The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) discovered during the review of asylum and work permit applications that a Salvadoran man was a member of the MS-13 gang and had confessed to committing five brutal murders. USCIS then worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest him in Virginia.
This arrest took place in Virginia just weeks before the new Governor, Abigail Spanberger, took office. Following her inauguration, Spanberger signed an executive order terminating the state’s cooperation with ICE, overturning the previous governor’s policies. USCIS criticized the new governor’s actions in a statement released on Tuesday, February 3, stating that it would reduce public safety.
Spanberger won the election in November 2025 and was sworn in as the first female governor in Virginia’s history on January 17, 2026. Upon taking office, she immediately repealed the order issued by the previous Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, which involved cooperation with ICE.
The announcement revealed that the suspect, 27-year-old Salvadoran citizen Edwin Antonio Hernandez, admitted to committing 5 murders.
The USCIS conducted a thorough review of Hernandez’s asylum and work permit applications and found that he had a significant criminal record and was residing illegally. With ICE’s assistance, he was arrested during an appointment at the USCIS office in Alexandria, Virginia.
Hernandez confessed to being a member of the MS-13 gang and admitted to committing five brutal murders in El Salvador, with one victim being dismembered alive.
In 2015, at the age of 16, Hernandez illegally entered the United States as an unaccompanied minor. After being arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol in 2017, an immigration judge ordered his deportation. During detention, Hernandez confessed to being an MS-13 gang member and admitted to using methods such as firearms, torture, assassination, and dismemberment to kill five people in El Salvador.
The announcement stated, “Hernandez admitted his crimes and was issued a deportation order, yet shamelessly took advantage of the generosity of the American people by first applying for asylum and then for a work permit. The Biden administration ignored his violent criminal record and granted him a work permit, releasing a notorious murderer back onto the streets of America.”
The announcement continued, “What’s more appalling is that a judge appointed by the Biden administration decided to allow him to stay in the U.S., claiming he needed protection from potential torture in his homeland—despite being the mastermind behind violence, torture, and murder of victims, making this decision highly ironic.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also questioned the new Governor Spanberger’s executive order to stop cooperating with ICE, which she said protected criminals, stating, “Governor Spanberger’s actions make Virginia residents even more unsafe.”
The announcement called for collaboration, stating, “Seven out of the top ten safest cities in the U.S. cooperate with ICE. We need to work together to remove criminals from our communities.”