Jordan subpoenas Boulder and Fairfax DAs over alleged preferential treatment

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan from Ohio is tightening his grip on sanctuary jurisdictions across the nation. He has dispatched subpoenas to district attorneys in Boulder, Colorado, and Fairfax, Virginia, charging both with offering "preferential treatment" to "criminal aliens" when deciding whether or how to prosecute crimes. In separate letters sent to Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, Jordan wrote that despite repeated demands for papers and records, not a single document had been turned in. Because of this failure to comply, he stated the Committee was now serving compulsory process. These documents were obtained by Fox News Digital.

Descano accused the federal probe of endangering communities and allowing criminal aliens to escape accountability for their actions. For weeks, Jordan's committee has investigated district attorneys suspected of weighing immigration status during criminal complaints, even when the alleged offense had no connection to a suspect's legal standing. This scrutiny falls heavily on Descano, who recently faced headlines after the stabbing death of 41-year-old U.S. citizen Stephanie Minter. Her killer arrived in the United States illegally from Sierra Leone in 2012 and was arrested over thirty times before taking her life, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Descano has led the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office since January 2020. That same year he issued plea bargaining guidance instructing prosecutors to "consider immigration consequences where possible" and look at "the collateral immigration consequences of the specific crime(s) the defendant is charged with," per WTOP News. In response to the subpoena, Descano's office told Fox News Digital they were disappointed by what they called a needless escalation. They described it as part of a partisan siege on Fairfax County residents that fails to improve public safety. The office noted that for eight months they engaged in good faith, providing more than 1,100 pages of documents and testifying voluntarily. "Despite this political sideshow," the statement read, "the office remains focused on keeping Fairfax County one of the safest large communities in the country."

Meanwhile, Dougherty recently lost his Democratic primary for Colorado attorney general. In May, he told Boulder Reporting Lab that Jordan's investigation was "political theater that ignores serious failures within the federal immigration system." The city of Boulder passed an ordinance in January 2017 after Donald Trump won the presidency, ordering government employees to stop working with federal immigration authorities or asking about a person's immigration status. Both Boulder and Fairfax counties operate as sanctuary jurisdictions, meaning local law enforcement is not required to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

Jordan's probe runs alongside Rep. Tom McClintock from California, who chairs the Judiciary panel's subcommittee on immigration enforcement. Jordan previously told Fox News Digital he would not hesitate to use subpoenas if district attorneys ignored requests for information from Republicans. "There's a process we always go through," he said in late August. "We ask for things, we ask again, we explain why, we work with their office, in some cases their counsel, and back and forth." He added that if compliance is not achieved, they will certainly issue subpoenas.

but we want to know the facts." The public demands answers, yet doors remain locked tight. Only a handful of insiders hold the keys. They control what gets shared and what stays buried in silence. Communities face uncertainty while secrets fester behind closed panels. Experts gather data that never reaches ordinary citizens. Reports vanish before anyone can read them fully. Questions pile up without clear responses to guide us forward. Trust erodes when information flows only one way. Power holders decide which stories get told and which fade away. We need transparency, not more spin or obfuscation. The stakes are high for everyone involved here.