DHS Presses Fairfax County to Honor ICE Detainer After Twice-Deported Migrant Is Charged With Rape

A Salvadoran national who authorities say was deported twice from the United States is facing rape and abduction charges in Northern Virginia, the Department of Homeland Security said, as the agency presses Fairfax County officials to comply with an ICE detainer and turn him over to federal custody.

Juan Arevalo Mendez, 46, was taken into custody June 30 in Prince William County on charges of rape and abduction with intent to sexually assault, tied to an alleged September 2025 attack, according to DHS.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer that same day, requesting that Fairfax County authorities keep him in custody rather than release him.

Fairfax County Police told INC News that officers responded on Sept. 19, 2025, after a woman reported she had been sexually assaulted roughly two weeks earlier in the 3800 block of South George Mason Drive in Bailey’s Crossroads. Detectives with the department’s Sex Crimes Unit investigated the report and secured warrants charging Arevalo Mendez with rape and abduction.

Juan Arevalo Mendez, a Salvadoran national, was arrested June 30 in Prince William County on rape and abduction charges linked to an alleged September 2025 assault in Fairfax County, according to police. DHS said ICE lodged a detainer the same day. (Department of Homeland Security)

Police said members of the department’s Fugitive Tracking and Apprehension Team arrested Arevalo Mendez in Prince William County on June 30. He remains held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

DHS said Arevalo Mendez initially entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1991, but lost that status after a 1998 conviction for destruction of property. He was deported in 2003, later convicted of unlawfully reentering the country, deported again in 2014, and then reentered the U.S. illegally a second time at an unknown date and location, according to the agency.

DHS said Arevalo Mendez has a criminal history dating back to 1998 that includes convictions for assault, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, aggravated assault with a gun, drug possession, destruction of property, illegal reentry, obstructing justice and making a false report. The agency said he has also been arrested on allegations including identity theft, drug possession and larceny.

“This criminal illegal alien has been charged with rape and abduction. He has a laundry list of prior convictions for aggravated assault, destruction of property, and drug possession, as well as prior arrests for identity theft and larceny,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “DHS is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians in Fairfax County to commit to not releasing this dangerous criminal from jail, and to instead turn him over to ICE custody so that we can remove him from our nation and end his crime spree in our country.”

The arrest comes months after Fairfax County police took Arevalo Mendez into custody following a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 495 while he was wanted on felony abduction charges.

Police said officers attempted to stop a vehicle connected to an outstanding felony abduction warrant on Jan. 13, but Arevalo Mendez fled, leading officers on a pursuit before abandoning the vehicle and running into a wooded area, where he was arrested. He was charged with obstruction of justice in addition to facing outstanding warrants for abduction, simple assault, petit larceny, failure to appear and an assault charge from another jurisdiction.

A spokesperson for the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office told INC News that prosecutors dropped the January abduction and assault case after the woman who reported the incident later said she had been untruthful about the allegations and wanted the charges dismissed.

With no third-party witnesses, “there was no path forward to continue with prosecution,” the spokesperson said, adding that Arevalo Mendez “was not identified as the suspect in the September incident” that led to the current rape and abduction charges while the January case was pending.

DHS said ICE’s detainer requests that Fairfax County transfer Arevalo Mendez into federal custody instead of releasing him if he becomes eligible for release from local custody.

DHS also pointed to several recent Virginia cases involving immigrants accused or convicted of violent crimes as it argued the state has become a “hotbed of illegal alien crime” under Spanberger.

Among the cases cited by the agency, ICE said it recently lodged detainers against Moises Domingo Rico Rosales, a Nicaraguan national charged with abduction with intent to defile and indecent exposure in Annandale; Jose Nahun Aleman Hernandez, a Mexican national charged with molesting a 5-year-old girl in Woodbridge; and Cristian Wilfredo Alvarenga Aguilar, who faces charges including carjacking, abduction, assault and robbery in Herndon.

DHS also highlighted the arrests of Misael Lopez Gomez, a Guatemalan national charged with murdering his 3-month-old daughter in Fairfax County, and Anibal Armando Chavarria Muy, another Guatemalan national charged with second-degree murder in Bailey’s Crossroads.

INC News has reached out to Spanberger’s office for comment.