OPINION:
I had to do what no parent should ever have to do: bury my child. My daughter Stephanie, 41, was waiting for a bus in Fairfax County, Virginia, in broad daylight when she was stabbed to death on Feb. 23, 2026.
Her murder was entirely preventable.
This was not the first time that my daughter’s suspected killer, Abdul Jalloh, had been violent and shown disregard for the law. Since entering the country illegally, Mr. Jalloh had been arrested more than 30 times, including on charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault and stabbings.
When Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano took office in 2020, Mr. Jalloh already had three assault charges and a rape charge on his record. Every time after that, Mr. Descano’s office had a chance to keep him off the street. Yet nearly every time, it let the charges go.
Police had warned Mr. Descano’s office about Mr. Jalloh more than once. In May, after Mr. Jalloh allegedly stabbed another man, an officer emailed one of Mr. Descano’s deputies asking that Mr. Jalloh be held. Fairfax police said they warned the office at least three times.
In November, a commander begged Mr. Descano’s office again, writing that it was “not a question of if, but rather when [Mr. Jalloh] will maliciously wound (or worse) again.”
Three months later, Mr. Jalloh allegedly murdered my daughter.
I have spent months asking one question: Why is there more empathy for criminals than their victims?
Turn on the news and watch how fast a camera crew covers an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest. Watch how many legacy media segments run, clamoring for empathy for illegal immigrants, even if they are pedophiles, murderers or rapists.
The problem is not having empathy for people; the problem is that my daughter’s killer walked free through more than 30 arrests under a prosecutor’s policy of going easier on immigration cases, even if they have committed violent crimes.
This is not an assumption. Mr. Descano put it in writing on his campaign website. His office would make charging decisions that “limit or avoid immigration consequences.”
His campaigns have also taken more than $650,000 from George Soros-backed groups. Stephanie is dead today because that policy existed and a violent offender benefited from it.
Have the legacy media and Democratic elites decided that it is more important to protect criminal illegal aliens than the American people?
My grandson will grow up without his mother because the system that was supposed to protect her protected a criminal instead.
Today, Mr. Descano is still in office. Somewhere in Fairfax County, another case file of a dangerous illegal immigrant sits on a desk, but Mr. Descano will soon hand that criminal a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Stephanie cannot tell her story anymore, so I am telling it for her. I started a Change.org petition calling for Mr. Descano’s recall, and more than 10,000 people have already signed it. If you want safer streets for families like my own, I urge you to join me in signing it.
The American people have had enough. Fairfax County deserves a prosecutor who protects families instead of the men who hurt them.
• Cheryl Minter is the mother of Stephanie Minter and a Change.org petitioner calling for the recall of Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano.
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