In a recent case from Northern Virginia, Homeland Security reports that a man from El Salvador, previously deported twice, faces serious charges of rape and abduction. Authorities are pressing Fairfax County to comply with an ICE detainer to transfer him to federal custody.
Homeland Security identifies the accused as 46-year-old Juan Arevalo Mendez. His arrest took place on June 30 in Prince William County, related to allegations of rape and intent to sexually assault connected to an incident reportedly occurring in September 2025.
On the day of his arrest, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a detainer, requesting that Fairfax County keep him in custody.
According to statements from Fairfax County Police to News Media, officers were called to respond on September 19, 2025, after a woman’s report of sexual assault. The incident, claimed by the victim to have occurred a fortnight prior in Bailey’s Crossroads at the 3800 block of South George Mason Drive, prompted the Sex Crimes Unit to pursue warrants for Mendez on charges of rape and abduction.
Reports from police indicate that Mendez, a national of El Salvador, was taken into custody in Prince William County on June 30. These charges relate back to an alleged assault in September 2025 in Fairfax County, with Homeland Security noting that ICE sought to keep him detained on the arrest day. (Department of Homeland Security)
Juan Arevalo Mendez, a Salvadoran national, was arrested June 30 in Prince William County on rape and abduction charges stemming from an alleged September 2025 assault in Fairfax County, according to police. DHS said ICE lodged a detainer the same day. (Department of Homeland Security)
Members of the department’s Fugitive Tracking and Apprehension Team arrested Arevalo Mendez in Prince William County on June 30. He is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, police said.
According to DHS, Arevalo Mendez first entered the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident in 1991, but that status was revoked following a 1998 conviction for destruction of property. He was deported in 2003, later convicted of illegally reentering the U.S. before being deported again in 2014, and subsequently entered the country illegally a second time at an unknown date and location, the agency said.
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.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are seen during an enforcement operation in an undated file photo. ICE lodged a detainer for Juan Arevalo Mendez after his June 30 arrest on rape and abduction charges in Fairfax County, Virginia, according to the Department of Homeland Security. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
“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 News Media 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.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks during her inauguration in Richmond on Jan. 17, 2026. The Department of Homeland Security criticized Spanberger’s immigration policies after ICE lodged a detainer for Juan Arevalo Mendez, a twice-deported Salvadoran national charged with rape and abduction in Fairfax County. (Marvin Joseph/Getty Images)
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.
News Media has reached out to Spanberger’s office for comment.