Justice must be balanced with mercy, enforcement must be humane, and America should be a welcoming country. Compassion really is a virtue in governance. But prudent compassion is made impossible by the very left-wing Democratic politicians who preach it the most.
Americans will welcome immigrants less warmly if we know Democratic prosecutors give them special immunity for even their worst crimes. Americans will balk at clemency for good behavior if Democratic governors and judges repeatedly send dangerous men back onto the streets. They will also demand the death penalty more if they have no confidence that a murderer will be kept in jail.
Last week produced three clear demonstrations of recklessness from pro-crime Democrats: a congressional report on a George Soros-funded prosecutor in the suburbs of Washington, parole decisions from the administration of Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), and a decision by a liberal judge in Washington state not to jail a shooting suspect awaiting trial.
The House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration released a report Tuesday laying out how one Soros-funded prosecutor in Virginia, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, turned one of the nation’s largest suburban counties into a de facto sanctuary county where illegal immigrants who repeatedly committed violent crimes were set free again and again until they murdered.
Stephanie Minter was stabbed to death in February, allegedly by Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant who had been arrested on charges of at least 40 crimes. Descano’s office dropped almost all of them. Police told Descano’s office that Jalloh would do worse if he was not locked up, but Descano did not listen, and Jalloh is now accused of killing Minter.
Descano’s explicit policy was to go lighter on noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, who commit crimes. “Steve’s office will take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions,” Descano’s website reads. “Wherever possible, Steve will make charging and plea decisions that limit or avoid immigration consequences.” In other words, he would not prosecute criminals for offenses that might see them deported for being in the country illegally.
Fairfax County ignored nearly 1,700 ICE detainers between 2023 and 2025, according to the committee’s preliminary report. At least 100 illegal immigrant criminals got their charges reduced.
Every day he is in office, Descano endangers the people of Fairfax County and surrounding areas. We would call on Spanberger to force Descano out of office, but unfortunately, she shows a similar disregard for justice.
The Washington Examiner’s Mia Cathell studied Spanberger’s parole board and found a shocking increase: “In only half the calendar year, Spanberger’s 13.89% release rate is more than 10 times [former Gov. Glenn] Youngkin’s annual parole-approval numbers,” Cathell wrote.
Spanberger granted geriatric release to a repeat rapist named Eugene Billups, who served three years for the rape of a child under the age of 13. “Parole records show that Billups, 71, was convicted in 2023 of raping the child while out on parole for two prior rape convictions,” Cathell wrote.
It’s not merely a Virginia thing. Last week in Seattle, a liberal judge named Veronica Galvan released a 15-year-old shooter charged in the killing of three people at a food festival this summer. The defense doesn’t deny that the shooter fired into the crowd, yet Galvan ordered him removed from juvenile detention and set free to await trial. Notably, Galvan is also the author of Emerging Through Bias: Towards A More Fair And Equitable Courtroom.
Leftist judges, prosecutors, and parole boards are less interested in doing their jobs than in modeling their ideology. Ironically, they thus undermine their other progressive goals: more legal immigration and more mercy. When noncitizens are held less accountable than citizens, it’s hard to argue for more immigration. When parole boards free child rapists after only three years, it’s hard to stomach progressive calls for compassion.
For their own good as well as America’s, leftists in the legal system should enforce the law and punish criminals more. Only when we have law and order can we have openness and compassion.