A Democrat prosecutor in D.C.’s most populous suburb allowed illegal immigrants to go unpunished for vicious crimes because a felony conviction might lead to their deportation, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares alleged in an investigation Friday.

Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano requires his staff to examine “immigration consequences” when considering cases, then often pleads them down to more minor crimes. That’s a leniency not always afforded to Americans, and it amounts to illegal discrimination, Miyares said in a report that encourages the federal Department of Justice to take action.

Descano “engaged in a pattern and practice of denying U.S. citizens the same rights, privileges and immunities as illegal aliens in charging decisions and plea agreements. That is a violation, not just of due process, [but of] a 1996 law signed by Bill Clinton called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which prohibits states from providing benefits to illegal aliens that are denied to citizens,” Miyares said on Friday outside the Fairfax County Courthouse, where he was flanked by crime victims who said they were failed by Descano.

“By saying to prosecutors, ‘you are to consider an individual’s immigration status,’ and giving sweetheart plea deals they would not give to a normal U.S. citizen, you’re in violation of that law and the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause,” he said.

In one case, Wilmer Ramos-Giron had already been deported from the U.S. twice, then came back and was convicted of possession of a firearm in 2020. This year, he choked his ex-wife and threatened her with a knife and was charged with felony abduction and strangulation. Descano downgraded it to a misdemeanor, which would be less likely to trigger another deportation. He told the judge the lenient plea deal was because it was what “the victim wanted.” The victim later told the media that was not true at all.

Hyrum Baquedano Rodriguez, an illegal alien from Honduras with a record of repeated sex crimes against minors, broke into a victim’s home and tried to abduct a sleeping four-year-old. He was charged with abduction with intent to defile, carrying life in prison. Descano attempted to downgrade his charges and cap his sentence at only two years in prison. After two judges refused to accept such a plea agreement, Descano’s office dropped the charges, Miyares said. Federal immigration authorities have since detained Rodriguez for deportation.

Get 40% off new DailyWire+ annual memberships with code FALL40 at checkout

The impact of Descano’s charging decisions became clear when federal immigration officers recently arrested a man in D.C. Some Democrats expressed outrage, saying he should not have been a priority because he had not been convicted of any crime. It turned out that David Perez-Teofani, a repeat illegal immigrant with a final order of removal, had been arrested for aggravated sexual battery of a child and indecent liberties with a child; the reason he had no conviction is because Descano simply dropped the charges.

Miyares found that Descano’s leniency toward illegal immigrants also included:

• Declining to prosecute illegal alien Maldin Anibal Guzman for aggravated malicious wounding, attempted malicious wounding, malicious wounding by mob, and obstruction of justice, instead allowing him to plead guilty to simple assault. Anibal Guzman later allegedly committed murder.
• Reducing charges for illegal alien Ander Josue Cortez Mendez, who was charged with Carnal Knowledge of a 13- 14-year-old, instead classifying it as “consensual sex w/ child 15y+” and giving him no jail time.
• Dismissing charges of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony against illegal alien Yohandi Mosquera Rosas. Rosas later committed felony hit-and-run and is currently a fugitive.
• Declining to prosecute Marvin Mateo-Alberto’s charges of incest and aggravated sexual battery by a parent in 2025. Mateo-Alberto is still in the country illegally despite an immigration judge ordering him deported in 2006.

Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, declined to comment on whether it could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits treating people differently based on certain characteristics including national origin.

Fairfax County prosecutor Steve Descano (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Descano narrowly won a primary election in 2019 after a massive infusion of cash from George Soros. The county’s mainstream Democrat prosecutor quit the party as a result, warning that it is improper and impermissible for “progressive” prosecutors to simply refuse to enforce laws they disagree with. Miyares said that’s exactly what Descano has done, through policies prohibiting enforcement of mandatory minimum sentences, ignoring the requirement for cash bail for repeat felons, and essentially changing the dollar limit for grand larceny by refusing to prosecute thefts below $1,500. “He therefore essentially legalized theft for any item worth $1,500 or less,” Miyares said.

“While Descano is entitled to his opinions about cash bail, he is not entitled to ignore the General Assembly’s lawfully enacted command that no repeat felon may be released without a secure bond,” Miyares wrote in his report. He said that the Supreme Court of Virginia has held that it is an “obvious” violation of the Virginia Constitution and the so-called Suspension Clause “when an executive sets aside a generally applicable rule of law based solely upon his disagreement with it.”

Yet Miyares told The Daily Wire that when the person in charge of enforcing the law is also the one violating it, there are few mechanisms for recourse in Virginia, where the attorney general’s powers are limited. He has asked the legislature to give his office the power to take over criminal cases that local prosecutors refuse to pursue, but “every time we have sought expansive authority, it has tragically died on a party line vote,” he said.

With an election for Virginia’s top offices taking place in a month, Democrats’ handling of criminal justice could be a liability, particularly after Descano refused to prosecute a registered sex offender named Dick Cox who exposed himself in the girls locker room at a gym. The gym was next to a playground, a violation of his sex offender terms, but Descano refused to prosecute after Cox claimed he was in the women’s locker room because he is transgender and was being discriminated against.

Crime victims described the pain of being victimized once by a criminal, and then again by a prosecutor’s office that seemed uninterested in punishing offenders. One crime victim is Janine, whose last name The Daily Wire is not using because she is the victim of sexual assault. Police secured two recorded confessions from her rapist, giving prosecutors what she called a “layup” case. Then Descano’s staff failed to file paperwork within a nine-month deadline, which allowed the rapist to go free. Janine told Descano’s staffer, “You’re telling me because you didn’t do your job, the judge is going to dismiss it with prejudice?”

“She said, ‘I’m really sorry Janine, it’s political,'” she told The Daily Wire. “It leads me to believe it was intentional, because she said it was political. … I was traumatized. I never thought that [the legal system] would not protect me.”

In a similar story, Ronnie Reel was indicted in 2021 for forcible sodomy of a child (carrying life in prison). Police had two confessions, but because the prosecutor missed deadlines by months, neither was admissible at trial. Descano allowed Reel to plead guilty to a misdemeanor carrying six months, and blamed the victim as a pretext for the downgrade, Miyares said. The victim’s mother told Miyares that “not once was the prosecution in contact with me or my lawyer during the process.”

Descano’s office had a pattern of siding with perpetrators and blaming victims, Miyares said. After a police officer used his Taser on a man on PCP who was resisting arrest, the police officer was charged, and Descano’s office withheld exculpatory evidence, with a judge noting the “appearance of the misrepresentation of statements made by the Commonwealth to a circuit court judge as it relates to exculpatory evidence.” The officer was acquitted on all charges.

Descano’s office has also been dishonest with judges in order to get criminals off the hook, Miyares said.

Bryan Humberto Ramos Rojas was charged for stabbing a kitten and swinging a machete at a police officer, and Descano sought to drastically downgrade the offenses, while describing the offenses in ways that minimized them. The judge said he had been misled by “the Commonwealth’s repeated failure to fully inform the Court of the severity, lethality, and brutality,” and rejected the plea deal. Descano then shopped a similar plea deal to a different judge.

Rey Amparado was charged with four counts of child rape, carrying a mandatory life sentence. To get around that, Descano offered a plea to much more minor charges and an agreement that he would only serve three years in prison, and wouldn’t have to admit guilt. Prosecutors told the judge “the victim and her mother were ‘angry’ with the way the case was being resolved, but that they were ‘not objecting to it,'” Miyares wrote. A judge wrote that in light of “the Defendant’s repeated acts of raping this child … just three years of active incarceration does not remotely reflect the gravity of the Defendant’s misconduct,” noting that the defendant expressed no remorse.

As a crime victim wiped away tears behind him, Miyares said, “The fact that they have to go to their state attorney general to have their voices heard is a reflection on this weaponized incompetence that Steve Descano has turned the Fairfax Commonwealth Attorney’s office into. Stop being a social worker, stop being a criminal defense attorney, and start being a prosecutor. If you’re not willing to do your job, resign so somebody else can.”

Related: How A Lefty Soviet Influence Group Formed A Shadow Government In Prosecutor Offices