ICE Lodges Detainer for Illegal Alien Accused of Kidnapping, Raping Woman in Virginia

MARY CHASTAIN JUL 8, 2026 11:00 AM

Another fight between ICE and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (VA) is brewing.

ICE demanded that Spanberger and Fairfax County, VA, officials not release Juan Arevalo Mendez, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, from jail.

Mendez faces charges of “rape – strongarm and kidnap adult with intent to sexually assault in connection with an assault in September 2025 in Falls Church.”

FOX 5 Washington DC addressed Mendez as “Alexandria Man.” Give me a break:

According to police records, the reported assault took place on September 2, 2025, in the 3800 block of South George Mason Drive in Falls Church. The victim came forward to report the incident to authorities on September 19, roughly two weeks later.Detectives from the Sex Crimes Unit conducted the investigation, gathering the evidence to obtain rape and abduction warrants for Arevalo’s arrest.

Mendez has had a lengthy criminal history since 1998:

• Convictions: assault, aggravated assault – weapon, strongarm aggravated assault – non-family, aggravated assault with a gun – non-family, drug possession, destruction of property, illegal re-entry, obstructing justice, and making a false report.
• Arrests: identity theft, drug possession, and larceny.

Mendez entered America in 1991 as a Legal Permanent Resident (LPR). The government revoked that status in 1998 after his conviction for destruction of property.

The government deported Mendez in 2003.

But Mendez returned illegally. Authorities found and deported him in 2014.

Mendez slipped back into America illegally “at an unknown date and location.”

The case also places Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano back into the spotlight.

Descano has been in hot water since Nick Minock at WJLA exposed the numerous times the Soros-backed prosecutor dropped charges against illegal aliens after Abdul Jalloh, an illegal alien from Sierra Leone, allegedly stabbed to death Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop.

It turns out, Descano could have prevented this crime if he hadn’t dropped some of Mendez’s previous charges and worked with ICE:

In January, Fairfax County police arrested Arevalo [Mendez] after a high-speed chase on I-495.FCPD said he then left the car behind and ran from police, but officers caught up to him and arrested him for outstanding warrants for various crimes in Fairfax County, including abduction and assaulting a family member.Descano’s office dropped those charges, along with the fleeing law enforcement charge.Steven Shillingford is a retired Fairfax County police homicide detective.“What we’ve been seeing with Mr. Descano is just a pattern, a systematic pattern of dropping charges on violent criminals who have come back and committed more heinous crimes, murders, more rapes, robberies, and he seems to take no responsibility for that,” said Shillingford.

Descano dropped the charges because “the person who reported the assault and abduction in January reported she was untruthful about the facts of the case.”

However, as Minouck reported, Mendez had “outstanding warrants for various crimes in Fairfax County.”

So what about those other outstanding warrants!? Why did Descano drop the fleeing law enforcement charges!?

Virginia is just awful when it comes to illegal alien crime:

• April 2025: ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Child Sex Offender After Virginia County Protected Him
• December 2025: Virginia Murder Suspect is Illegal Alien Who Had Been Released From Jail Hours Earlier
• February 2026: Prosecutors Repeatedly Dropped Charges Against Illegal Alien Arrested in VA Bus Stop Killing
• March 2026: Illegal Alien Adult Student at High School in Fairfax, VA, Accused of Groping Multiple Girls
• April 2026: ‘Virginia Dad’ Who Allegedly Killed Three-Year-Old Daughter is an Illegal Alien

ICE listed everything that has happened since January, though. Here are a few:

• In April, Roni Mendez-Escobar, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was arrested by ICE after previously being released by Fairfax County, despite being charged with possession of child porn with intent to distribute.
• In May, ICE arrested Walvin Victor Hugo Garcia, an illegal alien from Guatemala, after he was released by sanctuary politicians in Fairfax County despite facing charges of raping a child under the age of 13.
• In May, ICE lodged a detainer for Jorge Enrique Garcia-Rodriguez, an illegal alien from Mexico, who was arrested in Franklin County, Virginia and charged with forcible intercourse with a victim under the age of 13 and SIX counts of possession of child pornography.
• In May, Aroldo Santos-Velasques, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was sentenced in Loudoun County to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl.
• In June, an ICE investigation led to the sentencing of Samuel Flores de Dios, an illegal alien from Mexico, to 30 years in prison on charges of production of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

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