Sanctuary county refused 615 ICE transfer requests, turned over just 11 illegal immigrants, records show
FIRST ON FOX: Records obtained by a conservative legal group show Fairfax County, Virginia, declined to transfer 615 illegal immigrants to ICE over the past 16 months, while turning over just 11.
Fairfax County, whose board includes one Republican supervisor for what is the most populous jurisdiction in the Old Dominion, formally designated itself a sanctuary jurisdiction in 2021 after passing the Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy or "Trust Policy."
America First Legal filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the county seeking records from the office of Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Ann Kincaid, who testified at a contentious House hearing earlier this spring on Fairfax's reluctance to cooperate with federal law enforcement.
The data, obtained directly from a Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office document, showed that for the entirety of 2025, Kincaid’s office refused to transfer 448 illegal immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security for processing and instead only turned over a total of nine to ICE. During the first four months of 2026, Fairfax declined to transfer another 167 illegal immigrants, while turning over only two.
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Since then, county policy has barred law enforcement from honoring ICE civil detainers or otherwise assisting with federal immigration enforcement.
America First Legal (AFL), which first obtained the data, placed much of the blame on Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Stephen Descano, who sat beside Kincaid at the recent hearing and faced sharp questioning from Republicans over his prosecutorial discretion in cases involving illegal immigrants arrested in the county.
AFL said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital that Fairfax's overall framework encourages recidivism by illegal immigrant offenders and has directly led to several gruesome cases, including the murder of Fredericksburg, Virginia, woman Stephanie Minter, whose alleged killer is an illegal immigrant from West Africa with a lengthy criminal record in Fairfax County.
AFL noted that Descano is under investigation by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division over claims U.S. citizens are effectively discriminated against because of the prosecutor's stated preferential policies, which appeared on his campaign pages and elsewhere and were highlighted by Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock, R-Calif., and others during the hearing.
The group pointed to fatal stabbings; the alleged assault of a woman on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, a popular rail trail spanning from Washington, D.C., to Purcellville that has long been considered safe; and other crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants who, it said, received light sentences or had charges dropped.
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Descano has long defended his prosecutorial discretion as evidence-based and handled on a case-by-case basis.
A Descano spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday that the DOJ's probe is politically motivated and has "distort[ed] the office’s policy." The spokesperson also said the notice appeared to arrive intentionally just before Descano testified before McClintock.
"Our office’s policies are fair, legal and reflect the values of Fairfax County, and we will not be distracted from our mission of keeping this community safe and holding individuals accountable when they commit crimes," the spokesperson said.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Kincaid’s office for comment.
AFL counsel Will Scolinos rejected the county's defense, telling Fox News Digital that tragic cases such as Minter's murder are the product of the Trust Policy and the shielding of "hundreds of illegal aliens … from federal law enforcement."
"This deliberate obstruction by county officials protects illegal alien lawbreakers and endangers every family in Northern Virginia," Scolinos said. "For too many families, it is already too late. But to protect other Virginians from future crimes at the hands of illegal aliens with prior arrests, Fairfax County must reverse this reckless, anti-American governance immediately."
In the most recent month recorded, April 2026, 32 illegal immigrants were listed as being in the sheriff's office's custody, with none released to ICE. All 32 were subject to an "informed detainer," and three were listed as convicted.
AFL also noted that Santa Clara County, California — home to the San Francisco 49ers' new stadium — informed the group that it received 529 ICE detainer requests in 2025 and honored none.
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"If each detainer represents a unique illegal alien, an average of 1.34 arrested illegal aliens were released into Santa Clara every day," AFL said in April.
The numbers reflect a pattern that is expected to continue drawing scrutiny from the Trump administration and groups such as AFL, which has also sought data from sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment.