Man With Prior Deportations Charged With Rape and Abduction in Virginia

Juan Arevalo Mendez, a 46-year-old from El Salvador, was arrested last week in Prince William County, Virginia, on charges of rape and abduction with intent to sexually assault, Fox News reported. The alleged attack occurred in Fairfax County in September 2025. Mendez entered the United States legally in 1991.

His status was revoked after a 1998 conviction for destruction of property. He was deported in 2003, illegally re-entered, was deported again in 2014, and illegally re-entered at an unknown date and location. He has prior convictions for assault, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, drug possession, obstructing justice, identity theft, and larceny.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer with Fairfax County officials on the day of the arrest. Mendez remains in custody at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, according to Allyson Conroy, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.

Conroy stated that the office does not obstruct ICE from acting on civil detainers. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis called on Governor Abigail Spanberger and Fairfax County officials to turn Mendez over to ICE rather than release him. Spanberger signed an executive order terminating Virginia’s 287(g) program, which had partnered state and local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities.

DHS reported 17 alleged instances of serious crimes by illegal immigrants in Virginia in 2026, nine of them in Fairfax County. In addition to the Mendez case, ICE lodged detainers or made arrests in Fairfax County involving other individuals charged with abduction, assault, carjacking, robbery, child rape, child pornography distribution, murder, and felony child abuse between March and June 2026.