ICE lodges detainer against an abduction suspect with a criminal history
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer urging Fairfax County not to release from jail “an illegal alien who has been charged with rape and abduction.”
Juan Arevalo Mendez was arrested on June 30 in Prince William County. He has been charged with strong-arm assault and kidnap of an adult with the intent to sexually assault in connection with an incident in September 2025 in the Skyline area of Bailey’s Crossroads.
“These are serious charges, and our office is committed to prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law and the evidence. He is currently being held,” Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office told 7News on July 7.
Fairfax County Police arrested Arevalo Mendez, 46, of no fixed address, on separate domestic-related charges on Jan. 13 following an attempted traffic stop and pursuit on I-495 in the Huntington area of Alexandria. He was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, where he was served outstanding warrants for Abduction, Simple Assault, Petit Larceny, Failure to Appear, Obstruction of Justice, and an Assault warrant from another jurisdiction.
That abduction and assault case was subsequently dismissed after prosecutors dropped the charges. The victim, a family member, requested the case be closed. There were no witnesses.
A July 7 statement from Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office to 7News says, shortly after his arrest in January, “the person who reported the incident notified prosecutors that she had originally been untruthful about the facts of the case and wanted the charges to be dropped. With no third-party witnesses to the alleged offense, there was no path forward to continue with prosecution.”
According to ICE, Arevalo Mendez has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1998 that includes assault, aggravated assault with a gun, drug possession, destruction of property, illegal re-entry, obstructing justice, making a false report, identity theft, and larceny.
“The Department of Homeland Security 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,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.
Arevalo Mendez, an immigrant from El Salvador, first entered the United States as a legal permanent resident in 1991, but this status was revoked upon his first conviction for destruction of property in 1998, ICE states. He was deported in 2003, re-entered the U.S., and was deported in 2014. He then returned to the country at an unknown date.