WASHINGTON (Map, News) - There’s at least one illegal immigrant who’s quite happy with Prince William’s illegal immigration crackdown.

Milton Calderon-Melendez, 25, an illegal immigrant arrested in Prince William County in connection with crimes in Montgomery County, says he’d rather be deported than return to Maryland, where he faces a potential lengthy prison stay on suspicion of stabbing a man.

Calderon-Melendez was arrested in Virginia last month and is now fighting to stay there until he’s deported, he told The Examiner from the Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center.

“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, adding he worries for his family’s safety because he left the MS-13 gang in El Salvador shortly before he slipped across the U.S.-Mexico border last year.

But police and federal officials say even if the charges had stemmed from crimes allegedly committed in Prince William, he’d likely still serve prison time before being deported.

And Prince William officials said they’d rather see him in prison than deported, anyway.

“You don’t just want to release an attempted murderer. Our border isn’t secure, and they’ll just come right back,” said Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart, the driving force behind one of the nation’s most stringent anti-illegal immigration policies, which could cost the county $6.1 million to enforce.

Stewart added that the biggest issue in Calderon-Melendez’s case is that he was out on bail in August when, police say, he nearly stabbed a man to death, charges Calderon-Melendez vehemently denied to The Examiner. While Prince William’s policy to check the immigration status of everyone they arrest didn’t kick in until after the alleged crimes, Stewart said, it’s “appalling” that other jurisdictions haven’t followed the county’s lead.

Montgomery County’s elected officials have unanimously rejected using local police to enforce immigration issues, as Prince William does.

Last week, State’s Attorney John McCarthy urged illegal immigrants not to fear the police and to step forward to report crimes.

Last summer, Police Chief J. Thomas Manger told immigrant activists he had an obligation to enforce existing federal immigration warrants listed in a national database, but said he opposes immigration enforcement training for his officers because it would sap resources.

“I’ve got a lot more issues that I’ve got to deal with in this county,” Manger said at the time.

fklopott@dcexaminer.com

kmiller@dcexaminer.com