanksgiving the lord gives his people strength for he is a safe [1:31:45] fortress for his anointed king save your people bless israel your special possession lead them like a [1:31:53] shepherd and carry them in your arms forever thank you thank you i will now move to uh five minute [1:32:08] questions from committee members and start with uh sheriff nails thank you sir uh i'm sorry uh miss [1:32:17] mentor to i mean what a very story stephanie the numerous pictures we saw beautiful i apologize [1:32:24] for the individuals that have held on to these irresponsible policies costing the lives of many [1:32:32] many innocent americans i apologize mr kennedy i appreciate your passion you're right on target [1:32:40] mr descano well miss sheriff kinkade thank you for your service mr descano i consider you a disgrace [1:32:47] i yield the rest of my balance of my time to my colleague mr klein i thank the gentleman and i [1:32:56] thank the chairman for allowing me to sit on this panel today i represent the vast majority of [1:33:03] virginia citizens who stand with you miss mentor and who are so sorry for the tragedy that occurred [1:33:10] and our prayers are with you and with your daughter who is in heaven looking down on virginia congressman [1:33:17] ben klein you know i heard your apology mr descano i think the public would like to hear your [1:33:25] resignation let me ask you when abdul jala is released will you honor an ice detainer sir my [1:33:38] office is a prosecuting office we don't receive ice detainers that's not our business will you sheriff [1:33:44] kincaid will you honor the ice detainer well um thank you for that question and um i would certainly hope [1:33:54] that this case would be prosecuted and that justice would be served um certainly when it comes to mr [1:34:00] jala there hasn't been ice detainers with the exception of one time in 2018 which we turned [1:34:08] him over to ice and then the second time which we had to release him to a facility each other time he's [1:34:15] been in my custody there's been no detainers if one comes will you honor it as long as i have the [1:34:21] authority to do so and ice knows what our policy is she's elected yes she doesn't if i'm given a [1:34:30] judicial warrant yes that's her policy that's different yeah well it's the it's what gives me [1:34:35] the authority to detain somebody when i'm getting when i receive a court order from a judge mandating [1:34:40] someone's release i would also hope that that ice would know when mr jala is getting released so that [1:34:49] they would be able to come and pick him up see that's the difference between a sheriff sheriffs [1:34:54] are elected they make their own policy we do plan on taking him driving him down to the department of [1:34:58] corrections all right well mr descano your policy tells prosecutors to give lighter treatment to [1:35:05] defendants based on their immigration status isn't that just discrimination with a sympathetic face [1:35:10] and why are you protecting criminal illegal aliens more than the people of fairfax county [1:35:15] the citizens well first of all sir i think there's two things wrong with it in the question that [1:35:19] you asked me we're not protecting uh uh undocumented individuals as a matter of fact we prosecute people [1:35:26] who commit crimes in fairfax county regardless of their status and we and you know so the idea that [1:35:32] we don't do that is simply wrong our policies simply maintain that our role is to prosecute virginia [1:35:39] crime that's what we do ice's role is to do federal civil immigration enforcement mr mr i should disagree with [1:35:45] that fundamentally he has a written policy to that effect he is he is conflating two different issues [1:35:53] he's simply saying why prosecute all crimes at the same time he has a written policy saying that illegal [1:35:58] immigrants are going to be treated and given preferential treatment differently from american [1:36:03] citizens on one hand he sits in front of this committee and says we don't follow sanctuary policies [1:36:08] at the same time he openly admits he conducts himself in a manner in which he does not cooperate federal [1:36:14] immigration authorities that's the very definition of sanctuary policies no i fundamentally disagree [1:36:19] with his assessment there are 95 counties in virginia congressman only one county with one [1:36:25] prosecutor has a written policy saying we're going to treat illegal immigrants differently than american [1:36:30] citizens it is mr toscano to my left period full stop well i know that when ice does work with [1:36:37] localities the system can work i worked in the harrisonburg rockingham commonwealth attorney's office [1:36:44] they had a 287 g agreement with ice and when individuals who were prosecuted who were here [1:36:53] illegally eventually served their sentences they were met by ice they were retrieved by ice and returned [1:36:59] to their countries of origin the people of rockingham and harrisonburg benefited from that policy because [1:37:05] the streets were safer and people who committed crimes were not returned to the communities that they [1:37:11] threatened prior to their arrest so you know the people who are here in fairfax from fairfax stand and [1:37:21] answer the ranking members question about well i've run out of time so i hope i can get some more time [1:37:29] because um people who are are working hard in fairfax county deserve to not just feel safe as the ranking [1:37:37] member indicated uh but actually are safe the gentleman's time has expired ms jayapal thank you [1:37:43] mr chairman um mr discano there's been a lot said so i just want to ask you a few yes or no questions uh [1:37:49] your office works with dhs regularly on criminal issues not just uh not civil immigration enforcement [1:37:55] is that correct that is correct and if dhs came to you with a judicial warrant to take someone in your [1:38:01] custody would you comply well we don't hold people in custody but we have we have worked with that [1:38:07] department for criminal cases before and we will continue to do so and do you arrest prosecute [1:38:12] convict and incarcerate individuals accused of crimes regardless of immigration status absolutely [1:38:19] i just want to reiterate a couple of points again yes or no is the crime rate in fairfax county one of [1:38:25] the lowest in the country yes and is fairfax county rated among the safest jurisdictions of its size by [1:38:32] the major city chiefs association yes so given the ramp up of illegal mass detentions and the attacks on [1:38:41] legal immigration that mr beer and others have spoken about how has that played out on the ground for [1:38:46] you are people in immigrant communities communities of color feeling safe to come forward and and report [1:38:53] crimes testify no they're absolutely not and that in fact makes my job as a local prosecutor much [1:38:59] harder it's it's really safe in fairfax but it's not safe guys we have to rely on the evidence and [1:39:04] most of the time that evidence is through victim and witness testimony we want our we want members of [1:39:10] our community to come to court but when they're scared as they currently are becoming more and more [1:39:14] scared with what ice is doing they are more reluctant to come to court and when we don't have [1:39:18] witnesses that means unfortunately bad guys hit the streets again and as a prosecutor that's what [1:39:23] i don't want that's what the with my trust policy is trying to avoid thank you professor stover i [1:39:29] want to turn to you immigrant women experience domestic violence at rates nearly three times [1:39:34] the national average and are often among the most vulnerable because the fear of deportation [1:39:39] can keep them trapped in these abusive situations i've done a lot of work on this issue as you know [1:39:44] in your work you've written about the importance of trust between immigrant communities and local law [1:39:50] enforcement when immigrant communities know that calling 911 will not result in deportation for [1:39:56] themselves or a family member they're more willing to report and help law enforcement solve crimes [1:40:02] can you discuss how local police working too closely with ice can undermine that trust and whether [1:40:09] this administration's aggressive immigration policies are making it harder for domestic violence [1:40:14] survivors to come forward and seek help yes and thank you for your work on this area it absolutely [1:40:20] undermines trust when you have law enforcement and that the line between law enforcement and immigration [1:40:28] enforcement blurred when you call the police you don't know when they show up at your door are they [1:40:34] there to help or to deport you and so it's absolutely created a chilling effect and really suppressed people [1:40:41] coming forward to get help which then causes greater danger for the broader community one would think [1:40:47] the police are there to help but when they figure out that you're breaking a law survivor reaching out [1:40:51] and you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing then they have to do their job look at the [1:40:56] tv that's not a chilling effect that's what they're charged to do they swore to do immigrants [1:41:01] to quote see how no one cared about her this is really creating a very significant chilling effect for [1:41:07] abuse survivors and continuing to escalate abuse i'm hearing a lot about that from survivors in my [1:41:12] own district um mr beer i want to thank you for your all of your research on trump's uh attacks on the [1:41:18] legal immigration system he of course said he was going to go after the worst of the worst and that is [1:41:23] clearly not and this is the guy if you remember back just a few minutes ago he said one in five people [1:41:30] in fairfax county are there illegally and if you were to deport them you would be enforcement public [1:41:38] blowing up communities you would be ripping people away quote unquote from their friends from their [1:41:42] family from their lives because again one in five states and in fairfax county are there illegally but [1:41:50] yet they're telling us it's the safest of the safest place in america to force local jurisdictions to do [1:41:58] this well first of all the 10th amendment puts the firewall in place we have a system of federalism [1:42:04] uh the supreme court has been quite clear on this you cannot force state and local governments to do [1:42:11] what you want congress's powers are limited you have you can order the federal agencies to do whatever [1:42:18] you want you cannot as you know as long as it comports with the constitution of course but you cannot [1:42:24] uh tell the states and local governments uh what to do and you also cannot use it's funny how we had [1:42:30] cooperation between the local and the state and the federal government under glenn youngkin under previous [1:42:38] administrations on this 287g program that virginia had since george w bush was in the presidency in the [1:42:44] white house george w bush it kept the streets safe it kept illegals off the streets it had federal [1:42:52] collaboration with local law enforcement local law enforcement got federal training they wouldn't [1:42:57] get anywhere else and it was very simple the legal shows up in jail because he did something wrong [1:43:03] he's in the country illegally the local guy with federal training processes his id and they call ice [1:43:09] and say hey we got a guy come pick him up then they walked him right out and gave him to ice the guy [1:43:13] went on his way and another illegal immigrant off the street it was an interesting thing when we heard that [1:43:19] americans care about their their micro economy you know what they really care about because if you have [1:43:25] money and you're unsafe it's like you don't have money you need to be safe that's what americans really [1:43:34] care about number one you need to be safe americans want to be safe and i thought it was interesting too [1:43:40] when the ranking member said hey if stand up here if you're uh something if in the gallery if you support [1:43:46] immigrants um so that they're able to make 911 calls i thought that was interesting everybody [1:43:51] stood up and then if you sat down but you know who can't stand up today you know who's not here today [1:43:58] the victims of the crimes of those individuals that were released into the community knowing that [1:44:08] they were had a propensity to commit these types of crimes they're not here to answer for themselves [1:44:15] that's what we have ostensibly that's why you have the police agencies so i thought i would i would [1:44:22] tell you you know who's not here ms mentor's a wonderful daughter stephanie and she's not here [1:44:28] because abdul jala was released the victim of malden annabel guzman who was killed is not here the [1:44:42] victim of marvin fernando morales ortiz is not here he's killed he's killed he's killed released by [1:44:52] these individuals wilmer osmani ramos giron the victim of his strangulation is not here the victim [1:45:02] of horse jorge armando melendez gonzalez charged 19 times violent and firearm related offenses not here [1:45:14] the victims cannot be here victim of hiram baccadano rodriguez the judge found what mr descano's office's [1:45:25] plea agreement was so offensive they rejected them then a second judge rejected the plea offer [1:45:32] victims there they're not here today dennis umberto navarrete romero again and we could go on and we [1:45:41] could name these victims who are not here because of the policies of this fairfax county office that i'm [1:45:51] going to yield two minutes the last two minutes to my friend from virginia mr klein thank the gentleman for [1:45:58] yielding i want to get back to this uh idea that fairfax is somehow a standout for keeping crime low [1:46:08] in fact they're ranked number three nationally by release volume out of sanctuary strongholds across [1:46:15] the country that routinely disregard detention requests for mice so behind santa clara county's [1:46:22] main pretrial holding facility in california and chicago's cook county jail in illinois [1:46:26] in illinois the number of releases um is third nationally california chicago embarrassment from october [1:46:38] 2022 to february 2025 the fairfax county adult detention center freed more than a thousand [1:46:43] deportable illegal immigrants from lockup in direct defiance of over 1 150 detainers lodged by ice the [1:46:54] people who the ranking member want to feel safe in fairfax without worrying about whether they're [1:47:01] actually safe are scared to walk home are scared to take the bus to work or if they're staying in a [1:47:11] part of fairfax that is not the best part of fairfax that they're going to encounter a criminal that is [1:47:22] on release from the fairfax county jail and to mr beer congress does have limited powers but we do have [1:47:34] the power of the purse and it becomes increasingly clear that for those jurisdictions that are happy [1:47:45] to take federal tax dollars when it comes to cops grants and i'm a supporter of cops grants but when [1:47:56] those jurisdictions are not actually implementing policies that may that create safe communities that [1:48:05] make maybe people feel safe because you talk a lot about feeling safe but are you actually safe in [1:48:11] your community in fairfax arguably no i would say they're not so making those cops dollars contingent [1:48:19] on 287g agreements is very legal is very possible you can shake your head no it's definitely not and i [1:48:26] didn't ask you a question and i didn't ask you a question so it is quite legal and the bill that [1:48:33] i've introduced would do just that gentleman's time is expired you'll go uh chair recognizes mr raskett [1:48:41] thank you mr chairman did you want to address that mr brian yeah real quickly i mean we have multiple [1:48:47] uh appeals courts decisions directly on the point of denying funding to jurisdictions based on the fact that [1:48:54] they have democratic leadership the the point about the medicaid expansion in the obamacare case it was [1:49:00] directly related it was healthcare spending that they were making contingent on expanding medicaid [1:49:07] the supreme court said you cannot coerce states and localities to adopt federal policy using money in [1:49:14] this way so there's no question it's unconstitutional for congress to do this and then i think that's the [1:49:20] position anyone who's a real champion of federalism and states rights would hold which is what you [1:49:24] can't do in directly you can't do indirectly through the coercive use of money you can't give a state [1:49:30] a godfather offer which is basically you know you do what we say or else um so commonwealth's attorney [1:49:37] descano sheriff kincaid i don't know if either of you can answer a few questions i've got um it seems to [1:49:43] me like the whole premise of this hearing is to uh is to blame you for the terrible murder and tragedy [1:49:52] of stephanie minter but here's what i don't understand the guy was being held for two years in [1:49:59] 2018 and 2019 by ice under the first trump administration um why was he not deported then [1:50:09] why did he end up back on the streets why didn't ice release him can you tell me why mr descano do [1:50:16] you know where miss kincaid well um that's a good question and that's something that i would refer to [1:50:20] ice on because they did have him in custody and when he showed up back in our jurisdiction in 2022 yeah we [1:50:28] wondered the same it's just fascinating to me we've got seven witnesses here and somebody else who's not [1:50:32] here in addition to stephanie is ice ice cannot account for well i'll get to you if i've got enough time [1:50:39] um so that that's baffling to me that's puzzling um but you know i i've been asking about that for [1:50:47] the last couple of days somebody said well uh he was from sierra leone and sierra alone didn't want [1:50:53] to take him back but of course as we know this administration has no problem deporting people to [1:50:57] third countries third party countries removing the third party countries why wasn't he removed [1:51:02] by ice they're the only ones who've got the power to kick him out of the country you don't have the [1:51:07] power to deport him do you state's attorney no sir i don't i don't have the power and quite frankly [1:51:13] yeah there's nothing in my policies if somebody is deportable when they come to my office there's [1:51:17] nothing in my power okay so how do you know exactly how many violent crimes he committed [1:51:23] before he was in the custody of ice because there were reports that he had committed i think a stabbing [1:51:28] and some assaults i don't i don't know the exact number but there i believe okay so [1:51:32] ice was a violent criminal they're holding him and they release him back in the streets then [1:51:38] you do your job and your only job which is to prosecute those offenses and you did that right [1:51:44] yes sir and we got a multi-year jail sentence as well okay um and sheriff kincaid if i'm understanding [1:51:50] you really ice did not issue detainers when he was held for those offenses where they did once and [1:51:58] you complied with it but in the other ones they didn't issue as i understand it ice didn't come [1:52:03] forward with a detainer until after stephanie minter was killed is that right um and a time before [1:52:10] when we had had to relocate this individual to a different facility other than that there were no [1:52:16] there were no detainers at all okay and again you know i feel like we're in a courtroom in fairfax county [1:52:23] virginia or in the richmond legislature obviously if somebody doesn't like the job that the sheriff [1:52:28] is doing somebody doesn't like the job the commas attorney is doing run against them i mean one of [1:52:33] these sounded mr kennedy you sound like a campaign speech you were making you've got the right to run [1:52:38] against him have you been have you faced a re-election yet uh yes sir and i won with 77 of [1:52:43] my community's vote and are you elected sheriff kincaid are you so his so raskin saying hey suck it up [1:52:49] buttercup we're the democrats and we're in charge and if you don't like it then run against us but [1:52:54] until then we're going to do whatever we want we're not going to call ice it would be a phone call [1:52:59] but we're not going to do that and if you don't like it suck it up immigration run against us [1:53:04] try it uh in fairfax county and you know we don't need to kick off your next re-election with debates [1:53:10] here about your performance in office and i think that that's beneath the dignity of this committee to be [1:53:15] telling local officials they should be defeated or or should resign from office that doesn't that [1:53:21] doesn't make sense to me mr beer what should congress be doing to get us out of this constant [1:53:26] immigration nightmare we almost had a big bipartisan deal at the end of 2024 everybody in the senate [1:53:32] agreed to it all the democrats in the house agreed to it and then i think donald trump said [1:53:36] i don't want a deal i want an issue to run on is that right i mean the bottom line is as you said [1:53:42] we need bipartisan immigration reform for a moment the gentleman's time's expired i'll give you a very [1:53:47] brief time to answer that question you can also respond to it in later questions we need to get [1:53:52] back to to legality and orderly immigration and that means a process for people who are peaceful people [1:53:59] to get legal status and for people who are peaceful to come here legally that's bipartisan immigration [1:54:05] reform in my opinion chairman jordan thank you mr chairman oh i'm sorry i'm sorry let me first [1:54:10] introduce mr biggs for unanimous consent request i'm sorry thank you mr chairman sorry mr chairman [1:54:15] uh here's a series of articles i'll just do a few of them and then give the whole stack to you [1:54:20] virginia murder suspect in bus stop stabbing had lengthy criminal history multiple drop charges [1:54:25] abduljala allegedly killed stephanie mentor at fairfax county bus shelter after prosecutors dropped [1:54:30] charges in most previous cases completely failed stephanie illegal alien with lengthy arrest record [1:54:37] allegedly butchers woman at virginia bus stop and then there's a whole stack of others which i [1:54:41] won't read but we'll just submit to the record if that's okay without objection chairman jordan [1:54:46] thank you sheriff why did you let marvin morales ortiz out of jail because i received a court order [1:54:56] a judicial order from a judge ordering his release because the guy beside you wouldn't prosecute him [1:55:02] right you'd have to talk to him so this guy the guy beside you wouldn't prosecute the guy who's an [1:55:08] illegal migrant who'd been charged with six different crimes who was arrested for murder in 2020 who in [1:55:15] 2023 assaulted a police officer and who in september of 2025 was charged with aggravated malicious [1:55:21] wounding and brandishing a gun and that guy's released you can't hold him because he's not [1:55:26] going to be prosecuted is that right i'm not sure about you know that's why you told us you sent us [1:55:31] a letter on march 11 2016 addressed to myself and chairman mcclintock and you said on december 16 [1:55:37] 2025 the commonwealth's attorney moved to not prosecute the charges of aggravated malicious wounding [1:55:43] and brandishing a firearm by mr morales ortiz so you had to let him out didn't you record order [1:55:50] by a judge yes i did you had to let him out i was ordered to release him by a judge is um i see you [1:55:58] got some of your deputies behind how's morale in your department sheriff is it good i didn't know i [1:56:05] was here to talk about morale sir but um based on you're here to answer the questions we ask you that's [1:56:10] what you're here for yeah of course i am okay i'm also here to talk about what i was invited here to [1:56:15] talk about well i'm i'll refer you to a statement you made in august fairfax county sheriff stacy [1:56:20] kincaid democrat also told seven news reporter nick minnick it's shameful the way things have not been [1:56:27] prosecuted stand by that statement if that's what was written i do no i'm not asking if that's what's [1:56:33] written i'm saying do you did you say that and do you stand by that and is that having an impact on [1:56:37] morale because most of the police departments i know and sheriffs and deputies that i know when they [1:56:41] get the bad guys off the street they like to see them prosecuted so they don't come back on the [1:56:45] street harm the community you're supposed to protect and make their job tougher because they [1:56:50] got to go get them again when they commit some other crime that's why i asked the morale question [1:56:53] in light of your statement just a few months ago where you said it's shameful that the guy beside [1:56:58] you is not prosecuting people i did you said that i did okay good mr descano why'd you change your [1:57:04] website so first of all let me address what you had no no no you answered the question about yes [1:57:10] you answer the questions we asked i asked a simple question why did you change your website last month [1:57:14] well sir your statements about we're not don't want to prosecute guys is absolutely false and my [1:57:20] policies i'm reading are you saying what the sheriff wrote me is is wrong no what i'm saying is that the [1:57:25] way that my policies have been december 16 presented in this you chose she said the commonwealth's [1:57:31] attorney that's you chose not to prosecute mr morales ortiz on december 16th and they had to release [1:57:37] him they had to do their job because you wouldn't prosecute what happened on december 17th mr descano [1:57:42] well sir let's talk about this no no that's the question what happened on december 7th this same [1:57:47] guy murdered somebody this guy murdered somebody and i'm asking you why did you change your website [1:57:53] well do you not want me to talk to you about the the the actual i want you to answer the first [1:57:57] question i said which was about the case change your website well sir because the website is not my [1:58:03] policy my policy my policy i think the voters might be a campaign the voters might be interested in that [1:58:11] this is your campaign website where you said our office will take immigration consequences into [1:58:16] account when making charging and plea decisions immigration consequences were certainly part of the [1:58:20] game here part of the issue here with mr morales ortiz no they weren't you decide absolutely were not [1:58:25] you are you are assuming something that is not that is in fact untrue because you are misrepresenting my [1:58:30] policies my policies do not say that we do not prosecute people if you're proud of your policies [1:58:36] why did you change your website because that's not my policy as i told you sir that is a campaign [1:58:40] statement that i made before i was coming up for six years a week after we send you a letter saying [1:58:47] we want you to come testify shazam you change it because i couldn't happen is is that coincidental [1:58:53] because i could not believe that somebody that people were so obtuse that they could not realize [1:58:58] what the difference between a campaign statement and an actual office policy so when you make [1:59:03] campaign statements that's not those aren't true you're not being honest with your voters that's [1:59:07] not what i'm saying at all sir sure sounded like it that's absolutely not what i'm saying is that when [1:59:13] you you still haven't told me why you still haven't told me why you took it down because i was hoping [1:59:17] to come here to talk about my office policies not be distracted by a campaign statement that was [1:59:22] being distracted a year before i was actually commonwealth's attorney attorney general any and [1:59:27] had any cases that were mine this is almost laughable this is your policy you said it right [1:59:32] here you told the voters if you elect me i will take into account immigration consequences when [1:59:37] making charging and plea this is my policy not what you have in your hand oh okay so what you [1:59:42] said to the voters is not not real doesn't count no sir what i'm saying is that as an office [1:59:46] holder my office is run by my policy your sheriff said you wouldn't prosecute this guy gets released [1:59:53] kill someone the next day we start asking about it you change your website and take down the statements [1:59:59] that that say you're going to take into account immigration consequences when you decide what you [2:00:04] are going to charge has been public the entire time i've been in office so gentlemen's time has expired [2:00:11] uh ms ross thank you mr chairman and thank you to the ranking member unbelievable so what i say on the [2:00:16] campaign trail is different than what i do when i'm in office and i'm sorry you guys are too stupid [2:00:23] to realize that that's that's his defense on getting to the root of a problem and finding a bipartisan [2:00:29] solution i think this hearing is a perfect example of that and to ms mentor i am deeply deeply sorry for [2:00:38] your loss no one on this committee regardless of political party wants criminals and you heard what the [2:00:46] guy said about virginia now it ranks up with california and chicago and now fairfax county and [2:00:51] by extension that's a virginia right so don't if you're listening to this and you're thinking well [2:00:56] that's fairfax county well that's northern virginia i don't and that's not really virginia i don't go up [2:01:00] there unfortunately yes it's it has an effect on your life and the government has shown us with the [2:01:08] illegal gerrymander on april 21st that they're not going to leave us alone they're going to continue to [2:01:13] come after us they're going to continue to impose their will and their sanctuary policy and their [2:01:20] chaos across virginia they're not going to leave us alone and now is the time to know what is being [2:01:26] said here and just and to step up it's no longer good enough just to sit back and pay your taxes and [2:01:33] hope the government leaves you alone because i don't get involved i don't pay attention oh i don't [2:01:39] i have other things to do i'm going fishing this weekend i can't think about that democrats are [2:01:45] always thinking about that socialists don't sleep and this this is why we're having a hearing about [2:01:52] virginia on capitol hill today people who have done things that are just horrible like in the case of [2:02:02] ms minter victims of crime also need to know that if they go to law enforcement to report a crime [2:02:12] they will not themselves be either detained or deported or something happened to them [2:02:20] otherwise we won't be able to deal with people in a civil society i'm going to start with mr beer [2:02:27] because he is very experienced before this committee all right so that's really all we ever have it's like [2:02:32] well if if we enforce immigration law then people are going to be scared to call 9-1-1 people are [2:02:39] going to be afraid that when the cop shows up at their door no matter what's going on at that home [2:02:46] wherever the call is that the first thing that cop's going to do is put that person who called in [2:02:52] handcuffs and haul them away and take them away that's their argument that's their fear and frankly [2:02:59] we're not seeing that we're not seeing that at all what we are seeing we are seeing illegal criminal [2:03:06] aliens rape and murder people like stephanie mentor here in virginia across the country of course but [2:03:15] in virginia that's what we talk about here on this channel it's happening in our home state and there's [2:03:22] irrefutable proof that it's going on now it happens to be centered right now in fairfax county but ice [2:03:29] they're making arrests across the state and when we get that information we bring it to you we tell [2:03:36] you about it we are on the press release list for ice they do tell us about their operations [2:03:42] in virginia we've covered one in woodstock we've covered one in hampton roads we tell you about what [2:03:50] what is going on across the state so you know that ice is in fact continuing to work to get [2:03:58] these illegal criminal aliens out of virginia and of course under governor glenn youngkin when he was [2:04:05] arresting thousands of them under when president trump came back in for his second term and as we [2:04:12] heard earlier in this hearing arrested one of the key players in the ms13 gang in prince william county [2:04:20] virginia took him out and made national news it was a key key arrest a major major player in in a gang [2:04:32] gang related crime but they are still working despite the fact queen affordability abigail spandberger says [2:04:43] you guys can't be here and now she has bills on her desk in richmond that would codify her executive order [2:04:51] barring any cooperation between ice and local and state law enforcement because she the democ she [2:04:59] and the democrats do not want to work as a team it seems like if you have law enforcement you have [2:05:07] people who are trained to keep communities safe they would talk to each other they would want to [2:05:13] collaborate they would want to work together you know for years after 9 11 they told us if you see [2:05:19] something say something and the same is true with local and state and federal law enforcement but the [2:05:26] democrats they don't want that they don't want to keep you safe because if they can't have chaos [2:05:33] if they can't have illegal aliens running across virginia terrorizing then they can't spin up their base [2:05:45] and of course their base is all about supporting illegal immigrants in the united states we are [2:05:53] going to have them with the good leadership of our chairman of this committee because it needs to be [2:05:58] talked about and if it needs to be talked about over and over again and good americans like you are [2:06:03] willing to be here because you love your children because you loved her and you're willing to stand up [2:06:09] i applaud you because more than a condolence more than any of that is when somebody says that to you [2:06:14] say change the policy don't let it happen to somebody else it shouldn't happen to anybody god [2:06:21] help you i don't know how you do it but we are praying for you secondly when i say i want to bring [2:06:27] us out a bizarre world i was thinking about all the empty you know a lot of times people gather around [2:06:32] the kitchen table stephanie minter's chair that chair at the table is empty tonight lake and riley's [2:06:38] chair is empty tonight rachel morin's chair is empty tonight jocelyn new gary's chair they're all human [2:06:44] beings they're all human souls that had families that loved them and they loved their family they're [2:06:49] gone and we got more than that we could spend the whole time here reading lists of people who've been [2:06:56] murdered and hurt and beaten and raped because of what's happened and these policies they're human [2:07:01] beings and you know what the worst of it is and not the most important part but on top of all of it [2:07:07] we're paying for all the sanctuary states and sanctuary cities cost a fortune state in new jersey where i am [2:07:14] they estimate and this is not me this is came out in publications 7.3 billion not million billion [2:07:21] dollars every year because of sanctuary policies that's a lot of money for people who are really [2:07:26] squeezed and it's horrible and it shouldn't happen and also i want to allude to the fact yet people are [2:07:32] worried about sometimes when ice goes into where there's a church where there's a department store or [2:07:39] there's a school nobody's really wants that you know why that's happening it's happening predominantly [2:07:45] in blue states because the local law enforcement state county and local in sanctuary states are not [2:07:54] allowed to cooperate where normally they would turn somebody over to ice and you wouldn't have to go [2:08:00] through that process if we all cooperated work together and cared about the people we serve we'd be in [2:08:06] better shape mr descano simple question are american communities safer when illegal immigrants who [2:08:12] commit crimes are deported or when they remain in those communities are they safe for when they're [2:08:17] deported communities yes or no just yes or no well sir that's not yes or no yes no sir i'm asking the [2:08:24] question and i'm trying to answer them no you are asked me a question that's outside of my purview i can [2:08:29] work down there ask you questions you're a human being you're sitting next to a woman who lost her [2:08:34] daughter can you tell me if illegal criminals are to be moved from the country if we're safe and to [2:08:40] suggest that i don't care about what happens in my community this is my go to work every day [2:08:44] answer my question my community you are going to answer my questions you don't show any discipline [2:08:50] when i'm asked questions i answer them so you're not willing to answer that question okay [2:08:55] so i ask you this question let's talk about abdul jala yes or no would stephanie minter be alive today [2:09:03] if he had been deported and you know why he wasn't deported because then quite frankly the [2:09:08] administration was not as aggressive and if a country didn't want to accept these awful people [2:09:13] that came from the country we didn't know where to send them and we held them and we detain them [2:09:17] now we're finding places to send them so that this doesn't go on that's the answer that's why that [2:09:23] happened it's not a mystery it's not something weird or unusual they didn't know where the heck [2:09:28] to put it now we just do it and we get it done but nevertheless would we be safer if he wasn't in [2:09:35] the country then would we be safer yes or no sir yes or no or to be safer if the man wasn't in the [2:09:43] country damn it answer my question sir i'm trying you keep changing the question no it's yes or no [2:09:49] there's a bad guy that murders people certainly if somebody is no answer the question i'm sorry [2:09:56] you know i'll ask you this explain to the lady next to you abdul jala was charged in your county more [2:10:03] than 40 times not four times 40 times your office dropped the charges in almost every single case [2:10:10] that's fact we have it documented we can look at it your own fairfax county police department [2:10:16] wrote your office we have it it's fact may 2025 saying he had shown a quote blazing disregard for [2:10:24] human life that was a danger to the community and that if he wasn't detained and deported he would [2:10:31] seriously hurt someone or kill someone the very man went out and then killed someone so the question [2:10:37] is couldn't have we done better there yeah the gentleman's time is expired that is a rhetorical [2:10:42] question and mr nadler is recognized thank you mr chairman mr chairman this subcommittee has [2:10:56] hardly been busy this year clearly republicans have no desire to conduct oversight of the trump [2:11:01] administration's brutal and reckless campaign to strike fear in immigrant communities across the [2:11:07] country all right they don't go ahead uh let's get the chat going here real quick drop in from where [2:11:11] you're watching from uh this is a good time to uh talk about uh where you're watching from we've been [2:11:16] not listening to mr nadler nadal rattle on here about whatever he's gonna rattle on about but i [2:11:22] would love to know where you're watching from um if you're watching from virginia you're watching out [2:11:27] from outside virginia do you want to know where you guys are watching from and if you guys are um [2:11:33] definitely uh tuned in to this because we certainly are watching what's going on there this discussion [2:11:39] unprecedented discussion about how virginia officials are fumbling to keep when it comes to keeping all of us [2:11:46] safe in our communities from illegal criminal aliens who are raping and murdering in virginia the focus [2:11:55] of a administration's extreme hearing today on capitol hill so seeing roanoke berkville fairfax county [2:12:03] bedford watching from hawaii you may get the uh the longest uh furthest distance traveled there [2:12:12] watching from mechanicsville fairfax good to have you fairfax bassett virginia good to have you here [2:12:18] love to see the chat light up with where you're where you are watching from so thank you so much [2:12:22] keep that coming in tell us where you're watching from completely misrepresented by some people [2:12:26] uh uh in the committee and on this panel my policies are prosecution policies that are meant to [2:12:32] keep my community one of the safest large counties in the country lastly i'd like to really drive home the [2:12:38] point that when it comes to this abduljalo case my pro my policies are a red herring ice knew about [2:12:47] this gentleman for at least eight years to the question of if if we would have been safer with him [2:12:52] not here yes i wish ice would have done its job in 2018 or 2019 when they had him so the idea that my [2:12:58] policies impacted many of these cases that are being talked about is simply a red herring and not true [2:13:05] thank you mr buyer the trump administration claims that it's only going after the worst of [2:13:10] the worst and targeting criminals but according to ice's own data the majority of immigrants they [2:13:17] have detained have no criminal record is the trump administration really going after the worst of the [2:13:22] worst no not only do 72 percent not have a criminal conviction only six percent have a violent criminal [2:13:29] conviction you look at how dhs internally is classifying its detainees they have multiple [2:13:36] threat levels three different threat levels and they actually deem 72 percent of the people when they [2:13:43] have to do it internally decide okay we need to actually rank these people we've heard descano dodge [2:13:49] question after question this afternoon he was asked plain and simply are people more safe [2:13:56] when illegal criminal aliens are deported where they're not on the street they're not able to [2:14:02] commit crimes i.e murder and rape on virginia streets and descano couldn't answer that uh of course [2:14:09] he claims it's not in his purview uh to answer that question he doesn't apparently have a personal [2:14:15] opinion on that uh when you heard fairfax county stacy fairfax county sheriff stacy kincaid [2:14:22] be asked whether or not she would honor an ice detainer which basically means hey we're from ice [2:14:31] we're here to get this illegal criminal alien in your jail will you please hand that person over to us [2:14:38] so we can prosecute him deport him put him through federal uh the the federal process that we would do [2:14:45] with any illegal criminal alien in the country and she said well if i'm allowed and what they want [2:14:52] to do is completely snow you into thinking well they must have a boss and they have to do what their [2:14:59] boss says but a sheriff is duly elected the people in virginia elect their sheriff and that is the key [2:15:10] difference from having a sheriff or and a police chief now fairfax county has both a police chief [2:15:19] and a sheriff and because of that they have and several counties in virginia are set up like this [2:15:25] and so when you have a police chief and a sheriff you have a police department in the sheriff's office [2:15:31] and in those in those counties the sheriff off the sheriff's office typically runs the jail and they [2:15:38] serve warrants that's their job whereas the police department they will go around and they will answer [2:15:45] calls for 9-1-1 calls they call them calls for service uh they do the traffic stops they do the [2:15:50] speed enforcement they do the patrolling the checks i mean they're the the the guys on the street they do [2:15:56] the swat team they do all the um you know the honor guard they do the the police stuff you see in the [2:16:01] movies that's what these police departments do and the police chief is is he he or she [2:16:08] must answer to the board of supervisors right the seven or eight member board that they have that [2:16:15] that that those members of that board are duly elected and the police chief is hired and fired by [2:16:21] that board and and that part the chief must answer that board the sheriff is answered only to the people [2:16:30] but she would have you believe that that's not the case she would have you believe if i'm allowed to [2:16:35] well you're the sheriff you make the rules you set the policy and then you heard steve discano talk [2:16:42] about how well the policy on my campaign website stating that i would give preferential treatment [2:16:49] to immigrants who come before me who are charged with crimes and then he changed his policy as soon [2:16:55] as congress invited him to come in and for this hearing today well i thought you were i i didn't know [2:17:01] you were you were that dumb you can't tell the difference between something i said on the campaign [2:17:06] trail versus something that i do after i get elected because because of course the guy what i say [2:17:12] on the campaign trail is clearly different than what i do after i get elected the the two never shall [2:17:19] meet i thought you were smarter than that was essentially discano's answer these are the people running [2:17:26] fairfax county that is why we're having this hearing today or why we had this hearing today [2:17:33] and what we're watching if you're just joining we are doing a recap of the hearing from fairfax in [2:17:39] congress today fairfax county and their sanctuary city policies but i doubt it your distinguished career [2:17:46] that you ever had your chief law enforcement in whatever jurisdiction you were prosecutor i doubt if you [2:17:50] ever had them say it's shameful the way this prosecutor is not prosecuted that ever happened [2:17:55] to you mr attorney general no we never had what happened with the fairfax police using chief said [2:18:00] what bothers me about this case is the fact that this absolutely could have been prevented stephanie [2:18:05] mentor should be alive right now and she's not because steve discano's office chose to release him back [2:18:10] in the public no that's never happened in my career yeah and it doesn't happen in most places where you [2:18:15] got a prosecutor who works with law enforcement to keep the bad guys off the street now let's get back to [2:18:19] this policy issue that mr discano was talking about he says what he said to the voters when he [2:18:26] was running for the job that doesn't really count i got an official policy what i said to the voters [2:18:31] no don't forget that i mean frankly that's what happens a lot of policies i actually think it should [2:18:35] be just the opposite whatever you told the voters if they elected you should do what you said i think [2:18:39] he's doing that i think he's just trying to wiggle around it now but here's the policy [2:18:42] consideration of this is this is county of fairfax commonwealth attorney procedure memorandum [2:18:50] 12 15 2020 policy title guidelines for plea bargaining charging decisions and sentencing [2:18:56] authorizing signature steve discano and here's what it says on point 14 mr attorney general [2:19:03] consideration of immigration consequences assistant commonwealth attorneys shall consider we all know [2:19:09] we're in this business of writing laws may and shower two different words right shall means you got [2:19:14] to look at this stuff now he puts a little other thing shall consider immigration consequences where [2:19:19] possible we're doing so accords with justice all that stuff but it's not a may it's a shall that [2:19:24] is their policy do you agree with that mr attorney general that is their policy yes mr chairman and [2:19:28] do you believe that has impacted the decision to let these bad guys on the street who did terrible [2:19:33] things again miss minner is beside you just between 2022 and 2024 mr discano dropped the charges on [2:19:41] mr joll of trespassing malicious wounding theft petty larceny trespassing disorderly conduct and [2:19:47] malicious wounded that's like seven crimes right now here's what i want to know maybe your office [2:19:52] mr discano is willing to give us this information because you said oh no immigration status my last [2:19:57] time you said immigration status had no determination on the decision relative to mr morales ortiz i want [2:20:03] to know in cases where it did what were the cases where you changed the plea agreement or you changed the [2:20:10] charging decision that were based on consideration of their immigration status if you say this doesn't matter [2:20:16] anymore we took it down off the website i didn't really i don't really believe what i told the [2:20:20] voters if that's the case i want to know did you ever use immigration status as a reason to impact the [2:20:26] sentence and the charging decision or a plea agreement well sir can you get us that in from that's what [2:20:32] i'm asking just get us that information i want to know what here are the cases where we took into [2:20:35] account this individual's immigration status and we changed the charging decision can you give us those cases [2:20:43] sir i i don't have those cases with me i'd love to talk to you about them imagine that you don't have [2:20:47] those cases with you is it a significant number well sir if if i may dig into the policy i think it'll [2:20:53] be illustrative no i asked you about cases i want to know the number of times you took into there [2:20:58] because here's what everyone sees you're trying to say it's not the case everyone sees you got an [2:21:03] american citizen who does a crime you got an illegal immigrant does the exact same crime your policy [2:21:09] strong it seems to me says that this person will get a different sentence or a different charge [2:21:14] excuse me different plea agreement than the american citizen and i want to know if that ever happened [2:21:18] it absolutely says in the policy in black and white that a that an immigrant will not get a better [2:21:24] outcome than a u.s citizen that is in the policy that's later you've you read one half sentence sir [2:21:30] this is a two paragraph policy well here's what again let's go back to the website you took down [2:21:34] i'm sorry mr the general's times has expired i think the gentleman uh mr tiffany thank you very [2:21:42] much uh mr chairman um i want to thank miss minter for the verse that she read at the end of her [2:21:47] testimony it was moving and thank you so much for that thank you so much for sharing the memories [2:21:52] of your daughter um with us with those pictures and i'm just sorry that there's not going to be more [2:21:57] pictures for us to be able to see in the future i wish you the very best um in wisconsin uh mr miaras i've [2:22:05] got a question for you at the uh end of a couple sentences here in wisconsin we had a terrible [2:22:12] situation it's sounds like it's like fairfax in dane county which is madison wisconsin uh they have [2:22:18] this same thing they have sanctuary policies and an illegal venezuelan uh immigrant known gang member [2:22:25] was let free excuse me he then later arrested uh he was later arrested over 100 miles away in the [2:22:35] town of prairie du chine in wisconsin and he was charged with domestic violence sexual assault child [2:22:42] abuse and strangulation doesn't this make it very clear that these sanctuary policies they affect all [2:22:54] of us whether it's in our state our region whatever and i think about all the people that come from our [2:23:01] great state of wisconsin that visit washington dc seems to me that fairfax county not very far away [2:23:09] that this can be a problem for people who live all over the country just like this example where [2:23:15] madison dane county wisconsin refused to remove someone who went on to strangle someone isn't this [2:23:24] a really big problem that is being created that does not just affect places like dane county wisconsin [2:23:32] and fairfax county virginia it is a massive problem congressman and if you meet with victims as i have [2:23:38] through the years the one thing a victim will tell you they want they they do not want to become it's [2:23:43] just a number just a statistic it has been cited some of fairfax public safety numbers but at the end [2:23:49] of the day every victim every victim their life has changed from the date of the offense when they have [2:23:56] lost their loved one it absolutely affects and what's amazing about this is that in counties where you [2:24:02] actually have say bedford county in virginia with sheriff miller great sheriff and west nancy great [2:24:07] commonwealth's attorney they don't get these headlines they don't get these headlines because they [2:24:12] actually cooperate with federal federal immigration authorities but what happens in fairfax is they're [2:24:17] making a conscious decision and you're seeing it over and over again and it's not just a failure to [2:24:21] cooperate with federal immigration authorities it is a conscious decision by steve descano to under prosecute [2:24:28] crimes over and over again people have made uh disappointed out of what happened when a a a judge [2:24:36] told ice that they had to release them because they were not allowed to deport them to sierra leon [2:24:42] but the reality is this was so preventable because multiple times multiple times he was arrested [2:24:47] multiple times this prosecutor had the policy of under prosecuting and dropping charge and it's not [2:24:53] just this case it's multiple cases he has made a conscious decision i'm a little incredulous he has [2:24:59] decided to say well the promises i made to the campaign when i was campaigning voters they don't [2:25:04] really count i'm a firm believer let your yes be yes your no be no and it's not what you say it's what you [2:25:10] do he may claim this has no impact on his charging decisions but if you look at time and time again and i can [2:25:16] go through the cases and so is so can mr kennedy there is a volume of cases where he has made a conscious [2:25:22] decision to under prosecute and essentially treat illegal immigrants with greater deference than [2:25:27] he would an american citizen who is charged with a crime is there a correlation with the crime [2:25:32] statistics being down i was looking at some yesterday that came out of the judiciary committee where [2:25:36] i think it was um 67 of the largest municipalities here in america the decrease in a year was like 236 fewer [2:25:46] murders in the united states so think about it compared to the previous year um uh there's a [2:25:53] reduction there's 236 more people that are alive in america as a result of this is there a correlation [2:25:59] with this um securing our border and those places that choose to be tough on crime do you think there's a [2:26:07] correlation no question because i do think sanctuary policies also create a magnet for groups if you look at [2:26:13] say fairfax county it's estimated roughly 200 000 illegal aliens are in fairfax if you look right [2:26:18] next door to loud and it's about 25 000 why ms 13 and td and other in transnational gangs understand [2:26:26] that they are in a sanctuary that they can operate with impunity they then reside in fairfax and oftentimes [2:26:31] are committing their crimes all over so fairfax and dane county wisconsin they're actually magnets [2:26:38] for violent illegal aliens right they know they can go there and if they're picked up on a charge [2:26:43] they know they have local government in this case the fairfax board of supervisors has passed the trust [2:26:48] policy which is an explicit prohibition on cooperation and they know this they're not dumb [2:26:53] they know which localities that will open the doors to them and which localities cooperate with [2:26:57] federal authorities gentlemen thank you mr mr nott thank you mr chairman miss minner i'm so sorry [2:27:06] this is clearly a preventable crime despite what has been said um as the father of two daughters i [2:27:12] can't imagine what you're going through what you will go through and uh candidly i would not be [2:27:17] acting as civilly with some of the people you're seated with had i suffered what you've had to [2:27:22] endure so thank you for being here mr descano you said that quote we prosecute virginia cases is that [2:27:28] correct that is correct yes and uh you you paint a picture of being rigorous in your efforts [2:27:35] to prosecute bad people correct yes when we prosecute of course we um take a look at every [2:27:41] case yep we are constrained by the evidence we're constrained by the law and i will tell you congressman [2:27:46] you know i think what is happening here with the number of cases that we're talking about [2:27:50] i want to talk to you about one of those cases i want to talk to you about one of those cases sir [2:27:55] mr hiram rodriguez remember that case i do leading up to the crime that i want to talk about the [2:28:01] defendant's criminal history included multiple charges and arrests for indecent liberties [2:28:06] exposing himself to a child exposing himself to a child less than 15 years of age disorderly conduct [2:28:13] illegally entering a property to damage burglary he was even sentenced albeit i would say too lightly [2:28:20] while he was on probation while he was under court supervision in june 15th 2023 at four o'clock in [2:28:27] the morning fairfax county pd responded to a burglary in process a mother and her four-year-old [2:28:33] daughter were asleep in the same room but in separate beds the mother was awoken when her [2:28:40] four-year-old daughter was screaming in the next room she went to investigate the attacker dropped [2:28:47] the four-year-old and fled the scene it was clear that the four-year-old had been abducted from her bed [2:28:52] her buttocks had been grabbed her torso had been bruised the victim displayed immediate bruising the [2:29:01] mother did not see the attacker's face but the four-year-old said he was a quote big man law [2:29:05] enforcement identified mr rodriguez by two ways forensics recovered a finger and palm print from [2:29:11] the window that he jarred open in this case and matched footprints outside the house where he was [2:29:17] standing with a mud print inside the house eyewitness testimony later identified rodriguez as having been [2:29:23] loitering for days outside this apartment building he had been seen using drugs in the neighborhood and he [2:29:29] had been pacing around this particular unit in the days leading up to the crime police secured two [2:29:36] warrants one statutory burglary specifically alleging that rodriguez entered an occupied dwelling seizing [2:29:41] a four-year-old with the intent to commit murder rape robbery or arson maximum penalty is 20 years [2:29:50] abduction of a four-year-old with the intent to defile such a person was the second charge with the maximum [2:29:56] penalty of life once it was handed over to your office inexplicably so you immediately reduced the [2:30:04] burglary offense to a misdemeanor which capped the sentence at 12 months you then reduced the abduction [2:30:11] charge to an offense that was a lower degree and capped the sentence at 10 years when you entered into [2:30:18] a plea agreement you tried to bind the court bind the court so they could not sentence this person [2:30:26] to any term over two years is that not correct sir i'm so glad you brought this is that not correct [2:30:32] well because i would like to explain it is correct and the court rejected it sir i know this was a [2:30:39] this was a this was a i'm talking it was a judge that was appointed by senator warner this is not a [2:30:46] right-wing judge this is a liberal judge and you know why he rejected it sir he saw what you should have [2:30:51] seen he cited overwhelming evidence can we talk about the evidence this person was i know it and [2:30:58] you don't quit talking and i would love her son was a threat he yanked a four-year-old girl out of [2:31:04] her bed with the intent to harm her and you wanted to give her a cap of two years sir this is then when [2:31:12] the plea agreement was rejected what did you do sir this is what did you do this is a great example of [2:31:19] a case i've prosecuted you understand and when you're evading like that you know what's that's a [2:31:25] sign of guilt what did you do so you dismissed the case sir can i please talk about this when you just [2:31:34] want to know about it so quiet when you dismiss a case what happens to that defendant he walks free [2:31:42] walks free a disgusting perverted individual preying on children that you dismissed the case [2:31:51] as the father of two young girls one of them's five that is as shameful as anything i have [2:31:58] don't talk to me that i don't care about people in my clearly don't absolutely dismiss the case and [2:32:04] it's shameful sir you're a coward you won't even let me talk to you about the case it's indefensible [2:32:10] sir i yield back thank you mr chairman for for holding this hearing um on a really important [2:32:26] issue that i think a lot of americans um care very deeply about uh mr discano i want to start with [2:32:34] you i've got a couple questions for you um i've got a a document titled guidelines for plea bargaining [2:32:42] charging decisions and sentencing um and it states that prosecutors shall consider the collateral [2:32:50] immigration consequences of the specific crimes the defendant is charged with and the detrimental [2:32:56] impact the deportation removal has on the families and communities uh who those removed will [2:33:03] leave behind this is a document this is your your official policy this is not from your campaign [2:33:08] website this is the official policy document as well is that correct do you recognize this yes [2:33:13] you read a portion of the policy sir that's right i'm not going to read the full thing oh i don't [2:33:18] respect you sir about 11 pages i'm not going to read the full thing um i want to better understand [2:33:24] how you weigh an illegal alien's immigration status whenever you're making charging decisions [2:33:30] um do you do you know who under jose cortez mendez is are you familiar with that case yes sir okay this [2:33:39] is a guatemalan illegal alien who was arrested in march of 2024 he was initially charged with quote [2:33:46] carnal knowledge of a 13 to 14 year old um just for for those of us who aren't lawyers can you describe [2:33:52] just very briefly what what does carnal knowledge of a 13 to 14 year old mean in this context well sir [2:33:59] generally the uh a charge like that would typically uh refer to underage sex okay so we so we raped an [2:34:06] underage person an illegal alien who raped an underage american your office reduced those charges to [2:34:12] a misdemeanor charge of consensual sex with a child 15 years and older you offered him a 90 [2:34:19] day suspended jail sentence is that correct sir based on the evidence that we had in the case so [2:34:26] it is correct but it's not related to the policy sir so that so that is correct i just want to ask [2:34:31] you whenever you were making that charging decision to reduce the charge how did you weigh the defendant's [2:34:36] immigration status well sir i'll to be clear i was not the lead prosecutor in that case [2:34:42] if it was your your uh your office oh absolutely sir i of course uh rely on my team of 50 some [2:34:49] attorneys to do cases um but i think what is important is that oftentimes as you know sir [2:34:57] um as a prosecutor you know we're constrained by the evidence we're concerned you know how did you weigh [2:35:03] how did you take into account the defendant's immigration status well sir again i'm making that [2:35:08] decision your office make that determination well what i was what i would say is that and thank [2:35:13] you for clarifying um if you take a look at the the immigration consequence to policy or uh let me [2:35:21] ask it a different way did you did your office reduce charges against this illegal alien from a [2:35:26] felony rape charge to a misdemeanor charge with a 90-day suspended jail sentence in part because this [2:35:33] was an illegal alien in question no this was evidentiary based it was evident there was no it had [2:35:38] nothing to do with the the defendant's immigration status so when you testimony if you read the policy [2:35:43] you'll see that did it have anything to do with the defendant's immigration status it's just yes [2:35:47] or no well sir it was based on the evidence it it i'm asking you did was their immigration status [2:35:52] part of the evidence i don't believe so yes or no you don't believe so your pot your policy says that [2:35:57] it you shall consider their immigration actually sorry if you actually read the whole policy it [2:36:02] explicitly car prosecutors shall consider the collateral immigration consequences of the specific crimes [2:36:07] the defendant is charged with and the detrimental impact the deportation removal has on the [2:36:11] families it also mentions that it's not it's not outcome determinative it also i understand and i'm [2:36:17] asking you if that if you weighed your office weighed uh the defendant's immigration status in making [2:36:23] your charging decisions here oh again sir i was i was not the lead prosecutor and i'm asking for your [2:36:28] office i understand you're not exactly i just want to be clear but the way that the policy is written [2:36:35] that case should not have fallen under the rubric of this policy this is a narrow policy and is meant [2:36:41] to be a narrow policy illegal alien i think that would qualify would it not well no sir because [2:36:48] again the the way that the policy is being presented as it is as it is outcome determined there would be [2:36:54] every immigration uh consequences based on what what charge you bring that would clearly apply to this [2:37:01] case no sir again that's the reason why i mentioned earlier you've read a portion but not the entire two [2:37:07] paragraphs of this sub prosecutors shall consider i just want to know yes sir just give me a yes or no [2:37:13] answer did you take into account the defendant's immigration status or again i was not but the way [2:37:17] the policy is your office the way the policy is written no they should not have taken should not [2:37:21] have that that is not outcome determined in a case like this separate thank you my time's up mr [2:37:26] growthman yeah i had another hearing so i apologize if i'm asking a question that's already been asked [2:37:33] uh obviously we have immigration laws in this country every country has immigration laws uh we [2:37:39] have 800 000 people about naturalized in this country every year we're right now in a position [2:37:45] which one out of six americans uh in this country i mean are foreign born for one of the six people in [2:37:51] this country which is the all-time high so nobody could say that under current law we are not more than [2:37:58] generous with people who want to come here um nevertheless there's some people who i can only [2:38:06] unless they're very foolish or trying to destroy the country by in addition to the 800 000 people [2:38:12] getting swear and sworn and want to let unlimited other people in the country now my first question [2:38:18] is for sheriff kinkade i hear from my local sheriffs in wisconsin uh if if there's any activity from [2:38:28] federal agents fbi atf dea u.s marshals secret service they are always contact the federal agency [2:38:37] or they call them to coordinate with them you know maybe to set up a perimeter or maybe if they have [2:38:43] to to remove somebody take them to the local jail um we are told and that would seem to be automatic as [2:38:51] in america uh nevertheless we're told sheriff kinkade that your office sometimes is reluctant to assist [2:38:58] federal agencies and ongoing investigations intended to safeguard citizens how do you respond to that [2:39:04] charge first and foremost we we never obstruct ice um as a matter of fact we work with them on in [2:39:14] three or four more ways when they request and call and ask for assistance especially when it comes to [2:39:19] turning someone over we we coordinate that with them to ensure their safety but as far as uh not [2:39:27] cooperating with them um we we do we do that all the time just like any other law enforcement agency [2:39:33] okay does virginia law explicitly authorize compliance with ice detainers within five days of [2:39:39] a criminal alien's release from your custody based on the the judicial or the i'm sorry the [2:39:46] administrative warrant there is law that that allows for us to turn an individual over to ice five [2:39:52] days prior to when they are set to be released and ice does know that yeah and we do you do okay is your [2:39:59] office conducted an audit of what happens to individuals you've released instead of honoring [2:40:04] ice detainers or do you always honor them in terms of we we honor detain we honor detainers it is when we [2:40:12] are presented with a judicial warrant that we will continue to detain somebody because it's authorized by a [2:40:18] judge okay uh mr mayaris um can you give a high level overview of the findings of your september [2:40:26] 2025 investigation into fairfax counties fairfax county commonwealth's attorney's office yes yes [2:40:34] sir yeah we we conducted one and saw that uh in our opinion um mr descano views himself more as a [2:40:41] social worker than a prosecutor and that as a result he has systematic failed uh the victims in fairfax [2:40:48] county we talked to so many not just those and including the victims that were uh immigrants but [2:40:54] everyday citizens that have felt the fairfax county commonwealth's attorney's office had failed them [2:40:59] okay could you respond or do you agree with everything sheriff can gain i i do find it curious what [2:41:05] we have is they keep trying to say uh they need a judicial warrant as you know uh dhs and others said that [2:41:11] that is not required in this case and what you've seen actually in virginia disturbingly is that we [2:41:17] we just had our current governor pass an executive order first one e01 that banned cooperation with [2:41:24] federal immigration authorities not just with the state police or returning governor youngkin's policies [2:41:28] but also the department of corrections in other words someone that is a convicted felon in a virginia [2:41:33] prison even then and so you're seeing a lot of bad policies from fairfax being brought statewide [2:41:40] okay uh that's kind of shocking and i i guess if you elaborate on a little bit and what would happen in [2:41:46] this country if uh or what effect that has on uh people who are illegally and are legally committing [2:41:54] crimes we as a nation allow roughly 1 million legal immigrants a year we are a good and decent and [2:42:00] generous people that's who we are i'm the child of an immigrant what americans do not like is be [2:42:05] seen that they're being taken advantage of during the biden administration between 8 to 10 million [2:42:10] illegal immigrants came into this country that is larger than the population of 32 u.s states that is not [2:42:17] tenable people are not doing it the right way we there is not a country on the planet that is generous [2:42:22] with legal immigration as we are it's not even close but what we don't appreciate right now are [2:42:28] people that are cutting in line and breaking our laws it's something we all learned in grade school [2:42:32] we have too many policy makers who decide that's okay and they shrug their shoulders they turned a [2:42:37] blind eye in this case steve descano deciding to adopt policies taking someone's illegal immigration [2:42:43] status and under prosecuting cases and which we're seeing the tragic results as we're seeing today [2:42:53] thank you mr chairman um you know i i practiced alongside immigration attorneys for a period of [2:43:00] time before coming to congress so have a sense of just how broken our immigration system is and how [2:43:06] hard it is even for people who are trying to follow the rules to actually follow the rules so [2:43:12] um a lot of the conversation we have in congress seems to come from folks who don't understand how [2:43:19] the system is actually uh working or not working and if our republican colleagues want to talk about [2:43:26] who and what is making americans less safe today it's this white house and it's chaos and it's reckless [2:43:34] mass deportation agenda families and communities are being torn apart citizens have been ripped from their [2:43:41] homes with no warrants in cases of mistaken identity federal agents have shot and killed americans in [2:43:48] our streets for daring to question their unlawful tactics the white house has prioritized meeting [2:43:55] deportation quotas and in doing so has targeted all immigrants including those who have followed our rules [2:44:04] and who until this administration changed the rules those folks were in our country legally but the [2:44:13] majority of folks who have been detained by ice have no criminal record here or in their home countries [2:44:19] and that's according to the agency's own data while ice and cbp claim to be folk claim to be focusing on [2:44:27] the worst of the worst instead they've gone after toddlers with spider-man backpacks parents taking [2:44:34] their kids to school or to the hospital for cancer treatment hard-working people showing up at work [2:44:41] spouses of military veterans and active duty service members and law-abiding people who are showing up for [2:44:50] their interviews and court hearings as they are following the rules to do what they need to do to [2:44:56] become citizens or obtain other forms of legal status so who does any of this make more safe aside from [2:45:03] the trauma and the heartbreak that these policies have inflicted on individual families and communities [2:45:10] the damage to our economy is mounting by the day that damage comes from companies rethinking their [2:45:18] investments in the u.s because they see their citizens their folks getting abused by our immigration [2:45:27] agents tourists who've decided not to visit disney world or celebrate our 250th anniversary or attend [2:45:36] the world cup this year we've seen bookings from overseas are down 20 to 30 percent across the country [2:45:42] but we're particularly sensitive to it in philadelphia and we're seeing physicians researchers and [2:45:49] students from around the world who've been deterred from bringing their talents and their um you know [2:45:57] what they can bring to our country by additional visa fees and by the risks of being targeted by [2:46:04] misguided immigration agents so throughout our country's history immigrants have been drawn here by [2:46:09] the promise of america and its brighter future and they bring meaningful contributions to our economy our [2:46:16] culture our social fabric uh in in all of our communities so we should be seeing our outdated [2:46:24] broken immigration system to make it better and more efficient not undermining it or just trying to [2:46:31] gut it entirely because failing to do that work is a huge disservice to all of us and to the future [2:46:39] success of our nation our republican colleagues have tried to say this is about fighting crime but in [2:46:44] pursuit of this administration's indiscriminate crackdown they're diverting federal law enforcement [2:46:50] prosecutors and resources away from serious threats including child exploitation fentanyl trafficking domestic [2:46:58] terrorism so um this is really misguided it seems to be entirely about politics and not about actual [2:47:06] safety um mr discano in the few seconds we have left is there anything you would like to add because [2:47:13] you seem like you've been a very practical and engaged public servant well thank you congresswoman [2:47:18] and there are a few things i'd love to add first of all let me be clear my policy that we're talking [2:47:24] about was written with legal permanent residents in mind for minor crimes it was based off of the [2:47:30] we've been watching the recap of today's hearing correctional hearing in washington over the sanctuary city [2:47:41] policies of fairfax county in virginia uh we started this stream uh with the the part you're just watching [2:47:49] there we started the stream so if you want to catch the entire hearing you just where you want go to [2:47:54] on top of this stream and continue hearing that but unbelievable uh accounts of discano dodging questions [2:48:02] today sheriff stacy kincaid dodging questions today uh talking about i don't have permission i'll honor ice [2:48:10] detainers if i have permission uh descano not answering questions from jim jordan and others of the [2:48:18] congressional delegation who were asking questions about his specific policies even why he changed [2:48:24] his policy on illegal immigrants of course when he said when he was running for office he was saying he [2:48:30] was going to give preference to illegal immigrants who are in this country illegally in charge of the crime [2:48:38] uh he would uh give them preference and take their legal stat legal presence status into account when [2:48:46] it determined if he was going to fully prosecute that or not and of course when he got the invitation to [2:48:52] come and appear before congress he changed the policy and took that policy off his website saying well [2:48:59] guys don't you know the difference between campaigning you know i'm a politician i say one thing [2:49:04] when i'm campaigning and then after i get elected i do another come on guys don't you know that's how [2:49:11] it works i mean come on i'm a politician right that's i'm a democrat that's what we do this is um [2:49:19] unbelievable so like i said thanks for thanks for hanging out i'm gonna get into some other news here [2:49:24] because i do do have some other news to share with you today i'm going to be talking about where we are [2:49:30] in the scotus supreme court of the united states and the virginia's appeal to be heard uh on this [2:49:37] illegal gerrymandering case and what governor abigail spanberger queen affordability has to say [2:49:44] about how the election will proceed so we've got some indication from the queen herself as how things [2:49:52] are going to play out this this fall during the election despite the fact that two bullets j jones [2:49:59] is appealing to the supreme court of the united states i think he's appealing to the supreme court [2:50:07] i i think that's what he wanted to do despite the fact that he put on the appeal in the affidavit to [2:50:13] the court saying virginia state supreme court he didn't spell virginia correct either and he didn't [2:50:19] spell the word senator correct either so j jones needing some help in that uh in that department [2:50:27] we'll be going into what queen affordability said about the elections and we're going to give you [2:50:32] an update on where the uh where we are in the gun rights of course the democrat super majority in [2:50:40] richmond stripping away your rights our rights as uh as american citizens our god-given rights to protect [2:50:47] our life our freedom our family our property all of the above taking all of that away and we [2:50:57] we'll be giving into a kind of what to expect because a lot of you have been asking what's the [2:51:02] latest with the um the guns and the democrats the the wild crazy democrats wanting to strip your rights [2:51:10] away for that so i'm going to pull that article up and we'll get into that we pull pull this up here [2:51:17] uh if you've not checked out our podcast so far we've let yesterday we were joined uh by a gentleman [2:51:25] from lynchburg we talked a lot about the the abortion uh amendment that's coming up yes another [2:51:32] congressional amendment in virginia coming up this in november they want to codify abortion as it stands [2:51:40] one in three children in virginia are aborted one in every three and they want more of it they want [2:51:47] to codify it put in the constitution to allow even more abortion all the way through the third trimester and [2:51:54] put put and then infanticide after birth abortion this is what it is after birth abortion you heard [2:52:01] former governor glenn excuse me gosh former governor ralph northam talk about infanticide in 2019 [2:52:11] when he was sitting in the wtop studio being asked questions about infanticide and he described very [2:52:18] clearly what he would do in that case he would have the baby and this is a an army doctor talking to [2:52:26] you this is an army physician telling you that they would allow the baby to be born and then they would [2:52:34] make the baby comfortable and then they would have a conversation about the baby so yes virginia democrats [2:52:44] wanting to codify abortion so we had uh uh chris feraldi from lynchburg the city council lynchburg's [2:52:52] doing great great work when it comes to limiting abortion clinics and planned parenthood from from [2:53:00] expanding in that city clamping down on where they can be located uh we also had uh two candidates from [2:53:08] the seventh congressional district race doug ollivant and philip harding both are republicans and both [2:53:15] are seeking to go after uh eugene vennman you jeffney everyone's favorite ukrainian uh uh congressman [2:53:25] who has done very little for virginia very little at all does not service constituency i get more [2:53:33] complaints about mr you jeffney than than any other congressman and in my time i have not seen a more [2:53:41] divisive congressman in virginia serving the again the seventh district which includes culpepper county [2:53:49] uh i believe a portion of green county over to fredericksburg king george spotsylvania caroline [2:53:54] county that area in the fredericksburg area uh including uh the uh part of prince william county as [2:54:00] well going into northern virginia so uh when hearing from the congressional candidates if and we want [2:54:05] to continue to hear more from the conservative candidates who are looking to take back our [2:54:11] commonwealth and give you a voice in congress and make sure that we push back on these crazy crazy [2:54:21] democrats wanting to murder babies and let criminal illegal aliens roam free and murder virginians rape [2:54:30] virginians kill children murder babies in the womb that's what we have that's that's what we have [2:54:42] running virginia as it says but uh you guys are you guys certainly aren't woke you are aware but you [2:54:53] guys are not woke and that's why you're here and i certainly certainly appreciate you being here you can [2:54:58] also follow us on facebook check us out there facebook.com slash virginia insider if you're on [2:55:06] facebook i i do my best to uh post some clips on that video on that platform and i'll drop the uh [2:55:15] drop that link into the chat here i think i can post into the chat there there you go see if that [2:55:21] link comes through but would appreciate the like on facebook and of course you can follow us on x as [2:55:27] well at virginia insider it's good to see everybody in the chat today so good to see all you people um [2:55:33] everybody chiming in from where they're watching from i always love that we had somebody from hawaii [2:55:38] i saw um bedford county always see bedford thank you for joining us from bedford [2:55:44] uh all of roanoke i saw on the chat i saw missouri watching from missouri um just going back through [2:55:50] here through the uh through the past chat here when i call out everybody uh who is watching us uh see [2:55:58] fairfax watching from fairfax what else do we have here a lot of uh just going back through the chat [2:56:07] a lot of descano a lot of descano hate here it's good watching from maryland it's good good to have [2:56:15] you on the chat they warren county grew up in prince william until the invasion watching from nashville [2:56:23] hello nashville watching from chesterfield it's cool cool to have all you guys here on chat there's [2:56:30] watching from montrose there we go perfect perfect watching from hanover hey guys yeah on the uh on [2:56:41] the facebook if you're watching on facebook we're trying to we i think we have to get our likes up [2:56:46] on facebook before they let us start live streaming there which is fine which is fine we'll get our [2:56:50] likes up but um you know i don't know the magic number that we need uh but uh as soon as we as soon [2:56:58] as we can we'll start live streaming to facebook and and getting out the message because the message [2:57:03] is taking back our commonwealth and uh spreading spreading our ideas out there the democrats do not [2:57:10] want our ideas out there they do not want you to think that there are others like us who um might [2:57:18] disagree with them who might think we have a better plan for our virginia a better way forward they don't [2:57:25] want us talking to each other and congregating with each other they don't want us to connect with each [2:57:30] other and and that's what we're doing here we're we're connecting we're talking about ideas we're [2:57:36] sharing ideas about the best path forward for virginia so right so you've been following along with us and [2:58:05] you know that the illegal gerrymander and we but we were we calling it that since day one the illegal [2:58:14] gerrymander that the democrats put us all through the what the the rush to beat donald trump the [2:58:22] orange man that bad mean orange man in washington in the white house they rushed through the process [2:58:31] and then the the scoba the supreme court of virginia smacked them down and beautifully said you know what [2:58:37] you didn't follow the law you didn't follow the process you didn't follow the constitution which [2:58:44] says you the legislature has if you're going to change the constitution which is what they wanted [2:58:50] to do with this illegal gerrymander the legislature has to vote on it once then you have to have an [2:58:56] intervening election because the people need to speak that they need to think well if i disagree [2:59:02] with the constitutional change they need to have the opportunity the people to be able to vote out [2:59:08] the legislatures the legislators that want to change the constitution and then after that intervening [2:59:14] election the cop the legislature votes on the constitutional change one more time and if it passes [2:59:20] you've got a constitutional amendment but the democrats rushing to beat donald trump didn't do that [2:59:29] didn't do that and the supreme court of virginia smacked it down said the process [2:59:33] was illegal not to mention i mean we didn't even get into the fact that the maps [2:59:38] were ridiculous 10 1 10 democrats to one republican not to mention the ballot language was so misleading [2:59:50] restore fairness i mean who writes language like that i mean if you were if republicans were doing it [2:59:59] republicans would go in and say okay listen we're gonna amend the constitution and we're gonna scratch [3:00:04] out the pro this part here and and scratch out this other part of this sentence over there and here's [3:00:09] and we'll show you what we're going to replace it with and and be very specific about it and if [3:00:14] republicans were doing a a map change they would probably oh i don't know show you the map the put the [3:00:21] proposed map of what it would look like if this proposed constitutional amendment were to take a [3:00:29] fact but democrats didn't do any of that they didn't show you the map they didn't really show you [3:00:35] something that could be codified restore fairness would not you were not going to replace the the [3:00:42] election law is as written with the words restore fairness that's not going to go in the constitution [3:00:48] that's not going to be codified so the ballot language was ridiculous scova didn't rule on any [3:00:53] of that they just ruled that the process was was flawed didn't even get to that part so today we're [3:01:02] hearing from queen affordability our dear governor abigail spanberger that the election will go forward [3:01:08] this fall under the current set of maps the old set of maps the ones the democrats tried to toss out [3:01:16] i'm going to get into this article but first this is virginia insider if you are new to this play [3:01:21] page our channel please click like this video please share this video hit that bell notification [3:01:28] and subscribe button so you know when we share news about virginia all right let's get into the article [3:01:34] here wtop news reporting virginia governor concerned redistricting battle could make voters reluctant [3:01:41] to cast a ballot this fall days after virginia democrats filed an emergency appeal with the [3:01:46] u.s supreme court as part of their ongoing redistricting battle governor abigail spanberger [3:01:51] said she's focused on the fall midterm elections and ensuring voters are motivated to turn out [3:01:58] after signing a bill this this week on wednesday spanberger made her most extensive public comments [3:02:05] about the state's redistricting plan she cited the state's may 12th deadline for any map changes and [3:02:11] said as a result this year's elections would proceed under the current map so what happened here she [3:02:21] basically is conceding i mean when you hear the governor say this why are they going to the supreme court i [3:02:28] mean what it what is two bullet jay jones doing at this point i mean he's republicans have until today [3:02:36] supreme court justice john roberts asked republicans to respond by today thursday may 4th to the democrats [3:02:44] case but we still don't know if the supreme court is going to take the case and now we have the governor [3:02:50] saying that no matter what happens the election this fall is going to go and proceed under the old maps the [3:02:58] ones that they wanted to toss out the ones that were drew in 2021 with the independent redistricting [3:03:07] commission put into place by the voters 66 of voters in 2020 created voted to create the independent [3:03:14] redistricting commission and democrats in 2026 says nope take the power from the people and give it back [3:03:20] to the politicians who cares if it won with a two-thirds majority just a few years ago democrats need [3:03:29] power democrats want power democrats only like and respect power they like death and they like power [3:03:38] those two things so now we're wondering well what's what's the whole point of going to the supreme court [3:03:48] what are we doing here what's what's the point of that so it looks like uh spamburger is conceding [3:03:54] and then you heard over this past weekend they wanted to pack the court they wanted to fire all the [3:03:59] judges and pack the court with their own judges hakeem jeffries was representative in new york state of [3:04:07] all places he said he was going to pack the court and was he talking to abigail spamburger does anybody [3:04:13] bother to brief the governor on their banana republic plan no she hadn't been briefed on the plan so it [3:04:22] really leads to questions asking who's really running the state how many people can really point to abigail [3:04:27] spamburger and say you're in charge when everybody else is telling you how it's going to be and what [3:04:33] they're going to do especially when she was the one who said she was not going to redistrict virginia [3:04:40] in the first place remember that she told wjla tv during the campaign she was not going to redistrict [3:04:48] wasn't on her list of things to do and sure enough when she gets into office she's surrounded by democrats [3:04:55] from the legislature and others who basically surround her and tell her how it's going to be [3:05:01] boom we get the illegal gerrymander we get millions of dollars of our taxpayer dollars went out the door [3:05:13] to pay for this illegal gerrymander and i'm not talking about the 65 million dollars democrats spent [3:05:21] on this illegal gerrymander 65 million dollars that they essentially lit on fire money that the broke [3:05:31] dnc could have used to recruit new candidates or run elections or um whatever they literally took 65 [3:05:40] million dollars and lit it on fire so i'm not i'm not talking about that i'm talking about the fact that [3:05:46] our our public money went to to carry out this election and then and you have to think we have [3:05:56] the regular election day where people have to come vote schools were closed in some localities i i we [3:06:02] were one of the where i live my uh my daughter had to switch school days because schools had to close [3:06:09] so people could come in and vote uh at their precincts where they normally vote and in addition to election [3:06:14] day we had the 45 day early voting period that democrats pushed for the democrats said you know [3:06:23] we have to have the longest early voting period anywhere in the us that's what we have to have [3:06:31] and then back on april 27th when they argued in front of scova and said you know what um yeah i know [3:06:40] we pushed for the 47 45 stupidly elongated early voting period i know we push for that but what only [3:06:51] what really counts is on election day that really the only thing we're worried about is what happens [3:06:57] on election day they told the supreme court of virginia that sure you can cast your vote early at [3:07:05] at 45 days leading up to the election but if we change our minds at any point during the election [3:07:15] and you don't know that we're going to change the ballot or put something do something different like [3:07:20] they did forcing scova to toss this whole illegal gerrymander out anyway if democrats changed their [3:07:27] mind that's okay at least you still got to vote doesn't matter if you know what you're voting for [3:07:35] at least you got to vote that's their whole that's their whole argument and now people are questioning [3:07:42] why we have 45 days of early voting if it doesn't really count if democrats don't think that's part of [3:07:49] the election the supreme court of virginia clearly thinks it's part of the election the supreme court of [3:07:55] virginia said once you start casting ballots that's the election what else are you doing the old maps here [3:08:08] were drawn by the in conjunction with the state supreme court the same people that slapped down [3:08:14] the illegal gerrymander the same people that democrats said were not fair when they drew the [3:08:19] maps for some reason in 2021 but i mean you have to think of it when they use language like restore [3:08:27] fairness they're saying that the supreme court was not fair when they in conjunction with the [3:08:36] independent redistricting commission they weren't fair when they drew these maps is what they're saying [3:08:42] that's the blatant dumb poorly written ballot language the democrats came up with in the article [3:08:54] span burger's remarks came a few days after the virginia supreme court struck down the democrat-led [3:08:59] redistricting push primaries in the state are scheduled for august 4th with the november general [3:09:04] election to follow what needs to happen is we need to focus on the task at hand which is running [3:09:10] races in november spamburger said i believe somewhat dog believe that we will win two to four seats in [3:09:18] the house that is my go goal that is what i know is possible so that's the kicker they believed that [3:09:29] they could pick up three to four seats in the house without pissing off the majority of the state [3:09:39] without taking away fifty percent forty five to fifty percent of the state's congressional voice [3:09:47] without gerrymandering without removing virginians voice without pitting neighbor against neighbor [3:09:57] northern virginia against pretty much every other part of the state northern virginia richmond hanthan [3:10:04] roads against every other part of the state the sea when you looked at the map of the no votes versus [3:10:09] the yes votes the sea of no votes and the enclaves of yes votes in northern virginia in richmond and [3:10:18] hampton roads and oddly enough montgomery county down in the southwest part of the state which because [3:10:26] of provisional ballots because of ballots that came in late flipped montgomery county to the yes vote [3:10:34] we've got some work to do in montgomery county but don't you worry montgomery county we are with you [3:10:40] we know that you can do it we we're here to help we're here to get the word out so do do do plug us [3:10:47] in montgomery county what you're doing we want to help you promote the good word down there where you're [3:10:54] at and and this may 12th deadline essentially what you heard and what's what's listed in this article [3:11:02] here this may 12th deadline is essentially the the virginia department of the elections said [3:11:10] hakeem jeffries abigail spamburger whoever the hell's running the state you have until may 12th [3:11:19] to figure out if you're going to do this banana republic thing and pack the court or if you're [3:11:24] going to whatever it is you're going to do you have until may 12th because after may 12th it becomes [3:11:31] increasingly more likely that we're going to screw something up we're going to send ballots to the [3:11:36] wrong people we're going to draw the wrong maps we've got we've got a lot of work to do between [3:11:42] now and august 4th which is the primary and if you guys can't figure out how you're going to take power [3:11:49] or disenfranchise voters or or fire the supreme court of virginia justices and pack the court with [3:11:55] your own people if you guys can't figure that out by may 12th then you probably shouldn't do it we need [3:12:03] to go with the old maps so we can get the elections carried out fairly accurately justly whatever word [3:12:11] you want to use and that's why we have queen affordability here saying that the fall elections [3:12:19] will be carried out under the old maps so what's jay jones doing two bullet jay jones in the supreme [3:12:26] court i don't know i don't know but u.s supreme court justice john roberts gave republicans until [3:12:33] thursday that's today thursday evening to respond to the democrats request for an emergency appeal [3:12:38] spanberger defended the process the general assembly used adding i think i certainly would have wanted to [3:12:44] and did want to see a different outcome with the supreme court ruling over three million people [3:12:50] participated in the rare april special election and spanberger said she's concerned those voters have [3:12:57] had the experience of casting a ballot in every election that was very important to them [3:13:03] including those on both sides of the referendum vote only to have it overturned essentially by [3:13:09] the supreme court of virginia let me tell you something queen affordability governor spanberger [3:13:16] how dare you go out and speak for the no vote virginia doesn't vote in april we don't virginia [3:13:26] votes every year there's no there is an election in virginia every single year and we have primaries [3:13:33] in june now we have a primary coming up in august this year and we have general elections in virginia [3:13:40] every year in november we don't vote in april we vote we only vote in april when democrats decide that [3:13:49] that they have to rush a constitutional amendment through to stop orange man in the white house [3:13:57] and an illegal constitution an illegal constitutional amendment decided by democrats supported by democrats [3:14:08] approved by democrats put on the ballot by democrats and tossed out by the virginia state supreme court and [3:14:18] unfortunately the judges it was a 4-3 vote the conservative appointed judges i guess you could [3:14:26] call them conservative judges upheld the rule of law and tossed this thing out the judges on this on the [3:14:34] scova judges appointed by democrats said no it could stay it's very unfortunate it was a very unfortunate [3:14:42] political uh ruling by the court but at the end of the day thank goodness we have four conservative [3:14:51] judges on the supreme court of virginia who upheld the rule of law it'd be interesting to see what happens [3:14:58] when they come up for reappointment you know in virginia judges are not elected they are appointed by the [3:15:03] general assembly the general assembly has a super majority of democrats right now and some of these judges [3:15:09] terms are set to expire and i'm not looking for them to be reappointed frankly and though we're reading [3:15:20] now in this article wtop reporting that the maps will go the election will go on under the old maps what's [3:15:28] stopping democrats from doing this again in 2028 for the presidential election that year we have to we have [3:15:38] to watch this we have to keep up on this so that's the latest on the maps what do you think should [3:15:48] virginia still pursue this in supreme court in washington should two bullet j jones should he get a spell [3:15:57] checker to know exactly what's on his documents before submitting them to the the highest court in the land [3:16:05] and do you do you think that this has hurt democrats chances in the fall because you're all there i mean [3:16:13] everybody's just voting fatigue because the democrats they they want to have these elections constantly [3:16:22] constantly and they tell you it doesn't really matter if you know what you're voting for as long as you [3:16:26] can vote and then they say well these people voted you should honor what they voted for it's mob rule [3:16:35] they're they're advocating for mob rule they're saying listen doesn't matter what the process is [3:16:40] doesn't matter how the rule book lays out the process for holding the election we can do whatever [3:16:45] we want and if we're successful if we can get that far if we can get down the road to the point where [3:16:52] we can chart spend millions of dollars to hold a statewide referendum if we can get that far and then [3:16:59] get the get the vote to happen then we can turn around and say well at least people voted [3:17:04] you're ignoring the voice of the people doesn't matter if we ignore the law doesn't matter if we [3:17:12] shredded the constitution of virginia just a little bit just to get here none of that matters people [3:17:17] got to vote right let me know your thoughts if you watch this video this long thank you very much for [3:17:23] hanging out do like subscribe and we'll see you on the next all right guys on the live stream thank you [3:17:32] for watching through that i'm gonna cut that one up and make a standalone video but um yeah yeah [3:17:40] absolutely just going through some of the comments here yet may always may always look i'm gonna put [3:17:45] this up here on the screen your eyes is not going anywhere i think it is um apparent that he is [3:17:51] staying around maria is definitely staying around he is he's gonna run for something i mean the guy [3:17:59] started another pack this week he's been appointed to several different boards and commissions and think [3:18:04] tanks and what have you so he's keeping his resume up there i do believe miaris is gonna hang around [3:18:10] and do something all right next video that we're gonna do next thing i want to talk about are the [3:18:30] guns our rights being stripped away i'm going to take down this uh banner here say there we go [3:18:46] abigail spanberger and the super majority of democrats in richmond continue they will stop at [3:19:15] nothing to strip away our god-given rights to protect our families to protect our property they [3:19:25] are going to go forward with these restrictive gun laws some some so restrictive america's never seen [3:19:33] anything like this before i mean this really really makes us when they say virginia is turning into [3:19:39] california east this is what they're referring to this is what they're talking about so we have bills [3:19:47] primarily house bill 217 and senate bill 749 and what these things together what they do is they ban [3:19:58] magazines of 15 rounds or more and they call any they call any rifle an assault firearm and they've [3:20:07] put heavy restrictions and bans on those types of guns too so in this video we're going to look through [3:20:14] what's coming to explain to break down what it all means where the where the bills are they will [3:20:21] looks like it's becoming law and we're going to talk about what you can expect after july 1st when this [3:20:29] does become law but first this is virginia insider where we're giving you the news and information you [3:20:35] need to take back your commonwealth and to connect with your community please like this video share it [3:20:41] hit that bell notification and subscribe button so you know when we share news about virginia so we had [3:20:49] three we had the bills passed the general assembly back in march governor abigail spanbroker proposed [3:20:54] amendments to these bills and generally the super majority of democrats in the general assembly said [3:21:03] thanks but no thanks we want these bills written as is passed as is and to hell [3:21:12] with your amendments queen affordability we don't really care what you have to say so the key [3:21:18] provisions of these bills is in a ban on assault firearms this term made up by democrats in richmond [3:21:28] and it prohibits the import sale manufacturer purchase or transfer of semi-automatic rifles pistols [3:21:37] some shotguns and they also banned high capacity magazines which is 15 rounds i'm gonna really [3:21:45] consider 15 rounds a high capacity magazine but democrats do and they have bound them they have uh [3:21:54] banned them now now there is some grandfathering in here july 1st before july 1st firearms and magazines if [3:22:04] you purchase them before july 1st you can keep them you can take them with you you can carry them but you [3:22:12] can't buy new ones after july 1st so if you need any of these things you should get to the store like now [3:22:21] you should get out there now and get what you need uh the democrats of anything if they know how to do [3:22:27] any one thing it is how to be dutiful sales people to the arms industry they know how to sell guns and [3:22:37] accessories democrats do it better than any one else so do what the democrats want you to do and go get [3:22:45] that stuff now before july 1st because pet uh if you're caught with this stuff after july 1st you get a [3:22:55] class one mystometer and uh three-year probation on that and again it all comes down on march 1st [3:23:03] so the the virginia citizens defense league let me share this tab here there we go the virginia [3:23:18] citizens defense league put this sort of q a together and it's been really helpful and i want to go [3:23:23] through this and show you exactly what i'm reading and so they want to clear that they want to make it [3:23:29] clear that they're not advocating for any of this stuff they just want you to be armed with information [3:23:36] about what you can do legally and what you can't do legally so if you are currently carrying a regular [3:23:43] handgun not an ar-15 pistol or ak-47 style pistol like if you're currently carrying like a glock a sig [3:23:51] something like that you can continue to carry that same pistol in public places including public places [3:24:01] you can continue to carry it with any of the magazines you've owned prior to july 1st regardless [3:24:08] of how big the magazine is if your pistol has a thread barrel for use with a suppressor a muzzle [3:24:15] break or anything else you can still carry the pistol just as you do today here is what's going [3:24:22] to change after july 1st you cannot buy sell or transfer a magazine with a capacity higher than 15 [3:24:32] rounds if you want to have such magazines i was saying do what the democrats want you to do and go [3:24:39] buy them now go give the gun shops in early christmas go buy them now before july 1st so you can keep and [3:24:47] carry them if you buy a regular handgun such as a sig p365 or x macro that currently comes standard [3:24:56] with 17 round magazines the gun will instead probably come with a 10 round magazine but if you [3:25:05] have 17 round magazines that you owned prior to july 1st you can set aside the 10 round magazines and [3:25:12] instead carry the gun with your 17 round mag if you plan on buying handguns after july 1st they can use [3:25:21] these magazines with capacities higher than 15 rounds but again and they bold this big letters buy those [3:25:31] magazines now before july 1st so that you have them whenever you finally buy the guns now they also have [3:25:40] a longer thing here and i'll link all this stuff in the description so you have everything in the [3:25:46] box that you need without my commentary you can just take your time pour yourself a cup of coffee [3:25:51] kick back read this so you know exactly what this is but uh this is a q a session here for for the i hate [3:26:00] this term that the democrats made up but the assault firearms essentially rifles uh that the last one i was [3:26:06] reading was about handguns this is about rifles that you have so i'm going to go back down here to [3:26:13] that uh section rifles are assault firearms if they are semi-automatic center fire and have either [3:26:29] a fixed magazine capacity of more than 15 rounds or they accept detachable magazines and have one or [3:26:35] more of the following features folding telescoping or collapsible stock thumb hole stock or pistol grip [3:26:42] that protrudes conspicuous conspicuously between beneath the action of the rifle a second hand grip [3:26:49] or protruding grip that can be held by the non-trigger hand a grenade launcher a threadbearer capable of [3:26:56] accepting a muzzle brake a muzzle compensator a sound suppressor a flash suppressor shotguns they are to [3:27:04] assault firearms according to the democrats a folding telescoping stock the ability to accept [3:27:09] detachable magazines kind of the same thing here capacity more than 15 rounds that's an assault [3:27:16] firearm so anything over 15 rounds the democrats say is an assault firearm can i carry my firearm in [3:27:23] public either concealed or openly you can no longer carry an assault firearm in any area open to the public [3:27:34] including streets sidewalks alleys parks and buildings exceptions to public carry [3:27:41] ban while engaged in either hunting or recreational shooting at an established shooting range or a [3:27:49] shooting contest you can continue to carry an assault firearm most common handguns continue to be legal in [3:27:57] public whether regardless of their removable magazine capacity or whether they have a threaded barrel [3:28:03] and most are not classified as assault firearms after july 1st after january 1st [3:28:15] un-serialized homemade guns cannot be brought sold or transferred but they continue to they you can [3:28:21] keep them you can continue to possess them starting july 1 2027 un-serialized homemade guns can no longer be [3:28:31] possessed basically and and democrats love to call these the ghost guns can't have them after july 1st of [3:28:38] 2027. homemade guns should be serialized before july 1st 2027. if you have moved to virginia with an [3:28:49] un-serialized homemade gun you have 90 days to put a number on it this one this one came up during general [3:29:00] assembly session because this is the one the democrats exempted themselves from now you have to follow this [3:29:06] law but democrats they don't because they're very important people and they have very important [3:29:12] jobs and they they play for a very important political team and they're better than you are [3:29:19] so they say so they think so they don't have to abide by this but you do and so when it comes to legally [3:29:27] storing a handgun in your car the handgun must be stored out of sight in a locked hard-sided [3:29:35] container a glove box or console with a lock that can be used the container can be attached to the [3:29:41] vehicle with a cable bolt or by welding but it is not required you should have a handgun that it was [3:29:48] properly you should have a handgun that was not pro should you have a handgun that was not properly [3:29:56] secured and it gets stolen if you report the theft to police within 48 hours you will not be charged [3:30:03] with violating this law so you have to call the cops and you have to make a report and you have to put [3:30:11] your name out there on the record because democrats need to know who you are so they can track of you [3:30:17] with all this stuff i have a minor or protected prohibited person in my house do i have to store [3:30:26] my guns in any particular way well if you have someone eight and 18 or under in your home that does [3:30:31] not live there if the minor lives in the home but the minor does not have your permission to [3:30:36] access the gun or there is a prohibited person in your home and you are not carrying the gun on you [3:30:44] you must secure your firearm unloaded and in a locked container that the minor cannot get to [3:30:52] unloaded and secured any device that prevents the firearm from being fired loaded you can store it loaded [3:30:59] but it has to be in a safe that has a combination lock coded lock or biometric lock [3:31:05] the minor must not have access to the safe firearms can no longer be carried in hospital emergency [3:31:12] room or other emergency doctor's office what else can no longer carry firearms in college buildings [3:31:22] can't carry outside of college buildings because i mean not like we've seen a shooting on the campus of [3:31:34] odu just this year where uh a dedicated uh veteran decorated veteran teacher at odu shot and killed [3:31:48] not like we had a shooting at uva back in 2023 2022 very short time ago uh not like it would be a good [3:31:58] thing to have a good guy with a gun take out a bad guy with a gun democrats don't believe that democrats [3:32:03] think that if you just get rid of all the guns and no one's gonna have guns funny how that doesn't work out [3:32:09] funny how the bad guys always have the guns but i digress i'm a young adult between 18 and 20 years [3:32:16] old can i purchase a handgun or an assault firearm if i have one can i possess it and carry it you cannot [3:32:23] legally purchase a handgun or an assault firearm quote unquote anywhere in virginia you can be gifted [3:32:31] one however but nothing of value can be given in return you can possess a handgun and carry it openly [3:32:37] in public an assault firearm can be possessed and taken with you but it can only be carried on private [3:32:43] property which is not open to the public so you can't buy guns 18 years old can't buy guns child [3:32:55] under 18 a minor can possess a firearm in their home or on the property of their parent grandparent [3:33:03] or legal guardian but must have permission to possess the firearm they can also possess a firearm at a [3:33:09] shooting range firearm educational classes or while hunting if accompanied by an adult at these locations [3:33:17] so folks i'm gonna link all of this into the description you can go through and read this [3:33:22] again it's it's worth your time the uh virginia citizens defense league put this together and i [3:33:28] highly highly recommend taking a look at that and knowing your rights seeing how the democrats are [3:33:33] stripping away our rights slowly but surely taking our way our god-given rights to defend our families [3:33:40] defend our homes protect ourselves at least you have the information that you need to know to combat [3:33:52] ignorance and be on the right side of these unjust laws that we're that we're seeing enact and again [3:34:00] stripping away our rights folks what do you think about all this it's looking like it's going to [3:34:04] become law i'll be very surprised if abigail spanberger queen affordability puts her signature to paper on [3:34:11] this there is a process in which these laws if she just lets it go it will become law automatically [3:34:17] she does not she does not need to sign the bill to make this a law i don't look for a ceremonial gun [3:34:24] law bill signing ceremony like we've seen in so many other bill signings we've seen this week when [3:34:29] it comes to raising the cost of living cost of business cost of it pretty much everything in virginia [3:34:34] i don't look for that i'll be surprised if we see a big gun signing bill on this there are members of [3:34:40] the general assembly like saddam eslan salim who would uh the bangladeshi man who represents tyson's [3:34:46] corner in the state senate would probably love to have a party probably will have a party when this [3:34:51] becomes law on july 1st uh many many of people in the democrat super majority would love to celebrate [3:34:57] this and we'll see if queen affordability holds a public party for all of this but it's looking like [3:35:03] it's going to become law so take the information check the description box let me know what you think in [3:35:08] the comments please like this video share it and subscribe and we'll see you on the next one [3:35:13] all right guys uh that's going to be it for me this afternoon thank you for hanging out with me [3:35:22] it's uh coming up on four o'clock eastern if you're watching here in virginia so uh again pleasure to [3:35:28] have you on the stream thanks for hanging out with me check us out on facebook facebook.com [3:35:33] for its last virginia insider um we'd love to hear from you over there follow us on x [3:35:39] uh if you like the live stream let me know uh comment uh let me know what time's a good life [3:35:44] i i'm i'm really thinking that the afternoon works well for me so definitely uh want to make these [3:35:50] live streams a more regular thing even if i have to come in like do the videos for the standalone videos [3:35:57] uh this morning i posted a video if you like to go to bush gardens if you like to go to the theme parks [3:36:02] there's a video on our page now on our channel now that uh introduces you to the democrat delegate who [3:36:09] wants to make your trip to bush gardens more expensive because affordability right definitely [3:36:15] affordability and there's nothing democrats uh do that makes our lives more affordable there's nothing [3:36:21] that they do but they want to tell us that they do they want to pretend like they care about our [3:36:26] well billing our well well-being but uh we know that we know better we know better so thanks for [3:36:36] watching thanks for hanging out on the live stream with me guys and we will see you on the next one