The House Judiciary Committee released a report this week alleging that district attorneys in at least nine jurisdictions across the country adjust charges and plea deals specifically to shield illegal immigrants from deportation, a practice congressional Republicans call a two-tiered justice system.
The report, produced by the Judiciary Committee and its Immigration Subcommittee, centers on Arlington County, Virginia, Commonwealth's Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti but reaches far beyond a single office. From Philadelphia to Denver to Brooklyn, the committee documented policies in which prosecutors openly factor a defendant's immigration status into charging decisions, offering outcomes to noncitizens that American citizens charged with the same crimes cannot access.
At the same time, the Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into a neighboring Virginia prosecutor, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano, over whether his office discriminates against U.S. citizens by offering what one senior DOJ official called "sweetheart deals" to illegal immigrants facing serious charges. The convergence of a congressional investigation and a federal probe marks the most direct challenge yet to the so-called collateral-consequences policies that progressive prosecutors have adopted in recent years.
The committee's sharpest focus fell on Dehghani-Tafti's office in Arlington County. Just the News reported that the committee obtained testimony from Dehghani-Tafti about her office's handling of DWI cases involving recipients of DACA, the Obama-era program that shields certain illegal immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation. Her office's policy shifts prosecution outcomes for DACA recipients charged with DWI to ensure they do not lose their protected status.
The committee put the point bluntly in its report:
"This policy ensures that certain foreign nationals are never convicted of DWI in Arlington County, [Virginia] solely due to their status as non-U.S. citizens."
The report went further, stating that "Arlington County treats illegal aliens differently than similarly situated American citizens. Immigration-specific considerations, and the potential for a different prosecutorial outcome based on those immigration considerations, are not available to American citizens charged with similar crimes."
An American citizen in Arlington County who gets arrested for DWI faces the standard consequences, license suspension, fines, a criminal record. A DACA recipient charged with the same offense, under the same facts, gets a different calculation from the same prosecutor's office. The committee's conclusion: the system is rigged by design.
Beyond DWI policy, the report alleges that Arlington County refuses to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including in cases involving felons and individuals flagged for terrorism concerns. ICE data contained in the report shows that sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide declined at least 41,085 detainer requests between October 2022 and early 2026.
Dehghani-Tafti's campaign received $515,000 from political entities affiliated with George Soros, Fox News previously reported. The committee report describes her office as one that "obstructs the enforcement of federal immigration law and shields foreign national criminals from accountability."
Across the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano faces a separate and potentially more consequential threat: a federal investigation by the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon announced the probe in May, stating:
"This investigation will uncover whether this prosecutor is putting the community at risk in offering sweetheart deals to illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes."
The investigation came several months after Stephanie Minter was killed in Fairfax County, allegedly by Abdul Jalloh, described as an illegal immigrant with a criminal history. Nearly every charge against Jalloh had reportedly been dropped by Descano's office prior to Minter's death.
Descano pushed back, telling a local news outlet that "my policies are fair, legal, and reflect the values of my community." But the DOJ investigation frames the question differently, not as a matter of prosecutorial philosophy, but as potential civil rights discrimination against American citizens who do not receive the same leniency.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, has not limited his scrutiny to Virginia. His committee issued subpoenas and demand letters to prosecutors in at least three other jurisdictions this year.
Last week, Jordan subpoenaed Boulder County, Colorado, District Attorney Michael Dougherty. The committee had spent months trying to obtain records and information from Dougherty's office about the DA's published policy requiring prosecutors to consider "collateral effects" when illegal immigrants commit certain crimes. Dougherty refused to cooperate, prompting the subpoena.
In May, Jordan sent a letter to Denver District Attorney John Walsh laying out a similar pattern. Denver's DA office has operated under a policy since 2019, implemented by Walsh's predecessor, that directs prosecutors to "take reasonable steps to mitigate [immigration] consequences" for defendants who are in the country illegally. Jordan's letter cited the predecessor's own language acknowledging that "different individuals charged with the same crime may face markedly different consequences depending upon various factors, including an individual's immigration status."
Jordan did not mince words in that letter:
"Under your leadership, the Denver District Attorney's Office undermines the rule of law under the guise of safeguarding the public. For years, in fact, your office has openly given preferential treatment to aliens based solely on their immigration status."
Jordan demanded documents relating to the Denver DA office's interactions with ICE and its prosecution of illegal immigrants. Denver's sanctuary city policies already have a body count. In 2017, an illegal immigrant named Ever Valles shot and killed Timothy Cruz, a 32-year-old landscaper. Valles had previously been released from prison without officials notifying ICE, consistent with the city's sanctuary policy.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner received his own subpoena from Jordan's committee in May. Krasner's office has a published policy stating that "low-level and nonviolent crimes should not lead to deportation or necessarily risk one's immigration status." To implement that policy, Krasner created an Immigration Counsel position inside his office, a lawyer whose job is to evaluate cases involving noncitizens so they "can avoid unnecessary and unjust consequences."
Jordan's letter to Krasner identified the real-world meaning of that bureaucratic language:
"You also openly boast about how your policies have resulted in criminal aliens being released onto Philadelphia streets, free to reoffend. Even in cases involving murder or crimes against minors, a prosecutor in your office may still consider a criminal alien's potential deportation or other immigration consequences in making prosecution decisions."
That last sentence bears repeating in plain terms. Under Krasner's policy, even when an illegal immigrant stands accused of killing someone or victimizing a child, the prosecutor handling the case may weigh whether a conviction could lead to deportation, and adjust the outcome accordingly.
Philadelphia is not alone in building immigration-specific infrastructure into its prosecution office. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez hired two immigration attorneys whose sole purpose is to advise prosecutors on plea offers and sentencing for illegal immigrants, potentially reducing charges to help defendants avoid deportation.
On the West Coast, both Los Angeles and Contra Costa County, California, have district attorneys who consider a defendant's legal status when deciding what charges to bring. In Multnomah County, Oregon, which includes Portland, the DA's policy states that consequences for crimes should be "roughly equal" for U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants, meaning prosecutors should work to ensure that deportation does not result from a conviction.
The logic of that policy deserves scrutiny. Deportation is a consequence that applies only to people who are in the country illegally. Treating it as an unfair add-on, something to be neutralized through lighter charges, means the prosecutor's office has decided, as a matter of local policy, to override federal immigration law.
In at least one jurisdiction, voters have already weighed in. Former Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon lost his 2024 reelection bid in part because of public frustration with his lenient approach to criminals, including illegal immigrants. Gascon had previously served as San Francisco's DA in 2015 when Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a five-time deported Mexican immigrant, killed 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle. Zarate was acquitted of murder, involuntary manslaughter, and assault with a deadly weapon, and convicted only of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a charge that could bring a three-year sentence.
Gascon's defeat showed that voters, given the chance, will reject a system that appears to value an offender's immigration status over public safety. But many of the prosecutors identified in the House Judiciary Committee report remain in office, and their policies remain in effect.
The committee's written announcement framed the stakes in broad terms: "Democrats' open-borders policies and sanctuary jurisdictions have had devastating consequences for U.S. citizens. Even after the American people resoundingly rejected Democrats' pro-illegal alien policies in November 2024, Democrats across the country reinforced sanctuary policies to ensure that the millions of illegal aliens who entered the U.S. are never removed from the country."
Whether through congressional subpoenas or a DOJ civil rights investigation, the question these prosecutors now face is straightforward: Can a local DA legally offer a better deal to a defendant because that defendant is not an American citizen? The prosecutors say they are pursuing fairness. The committee, the DOJ, and the families of Timothy Cruz, Kathryn Steinle, and Stephanie Minter might define that word differently.
Equal justice under law is supposed to mean the courthouse does not check your passport before deciding your sentence. These prosecutors turned that principle inside out, and built offices, hired staff, and wrote policies to make sure it stayed that way.
