Fairfax sheriff declined 1,670 ICE detainers from 2023 to 2025

A report Oct. 20 accusing Fairfax County officials of policies that it says let non-citizens charged with crimes avoid prosecution and immigration enforcement.

The report, titled "Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies," was issued by the committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. It centers on Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano and Sheriff Stacey Kincaid.

Detainers. Citing information the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office gave the committee in March 2026, the report says the office declined 517 ICE detainers in 2023, 705 in 2024 and at least 448 in 2025, for a total of at least 1,670. A detainer is ICE's request that a local agency notify it before releasing someone or hold the person for up to 48 hours so ICE can take custody. The report says the sheriff's office confirmed in a March 13, 2026 call with committee staff that it does not notify ICE of a pending release.

The report says Kincaid ended an agreement with ICE in 2018 and that her policy requires a judicial warrant before holding someone for immigration authorities. Virginia law, the report notes, authorizes jails to transfer custody to ICE up to five days before a scheduled release.

Prosecutions. The report says committee staff reviewed nonpublic documents and public records, including more than 1,100 criminal cases, and identified more than 100 previously unreported non-citizens who it says benefited from Descano's decisions not to prosecute or to reduce charges. That initial review focused on people with ICE detainers or release-notification requests who were released from the jail from about January through June 2025.

Subpoena. The committee requested material from Descano on Jan. 15, 2026. The report says he declined to identify the cases in which his office weighed immigration consequences under its written policy, and that the committee issued a subpoena for that information.

County policy. The report also describes the county's 2021 Trust Policy, which limits sharing of immigration-related information with federal officials absent a legal requirement, judicial warrant, court order or subpoena. The county says it does not enforce civil federal immigration law and denies that it is a sanctuary county, according to the report.

The report calls itself interim and says the committee's review of cases and documents remains ongoing. It notes that the committee on March 5, 2026, favorably reported H.R. 7640, the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act.

The report was prepared by the committee's Republican majority staff and relies in part on nonpublic records the committee says are on file with it. Those records have not been released. All News Virginia has requested comment from the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office and will update this story if it responds.

Source: "Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies," interim staff report of the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, released Oct. 20, 2026.Read the report (PDF).

Fairfax County is a county in Northern Virginia. Its county seat is Fairfax, an independent city.