A 23-year-old Salvadoran migrant is accused of murdering a man in Reston, Virginia, less than 24 hours after Fairfax County authorities released him from jail without honoring a federal immigration detainer. Federal law enforcement sources told The Daily Wire that Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez entered the U.S. illegally in 2016 and later accumulated multiple criminal charges, drawing renewed scrutiny to Fairfax County’s handling of immigration-related detainers.
Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez, a 23-year-old Salvadoran migrant, allegedly fatally shot a man inside the man's Reston, Virginia, home on a Wednesday in December 2025, according to Fairfax County police statements cited by The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire reports that the killing occurred less than 24 hours after authorities in Fairfax County released Morales-Ortez from the county jail and did not honor a federal immigration detainer requesting that he be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
According to federal law enforcement sources cited by The Daily Wire, Morales-Ortez crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in 2016 with his mother. Border Patrol agents were preparing to deport them, but both asserted a fear of returning to El Salvador. In 2022, an immigration judge dismissed his deportation case, effectively allowing him to remain in the United States without legal status.
Local outlet ABC7, as summarized by The Daily Wire, has reported that Morales-Ortez has been identified by authorities as a suspected member of the MS-13 gang. ABC7’s reporting, cited by The Daily Wire, also indicates that Morales-Ortez came to the attention of law enforcement on six occasions beginning in 2019 for alleged offenses ranging from assault to murder.
ABC7 further reported, according to The Daily Wire, that in 2021 Morales-Ortez was charged with first-degree murder and spent about 18 months in jail while awaiting trial before prosecutors dismissed the case after determining he was not involved. Another individual was ultimately convicted in that case. In a separate matter, he was found guilty in a theft case and fined $300, a fine that ABC7 reported he did not pay.
Before his most recent release, Morales-Ortez had been arrested in connection with a September 12, 2025, incident involving allegations that he brandished a gun and assaulted and injured a person, The Daily Wire said, citing local coverage. He was charged with offenses related to brandishing a firearm and assault.
The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office later dropped the case. In a statement quoted by The Daily Wire, the office said: “Prosecutors were unable to move forward with the case because the victim told police that they were out of the country and would not be coming to court to cooperate in proceedings. Sadly, without the victim’s necessary testimony, we could not move forward with the case.”
After his release, the Fairfax County Police Department said a Community Services Board clinician obtained an Emergency Custody Order (ECO) for Morales-Ortez. In a statement posted on the department’s X account and cited by The Daily Wire, police explained that an ECO is valid for eight hours. Reston District patrol officers were dispatched to serve the ECO and attempted to locate Morales-Ortez at his listed address but did not find him before the order expired. Authorities later apprehended him following a manhunt, according to the department’s account.
The Daily Wire notes that the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for stricter immigration enforcement, has described Fairfax County as operating as a sanctuary jurisdiction that routinely releases noncitizens from jail without notifying ICE.
Some specific details commonly included in crime reporting—such as the exact calendar date of the shooting and the precise statutory names of the September 2025 charges—have not been independently verified beyond the accounts cited by The Daily Wire and the local outlets it references.
