Article Text
Two Northern Virginia prosecutors have joined a national coalition promising to investigate and prosecute federal agents accused of violating state law.
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, helped launch the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, or F.A.F.O., on Jan. 28. The effort followed two fatal shootings involving federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
The coalition is challenging the claim that federal authorities can control investigations into their own agents’ actions without local involvement. Its members argue that state and federal officials can have concurrent jurisdiction when conduct may constitute a state crime, including assault or homicide.
Nine locally elected prosecutors from Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Minnesota founded the group. They say their obligations under state constitutions are not displaced by federal assertions of absolute immunity.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, the coalition’s principal national spokesperson, called recent immunity claims “absolute nonsense.”
“Despite the misinformation you have heard from the mouth of the vice president, we do have the ability to bring state criminal charges against federal officers and to prosecute those cases to conclusion,” Krasner said during the virtual launch.
The dispute intensified after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. During a White House briefing on Jan. 8, 2026, Vice President JD Vance said the officer was conducting federal law enforcement activity and was therefore protected by “absolute immunity.”
Descano rejected the idea that federal agents are beyond local scrutiny.
“The chaos you’re seeing on the streets — the beatings, the abductions, the killings of everyday Americans just like you and me — these are the natural consequences of a federal government that thinks they’re above the law and the rest of us are below it,” he said.
Playing on the coalition’s acronym, Descano added: “Unfortunately for those guys, we’re in the ‘find out’ business around here.”
Dehghani-Tafti said the same legal standards should apply across law enforcement agencies.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re local police, county sheriff, state patrol, FBI, ATF,” she said. “You serve the public, you respect constitutional rights, and you follow the law. And when you don’t, we will hold you accountable.”
Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales and Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi are also part of the coalition.
Fatehi said the participation of prosecutors in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads would extend local oversight from the Washington suburbs to the coast.
“Between Steve and Parisa in the North, and Stephanie and me in the South, there is nowhere federal agents can go in this Commonwealth to escape the reach of the law,” he said.
Virginia’s four participating prosecutors are constitutional officers under Article VII, Section 4 of the state constitution, a status that gives their offices independence.
Other founding members include Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot in Texas, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover in Arizona and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in Minnesota. Moriarty holds a statutory office but has autonomous prosecutorial discretion under Minnesota law.
Krasner said locally elected state prosecutors could become an important check on federal power.
“We find ourselves in a moment when one of the most potent tools … to try to preserve democracy in the United States is state prosecutors,” he said.
Coalition members planned to meet again in February to coordinate efforts across their jurisdictions.
Virginia officials pursue additional restrictions
The prosecutors’ initiative comes alongside executive and legislative efforts in Virginia to limit state participation in federal civil immigration enforcement.
On Jan. 17, 2026, her first day in office, Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 10. The action rescinded former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 47 from 2025 and fulfilled Spanberger’s campaign promise to end a mandate requiring state and local police to assist with federal civil immigration enforcement.
State Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim of Fairfax is sponsoring three related measures before the Senate Committee for Courts of Justice.
SB 351 would prohibit civil arrests at courthouses and require federal agents to obtain a judicial warrant before entering. SB 352 would bar federal and state agents from wearing masks or other face coverings during enforcement operations so they can be identified. SB 783 would limit which state officers may perform the duties of federal immigration agents.
Salim said the proposals are intended to prevent “the chaos, lawlessness, and violence that we have seen perpetrated against Minnesotans from coming to Virginia.”
“The formation of this coalition sends a clear message: Virginia is not a ‘no-man’s land’ where federal agents can ignore the law,” he said.
As of Jan. 29, all three Senate bills remained with the Courts of Justice Committee. Salim faced a Tuesday, Feb. 17 crossover deadline to win passage in the full Senate.
Del. Alfonso Lopez, an Arlington Democrat, is sponsoring a similar House measure. HB 1440 would make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for federal agents to conduct civil immigration arrests in protected locations such as schools, hospitals and courthouses, except when acting under a judicial warrant or subpoena or during exigent circumstances.
The bill was assigned to House Public Safety Subcommittee No. 3 on Jan. 28. It would need approval from the subcommittee, the full Public Safety Committee and the House of Delegates before the Feb. 17 crossover deadline.