Suspect In Fatal Carjacking Of Grandmother Is Illegal Migrant From El Salvador

The suspect arrested for the fatal carjacking of a grandmother in Virginia over the weekend is an illegal migrant from El Salvador.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the suspect’s identity and has placed a detainer request on him with local authorities, Fox5 DC reported.

NEW: In statement to @FoxNews, ICE confirms that the suspect arrested for the fatal carjacking of a grandmother in Virginia on Sunday is an illegal alien from El Salvador who entered the U.S. as a “gotaway” at an unknown time & location. ICE has placed a detainer request on him… pic.twitter.com/5kiDKCrBsb

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 30, 2024

On Sunday in broad daylight, Jose Aguilar-Martinez, 21, allegedly carjacked Melody Waldecker, 54, in Sterling, Virginia, and then ran over her with her own car, killing her, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said.

Police were called around 11:30 a.m. They found the grandmother dead at the scene. The suspect was arrested about 45 minutes later. He was taken to a local hospital at first after appearing to have an unrelated medical condition.

Aguilar-Martinez has been charged with felony carjacking and is expected to face additional charges, police said. He is currently being held without bail at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.

The suspect is a “gotaway,” meaning he was never apprehended by border authorities when he illegally crossed into the country. It is not known when or where he entered the U.S.

Overall, around 12 million migrants have entered the country illegally under the Biden administration.

There have been more than 9.5 million migrant encounters and about 1.7 million illegal migrant gotaways, according to immigration authorities.

Major cities are under pressure to find shelter space and funding for hundreds of thousands of new migrants.

New York City has seen an influx of more than 180,000 illegal migrants over the past two years and is still housing many of them. Chicago is currently paying to shelter about 13,000 of the more than 44,000 migrants who have arrived in the city over the last two years.

Earlier this year, immigration surged to become the top issue on voters’ minds, bumping inflation down to second place, polls showed.

High-profile crimes allegedly perpetrated by migrant suspects have grabbed headlines, including a string of grisly murders and rapes of American girls and women.

Former President Donald Trump has made migrant crime a central issue of his 2024 campaign, saying he would start a mass deportation operation if elected to the White House again.

The Trump campaign has also attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her failure to stem the flow of migrants at the southern border despite being tapped by President Biden to address the problem back in 2021.

Since Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris, the Trump campaign has worked to tie her to the administration’s unpopular immigration policies.