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A pro-police group<\/span> is reportedly planning to ask the Department of Justice to investigate an elected prosecutor over allegations that he\u2019s been lenient toward undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit best known for backing police facing legal consequences for their actions, plans to ask the federal government to use a provision previously used to probe police violations of civil rights to investigate the office of Fairfax County, Virginia, Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney Steve Descano over his handling of cases involving undocumented immigrants, Fox News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis kind of legal warfare erodes trust in our justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The Trump administration recently put Descano in the spotlight when it attacked his office over claims that he dropped charges against a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant who was accused of killing a man the next day. Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security has also blamed former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration<\/a> for dismissing the man\u2019s immigration proceedings and labeling him as \u201ca non-enforcement priority.\u201d <\/p>\n The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is invoking the same provision of federal law that the Biden administration previously used to investigate police in Louisville, Kentucky, after they killed Breonna Taylor in 2020<\/a>. The law calls for policing to abide by the Constitution and establishes procedures for when police display a \u201cpattern or practice of conduct\u201d that violates civil rights.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Now, the pro-police group wants to argue that prosecutors like Descano are discriminating against the public by favoring undocumented immigrants in prosecutorial decisions. The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is effectively arguing that a pattern of leniency toward immigrants by Descano constitutes discrimination against American citizens.<\/p>\n \u201cThe MO of MAGA groups like LELDF is to partner with the Trump Administration to weaponize the justice system and go after people they don\u2019t like \u2014 in this case, reform prosecutors they disagree with philosophically,\u201d said Michael Collins, an independent consultant who works on prosecutorial reform. <\/p>\n \u201cLaws designed to protect people\u2019s rights and curb official misconduct shouldn\u2019t be repurposed to target officials over policy differences or prosecutorial discretion,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThis kind of legal warfare erodes trust in our justice system and undermines the very protections these laws were meant to uphold.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither Descano nor the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund immediately responded to a request for comment. <\/p>\n The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund has made attacking elected prosecutors a cornerstone of its work in recent years. This year, the group released a report focusing on the Wren Collective<\/a>, an organization that works with progressive prosecutors around the country, and claimed<\/a> that left-wing donors like George Soros are controlling the group and corrupting the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n In Virginia, the group has been trying to remove Descano and another elected prosecutor in Arlington County, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, since shortly after they first won office, though so far the police group has gotten little traction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n