FAIRFAX, Va., July 8 (DC Times Online) — Juan Arevalo Mendez, a 46-year-old Salvadoran national described by federal officials as twice deported, faces rape and abduction charges in Fairfax County, Virginia, after an arrest last week in Prince William County, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
DHS said Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer the same day Arevalo Mendez was arrested. Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Allyson Conroy said he “remains in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center (ADC).”
In a statement quoted by Fox News, DHS said Virginia has become a “hotbed of illegal alien crime” under Gov. Abigail Spanberger. The agency said Arevalo Mendez entered the United States legally in 1991, lost his status after a 1998 destruction-of-property conviction, was deported in 2003, re-entered illegally, was deported again in 2014 and later re-entered at an unknown time.
DHS also said his criminal history includes multiple assault convictions, along with drug possession, obstructing justice, identity theft and larceny. The department said the Fairfax County case stems from an alleged attack last September.
