Today my daughter Stephanie would have turned 42.

There won’t be a cake or a phone call. I’ll honor Stephanie’s birthday the way I have every day since February 23 — missing my daughter and grieving all the moments and memories that were stolen from us.

Stephanie was stabbed to death inside a bus shelter in Hybla Valley, Virginia, on her way home. The man charged with killing her, Abdul Jalloh, is an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone who had been arrested more than 30 times. Rape. Malicious wounding. Assault. Over and over, the charges were dropped by the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.

Police saw this coming. In May 2025, after a stabbing victim identified Jalloh, detectives asked Descano’s prosecutors to fight to keep him in jail. A police major wrote to Descano’s chief deputy asking why Jalloh was already back on the street, and warned that it was a matter of “when,” not “if,” he hurt someone again.

Nine months later, it was my daughter.

Descano has spent all year telling people his policies are “fair, legal, and reflect the values of my community.” Stephanie, he’d have you believe, was a tragedy, not a pattern.

On Tuesday, Congress proved otherwise.

The House Judiciary Committee released the results of its investigation into Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies. Fairfax ignored at least 1,670 ICE detainers between 2023 and 2025, releasing criminal illegal aliens back into our neighborhoods instead of handing them to federal agents. A review of more than 1,100 cases turned up at least 100 illegal aliens, never before reported, who had charges dropped or downgraded by Descano’s office in ways that kept them from being deported.

DUI. Felony drug possession. Grand larceny. Fraud. Assaulting a police officer. A man charged with felony rape of a child had it knocked down to a misdemeanor and was offered a 90-day suspended sentence. The committee dropped more than 50 charges against a serial fraudster. Illegal aliens charged with malicious wounding and strangulation were allowed, in the committee’s words, to “escape accountability and reoffend.”

That is exactly what happened to Stephanie. It turns out it happened to a hundred other families, too. They just never got a press conference.

Then there’s what Descano told Congress. Under oath in May, he said his policy was about protecting green card holders and legal immigrants. In a letter this September, he admitted it may shield illegal immigrants as well. He said one thing in the hearing room and another on paper once the documents came out.

And he’s still at it. Just this month his office cut a deal for two men who pleaded guilty to murder by mob — one of them an illegal immigrant whose ICE detainers Fairfax had already ignored twice. They’ll each serve five years. Five years for beating a man to death in the woods.

I’m not a political person. I never wanted any of this. I’m a mother who had to bury her child. But I’ve learned that the man who campaigned on the idea that deporting a criminal is “a perversion of justice” built his whole office around that belief, and my daughter paid for it.

The system had thirty chances to stop Abdul Jalloh. Thirty times Descano’s office let him go. Now Congress has counted how many more times that choice was made in Fairfax County: at least 1,670.

Descano should resign. If he refuses, Virginia’s leaders need to find the courage to pursue his removal through every lawful avenue available. More than 14,800 people have signed my petition on Change.org demanding accountability. The Department of Justice has already opened a civil rights investigation into his office, and with new congressional findings raising even more serious questions about his policies and testimony, I am calling on the DOJ to expand its examination of the evidence, determine whether federal laws were violated, and pursue every appropriate remedy — including enforceable reforms, criminal referrals where warranted, and sharing findings with Virginia authorities who have the power to pursue his removal. My daughter cannot be brought back, but those responsible for unlawful conduct must be held accountable, and we must do everything possible to prevent another family from suffering the same devastating loss.

Stephanie can’t speak for herself anymore. So today, on her birthday, I will. And I’ll keep speaking until the man who kept letting her accused killer walk is no longer in a position to do it to anyone else’s daughter.

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Cheryl Minter is the mother of Stephanie Minter, who was killed in Fairfax County, Virginia, on Feb. 23, 2026. She is leading the effort to recall Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.

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An Illegal Immigrant Killed My Daughter. Steve Descano Could Have Stopped It.