An illegal immigrant being held in Prince William County in connection with crimes committed in Montgomery County faces extradition today in a hearing
that could prove to be groundbreaking if a Virginia judge chooses to keep him in the commonwealth.
Milton Calderon-Melendez, 25, of El Salvador, has told The Examiner he wants nothing more than to stay behind bars in Prince William where he believes he’s more likely to be deported because of the county’s strict enforcement of immigration laws.
“If I’m here, there’s a better chance they’ll send me back to El Salvador. My wife needs my help and I’m the only one who can help her,” he said in Spanish from inside the Prince William jail in Manassas.
Getting his wish, however, is unlikely, prosecutors in both counties have said.
“It would be extremely rare and surprising if he weren’t sent back,” Seth Zucker, spokesman for Montgomery County States Attorney John McCarthy, has said. State laws regarding the sending of defendants back to jurisdictions where the crimes they’re charged with were allegedly committed are very strong, unlike the more shaky and complicated international extradition laws.
And Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Ebert said he has no plan of arguing to keep Calderon-Melendez in Prince William.
Calderon-Melendez’s story has pitted the policies of the two counties against each other.
He’s wanted in connection with two crimes in Montgomery; the first for allegedly assaulting a teenage girl in July 2007, the second for stabbing a man in August just weeks after he skipped a court hearing on the first case.
