EJ Haust, official guest host of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, criticized Fairfax County, Virginia, immigration and prosecution policies following a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing titled “Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies.”
The hearing, held before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, examined the impact of sanctuary policies and featured testimony from Fairfax County officials, immigration experts, crime victims’ families, and legal advocates.
Among the witnesses were Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephen Descano, Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, Cato Institute immigration analyst David Bier, and Cheryl Minter, whose daughter Stephanie Minter was killed in Fairfax County earlier this year.
Reacting to the hearing on Friday, Haust focused heavily on testimony and exchanges involving Descano, as well as on immigration enforcement concerns raised by Republican lawmakers.
One of the hearing moments Haust and host Leahy discussed on-air involved testimony from David Bier, director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute. During the hearing, Bier argued against mass deportation efforts, stating, “About one in five Fairfax residents is someone who could be deported or who lives with them. It would destroy neighborhoods.”
Haust reacted skeptically to the statistic.
“One in five?” she asked during the broadcast. “He thinks 20 percent of the population is illegally in the country? And deportable, in Fairfax County?”
Haust then argued the testimony reflected economic dependence on undocumented labor among affluent residents.
“I think it’s revealing that he probably, and his family, and anyone else he knows there, people in his neighborhood probably hire illegal immigrants to do all the things that they don’t wanna do,” Haust said. “To clean their toilets and mow their lawns and bring them their DoorDash.”
Calling the remarks “an incredibly arrogant and ridiculous thing to say in a House hearing,” Haust said the broader issue centered on accountability and public safety.
Haust also reacted to a tense exchange during last week’s hearing between House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) and Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephen Descano. Jordan repeatedly questioned Descano about changes to his office website and prior prosecution decisions involving illegal migrants accused of violent crimes.
At one point during the hearing, Jordan asked, “This same guy murdered somebody, and I’m asking you, why did you change your website?”
Descano pushed back against Jordan’s characterization of his office policies, while attempting to explain prosecutorial discretion and evidentiary standards.
Haust commented on the exchange by criticizing what she described as evasive testimony.
“Typically these hearings are for show. They don’t really accomplish anything other than to create clips that we can play on a radio show,” she said.
Still, she argued the hearings serve an important public purpose.
“The exposure has to happen, and this is one way to do it,” she added.
Haust and Leahy also discussed questioning from U.S. Representative Brandon Gill (R-TX-26) regarding a plea agreement involving an illegal migrant accused of sexual assault.
During the hearing, Gill said, “An illegal alien who raped an underage American. Your office reduced those charges to a misdemeanor charge of consensual sex with a child 15 years and older.”
When Descano attempted to explain the legal reasoning behind the decision, Gill repeatedly pressed him on whether immigration status was considered during the charging process.
Reacting to the exchange, Haust remarked, “Obviously he’s gonna skirt around that.”
Haust ultimately argued that Fairfax County’s approach represented a broader national problem involving sanctuary jurisdictions and lenient prosecution policies for illegal migrants.
“We make it really easy for them to commit crimes over and over again,” she said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X.
