Ander Cortez-Mendez/Guatemala/Convicted Sex Offender

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; and the Diplomatic Security Service, apprehended 21-year-old Ander Cortez-Mendez, an illegally present Guatemalan national and convicted sex offender, in Falls Church, Virginia, April 2.

The arrest came after the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center refused to honor a detainer lodged by the Fairfax County Police Department after officers arrested Cortez-Mendez on March 16, 2024, for sex crimes.

The Fairfax County Circuit Court found Cortez-Mendez guilty of consensual sexual intercourse with a child May 20, 2024. The court sentenced Cortez-Mendez to three months in prison but suspended the entire prison sentence and released him back into the community.

“Ander Cortez-Mendez is a convicted sex offender, and exactly the type of illegal alien that ICE officers seek to remove from Washington, D.C. and Virginia,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Russell Hott said in a statement.

“We refuse to allow such offenders to continue to threaten the residents of our neighborhoods. ICE Washington, D.C. and our law enforcement partners will continue to arrest and remove criminal aliens from the streets of our communities.”