Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez

By Zak Failla From Daily Voice

A Salvadoran national with a violent criminal history was arrested in Fairfax County after local officials refused to honor multiple ICE detainers and released him back into the community, federal authorities announced.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Washington, DC, officers arrested Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez, 27, on Thursday, Oct. 24, in Fairfax, after county officials ignored an immigration detainer filed earlier this year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Melendez-Gonzalez has a lengthy record that includes 10 arrests and 19 criminal offenses, federal officials said. 

According to ICE his alleged offenses include: 

  • Three counts of malicious shooting;
  • Unlawful wounding;
  • Use of a firearm in the commission of a felony;
  • Assault and battery;
  • Assault on a family member;
  • Grand larceny;
  • Trespassing;
  • Possession of false government identification;
  • Public intoxication;
  • Disturbing the peace;
  • Making a false statement to police.

“Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez is a career criminal with a propensity toward violence,” ICE ERO Washington, DC Field Office Director Russell Hott said. 

“He is exactly the kind of criminal alien offender that ICE detainers protect the members of our communities against," he continued. "When sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to honor ICE detainers, they only endanger the people they purport to protect.”

According to ICE, Melendez-Gonzalez was first arrested by US Border Patrol after illegally entering the country on June 22, 2015. 

A Department of Justice immigration judge ordered him removed to El Salvador on Oct. 4, 2016, but he refused to comply and remained in the US.

Between 2018 and 2025, Melendez-Gonzalez was arrested ten times and charged with nearly 20 crimes, ICE said.

The agency filed detainers with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center twice — once in August 2023 and again in July 2025 — but both were ignored, according to federal officials. 

On both occasions, county officials released Melendez-Gonzalez back into the community.

He was re-arrested by ICE agents on Oct. 24, less than four months after Fairfax officials declined to honor ICE’s latest detainer.

Hott added: “ICE will continue to prioritize the safety of our Washington, DC and Virginia communities by arresting and removing such criminal alien offenders from our streets."