Federal officials are criticizing Fairfax County after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the county’s policies allowed an undocumented immigrant with a lengthy criminal record to avoid deportation. According to DHS, Salvadoran national Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez, 27, has been arrested ten times and charged with 19 crimes over seven years, including malicious shooting and unlawful wounding.
DHS stated that Melendez-Gonzalez was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Oct. 24, following Fairfax County’s decision not to honor an immigration detainer issued against him in July. The agency said this was not the first instance of the county declining to cooperate, as a previous detainer in 2023 was also ignored. “Fairfax County officials refused to honor the immigration detainer and released this dangerous criminal alien back into the community,” DHS said.
Melendez-Gonzalez reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in June 2015, and an immigration judge ordered his removal in October 2016. Despite that, he remained in Virginia and was arrested multiple times for crimes ranging from firearm offenses and assault to public intoxication and providing false identification. He was convicted of two felony counts of unlawful wounding in 2023 and sentenced to three years, later reduced to one.
According to the Fairfax County Police Department, Melendez-Gonzalez was arrested in August 2023 for a shooting that injured three men outside a Falls Church business. When asked about the reduced sentence, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office declined to comment, referring inquiries to the sheriff’s office, which manages ICE detainers.
Allyson Conroy, spokesperson for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox News Digital that “no judicial warrant was on file from ICE” for either the 2023 or 2025 detainer requests. She added that the sheriff’s office “could not maintain custody over Mr. Melendez-Gonzalez” without such a warrant and that sentencing decisions rest with judges and prosecutors.
Fairfax County Chairman Jeffrey McKay stated that the county “does not control or make decisions regarding ICE detainers or judicial sentencing,” emphasizing that those are responsibilities of the sheriff and courts. He also said the county “does not consider itself a sanctuary jurisdiction and continues to follow all applicable federal and state laws.”
However, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin placed responsibility on local policies. “These sanctuary policies make Virginians less safe,” she told Fox News Digital. “Fairfax County refused to honor two ICE arrest detainers and chose to release this criminal back onto Virginia’s streets. Thanks to the brave men and women of ICE, this serial violent offender is now off the streets.”
