Abigail Spanberger’s Virginia a ‘hotbed’ for illegal immigrant crime, says DHS after latest rape charge

By Fox News · Fox News

Following yet another illegal immigrant being charged with violent crimes in Fairfax County, Virginia, the Department of Homeland Security is once again appealing to Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger not to allow the charged individual to be released. In a Tuesday statement, DHS ripped Spanberger on charges of being too soft on illegal immigrant crime, saying that "Under Governor Abigail Spanberger, Virginia has become a hotbed of illegal alien crime." The latest involves Juan Arevalo Mendez, a 46-year-old twice-deported illegal immigrant from El Salvador who has been charged with rape and abduction in Fairfax County. Arevalo Mendez was arrested last week in Prince William County on charges of rape and abduction with intent to sexually assault stemming from an alleged attack in Fairfax County last September, according to DHS. The agency said that Arevalo Mendez originally entered the country legally in 1991, but his status was revoked after his first conviction for destruction of property in 1998. He was deported in 2003, illegally re-entered the U.S., was deported again in 2014, and illegally re-entered again at an unknown date and location. In addition to the illegal re-entries, Arevalo Mendez has a lengthy criminal history that includes multiple convictions for assault, including aggravated assault and assault with a weapon, as well as drug possession, obstructing justice, identity theft and larceny. ICE MAKES NATIONWIDE ARRESTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, MURDERERS, PEDOPHILES IN HOLIDAY BLITZ The same day he was arrested, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer for Fairfax County officials to hold Arevalo Mendez. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis remarked that "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 count…