FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Federal immigration officers arrested a 27-year-old man from El Salvador with a long list of criminal charges after authorities said Fairfax County officials released him despite multiple ICE detainers.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in Washington, D.C., said Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez was taken into custody on Oct. 24 after Fairfax County declined to hold him for immigration authorities.

According to ICE, Melendez-Gonzalez has been arrested 10 times since March 2018 and charged with 19 crimes, including three counts of malicious shooting, unlawful wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, assault and battery, and grand larceny.

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ICE said Melendez-Gonzalez was first arrested by U.S. Border Patrol on June 22, 2015, for entering the U.S. illegally. A federal immigration judge ordered his removal in 2016, but officials said he "refused to leave the country."

ICE said Fairfax County refused to honor immigration detainers placed on Melendez-Gonzalez in August 2023 and July 2025.

"On both occasions, Fairfax County officials refused to honor the immigration detainer and released this dangerous criminal alien back into the community," according to ICE officials.