Illegal immigrant allegedly attacks police in Virginia — after dodging prosecution for allegedly choking his wife



Fairfax County officials are facing heavy criticism after the suspect in a violent domestic dispute and an attack on a cop turned out to be an illegal immigrant who was never prosecuted despite allegedly attacking his wife in April.

Officers responding to a domestic disturbance call attempted to arrest Nehemia Fuentes Banegas on Tuesday after he allegedly stabbed himself while threatening his wife. Fuentes Banegas then allegedly fled on foot, hid in a bush, and lunged for a police officer's service weapon in a frenzied ambush, according to police.

'3 in 10 residents of the county are immigrants.'

Fuentes Banegas was shot by officers in the ensuing struggle, though the bullet only grazed his shoulder. He is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

Fuentes Banegas was previously cited for reckless driving and driving without a license, according to court records. His race was recorded as white.

Fuentes Banegas is a Honduran national who illegally entered the country in 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“This criminal illegal alien from Honduras attacked a law enforcement officer and attempted to take the officer’s gun,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “He has now been charged with attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer.”

“ICE is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this dangerous criminal from jail,” she continued.

RELATED: DOJ goes to special court to send mother of terrorists back to Afghanistan

Fairfax County J&DR Court Database

In 2021, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano signed a procedure memorandum barring cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

“To improve community safety, restore trust, and ensure all have equal protection of the law, employees of the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office shall not assist federal agents with civil immigration enforcement,” the memo reads.

The document also notes that “3 in 10 residents of the county are immigrants.”

Descano Chief of Staff Laura Birnbaum acknowledged that Fuentes Banegas recently faced other criminal charges. A warrant reveals he was accused of "imped[ing] the blood circulation or respiration of another person by knowingly, intentionally, and unlawfully blocking or obstructing the airway ... resulting in wounding or bodily injury."

“Nehemia Fuentes faced charges earlier this year, but his wife, the victim in the case, indicated to prosecutors and other officials at a hearing in May that she did not want to prosecute at the time,” Birnbaum told Blaze News. “This kind of outcome is not uncommon in situations involving domestic violence, where prosecutors have little recourse if a case hinges on a victim’s testimony or cooperation.”

Commonwealth of Virginia/Warrant of Arrest

Birnbaum directed Blaze News to Sheriff Stacey Kincaid when asked if authorities notified ICE after Fuentes Banegas’ initial arrest.

“As required by statute, whenever an undocumented person is booked into the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, ICE is notified that person has been taken into custody,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson told Blaze News.

The Fairfax County Police Department directed Blaze News to its press release when reached for comment.

“As they were responding to the scene, they encountered both the husband, our suspect, running from the scene and the wife pointing out to our responding patrol officers that, ‘Yes, that is in fact my husband,’” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a press conference.

“Our suspect takes his right hand, he grabs the firearm that the police officer had in his hand,” Davis said. “The officer, obviously startled, discharged his firearm three times.”

A trial date has yet to be set. ICE has lodged a detainer for Fuentes Banegas, a DHS spokesperson told Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

1st Circuit Court Shoots Down Rogue Judges’ Bid To Evade SCOTUS Migrant Ruling

A federal appellate court shot down on Wednesday attempts by a pair of rogue judges to sidestep a recent Supreme Court immigration ruling. In its newly released orders, a three-judge panel on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Massachusetts-based Judges Patti Saris and Brian Murphy’s administrative pauses against the Trump administration. Those directives sought […]

Rapists and child molesters arrested by ICE as deportations continue



Immigration and Customs Enforcement just snagged another batch of career criminals.

The Department of Homeland Security announced another round of arrests, including child molesters, rapists, and drug dealers, on Tuesday. The illegal aliens were apprehended in targeted arrests across the country.

‘ICE is detaining and removing illegal aliens every single day.’

The DHS’ Worst of the Worst program highlights particularly egregious criminal illegal aliens apprehended by federal authorities.

"Just yesterday, ICE arrested child molesters, rapists, domestic assailants, and other worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Blaze News Wednesday. “While sanctuary politicians continue to release dangerous criminals onto their streets, our brave law enforcement will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals and make America safe again.”

Salvadoran alien Noe Rios-Hernandez was previously convicted of two counts of child molestation, three counts of illegal re-entry, and assault. She was apprehended by federal authorities in Johnson County, Iowa.

Her compatriot Maria Guadalupe Hernandez-Rodriguez was caught in Montgomery County, Maryland, and previously served time for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

Honduran alien and convicted rapist Erlin Molina-Ramos was also apprehended in Goshen, New York.

RELATED: Man accused of horrific sex crime tries — and FAILS — to squeak by CBP

ICE CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images

In Texas, ICE arrested Jose De La Luz Garcia-Pizarro, a Mexican national convicted of family violence and felony trespassing.

Cuban illegal migrant Abel Alejandro Perez-Beltran was detained in Lee County, Florida, and had a previous conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE is detaining and removing illegal aliens every single day,” Bis told Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Trump Admin Finally Cracks Down On Foreign Students Subverting America

For half a century foreigners could enter graduate programs and take many years, far more than four, to complete their doctoral programs while remaining in the U.S. without any deadline to leave.

Democrat crashes out AGAIN, threatens ICE with 'day of reckoning' for catching suspected terrorist



A Democratic state representative who pleaded guilty last year to refusing a breathalyzer during a DUI arrest has crashed out once again, this time over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's arrest of his "neighbor," an illegal alien identified by authorities as a "known member of MS-13."

Rhode Island state Rep. Enrique Sanchez (D) has even apparently threatened ICE for getting the dangerous foreigner off American streets.

'State Rep. Enrique Sanchez should be thanking our law enforcement for removing dangerous criminals.'

Ivan Rene Mendoza Meza, a 28-year-old also known as "El Negro," stole into the U.S. illegally at least twice. According to ICE, he is "a self-admitted member of MS-13 in Honduras and states he has committed crimes on behalf of the gang," which is a designated foreign terrorist organization.

ICE Boston issued an immigration detainer for Mendoza following his August 2023 arrest for allegedly trafficking fentanyl, a substance that killed an estimated 38,084 Americans just last year.

Mendoza was accused of being one of the "key members" of a drug-trafficking organization and linked to a residence where five bags of fentanyl pills along with a digital scale and an anti-GPS tracking device were allegedly discovered during a raid.

The 6th District Court of Rhode Island disregarded the detainer and cut the gangster loose on bond.

He spent two years as a free man, but after a brief chase that prompted the involvement of Providence Police and the evacuation of a multi-unit home, the gangster was finally captured by ICE on July 13, 2025.

The MS-13 terrorist's capture caused apoplexy among the usual suspects.

RELATED: ICE haters claim victory after 'major bank' shuts down deals with detention companies

Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Rhode Island branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, for instance, condemned the presence of local police at the time of the gangster's capture, calling for the termination of Providence Police Department Chief Oscar Perez, and demanding the removal of ICE from city streets.

State Rep. Enrique Sanchez, a self-identified socialist, also melted down, calling ICE "the Nazi Gestapo," referring to the gangster as his "neighbor," and characterizing their successful operation as an "act of terror."

This week Sanchez — whose big mouth and radicalism previously got him in trouble during his time as a substitute Spanish teacher — suggested that he had mental problems and that ICE was the cause.

"Fighting and dealing with ICE since last year has f**ked me up in the head after trying to protect and defend hundreds and hundreds of our community members in Providence and across Rhode Island," wrote the radical.

Sanchez then issued an apparent threat to ICE, stating, "Your day of reckoning will come motherf**kers. I swear to god."

He shared a version of the same message on Instagram in a foreign tongue.

When asked for comment, ICE referred Blaze News to the Department of Homeland Security, which said of Sanchez's remarks, "Because of smears and attacks like this, our ICE officers are now facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists."

The DHS noted that "instead of vilifying law enforcement, state Rep. Enrique Sanchez should be thanking our law enforcement for removing dangerous criminals," then proceeded to list a number of criminal noncitizens whom ICE has captured, including Mariel Valdez Nunez, an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic convicted of human slavery; Phet Phommasinh, an illegal alien from Laos convicted of homicide, assault, and aggravated assault with a weapon; and Touthtou Sengsavang, an illegal alien from Laos convicted of failure to register as a sex offender, molestation of a minor, selling cocaine, and other crimes.

Sanchez, who has repeatedly vowed that ICE "will pay" for doing their jobs, responded, "Ok."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

‘One man’s mass is another man’s meh’: Steve Deace questions whether 1 million deportations is really enough



One of the biggest selling factors of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign was his promise to conduct mass deportations, sending millions of illegal aliens the Biden administration had imported back home.

According to recent figures provided by the administration, nearly 1 million people have been deported since January 2025.

BlazeTV host Steve Deace is pleased with this number.

“That’s excellent progress given where we were starting from and all the court challenges and everything else, right? Not to mention how squishy Republicans are,” he says.

However, many conservatives disagree.

“There are plenty of my friends and contacts who are like, ‘This dog ain’t going to hunt,’ ‘This ain’t going to cut it,’ and ‘Mass deportations is what we voted for, it’s what we expect, and these aren’t massive enough,’” he notes.

“One man’s mass is another man’s meh, right?” he quips.

Deace asks co-host Todd Erzen and producer Aaron McIntire to weigh in. “Which of these two camps in my friend group right now would you guys come down in?”

Erzen is less optimistic than Deace.

“I’m way more in ‘this dog ain’t gonna hunt’ ultimately,” he says, noting that he’s nonetheless “grateful for everything that’s being done.”

“Right now, Dearborn, Michigan, should be a ghost town. Pockets of Minneapolis, wherever all those Somalis live, ghost town. Take care of that. ... That should be a bat signal to everybody else: Here we come,” he adds.

Aaron, however, is more concerned with finding “the real story.”

“It’s really difficult, especially when we’ve had as many government shutdowns or partial shutdowns as we’ve had in the last 18 months ... to actually get a bead on what the real data is,” he says.

Regardless, no matter what the actual number is, he argues, deportations are “nowhere near the pace that [they need] to be.”

“So, what I hear you guys saying, therefore, is that in typical Republican fashion, what we are doing is stopping the left from doing any new bad things, but we’re not going back and really undoing the old system,” Deace summarizes.

“Trump will push and stretch that paradigm as much as any previous Republican of our lifetimes has or was probably willing to, right? But ... it still doesn’t inspire the level of paradigm shift that is really required here. Is that what I hear you saying?” he asks.

“Exactly,” Erzen says.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Steve Deace?

To enjoy more of Steve's take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

New Jersey's noncitizen voter blame game doesn't add up — literally



Somewhere between Trenton and Washington, New Jersey's noncitizen voter count has become the political equivalent of Schrödinger's cat — both 6,600 and 35,152, both an accident and a scandal — until someone finally opens the box.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) claimed Tuesday that roughly 6,600 people who indicated they were not U.S. citizens had been mistakenly added to the state's voter rolls and that fewer than 400 of them went on to cast ballots between June 2023 and June 2024.

'These are just the ones that got caught.'

According to Sherrill's own account, people were asked directly, on a keypad, whether they were U.S. citizens, and they answered "no." The system registered them to vote anyway.

Sherrill blamed a "serious software error" in the state's Motor Vehicle Commission system for this failure. Sherrill claimed the “error” dates back to the administration of her predecessor, Phil Murphy (D).

Since she learned of the problem last week, Sherrill has launched an investigation, has ordered the erroneous registrations to be removed, and is replacing the vendor that ran the system.

The Department of Justice said it is looking into the matter as well.

RELATED: Trump exposed the cracks in our elections. The media proved his point.

Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images

IDEMIA, the French multinational company that has supported New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission "for more than 40 years," pushed back on the state's framing. The company said its role is limited to transmitting registration data, noting that the information IDEMIA submits "must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections."

The 6,600 number is notably smaller than the 35,152 noncitizens the Department of Homeland Security flagged on New Jersey's voter rolls last Friday, a figure President Trump cited last week in a speech on election integrity, along with the claim that 250,000 noncitizens are registered across New Jersey, California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania combined.

Sherrill has yet to reconcile the gap between the DHS' number and her own and has accused Trump of trying to "weaponize elections for political gain." In her statement, she added, "Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity."

Trump himself put the 35,152 figure front and center in a post on Truth Social, calling it the “new” DHS number of noncitizens registered to vote in New Jersey and insisting "these are just the ones that got caught" and that "real numbers will prove to be many times this amount."

He argued that all of those registrants are Democrats, urged Republicans to "get smart," and called for passage of the SAVE America Act to overhaul election rules.

On CNN's “The Lead,” Jake Tapper said in response to the whole debacle that the revelation is "not good for Democrats' argument that there's no such thing as undocumented immigrants voting."

Older Tapper remarks resurfaced in which he had dismissed election-security concerns, saying, "It happens, but at very, very miniscule numbers. It's not a serious threat when it comes to election security."

Sherrill says the 400 improper voters were "registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state" — though those figures, like the 6,600 number itself, come from her own account.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

DHS Should Be Threatening Employers Of Illegal Aliens, Not Buttering Them Up

DHS should not be working with businesses to preserve a cycle that undermines American workers and American sovereignty.

VIDEO: Anti-ICE agitator tosses incendiary liquid and sets it ablaze at federal building, DHS claims



Surveillance video captures the moment a man apparently sparked a large fire in front of a federal building in New York City on Monday.

The man attempted to flee on foot but was captured and arrested, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The department described him as a protester opposed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Photographs from the location also showed a cart with a sign reading, 'ICE OFF OUR STREETS.'

A federal employee and a civilian were injured during the fracas, but the injuries were described as minor.

"This morning an individual deployed an incendiary device outside of 26 Federal Plaza in New York. The individual is in custody," wrote FBI Director Kash Patel on social media Monday. "FBI [Joint Terrorism Task Force] is investigating the incident."

The man set off fireworks, spilled what appeared to be gasoline in front of the building, and lit it on fire, according to the DHS.

"An FPS Protective Security Officer swiftly tackled and detained the agitator, sustaining minor injuries during the incident," said the DHS statement. "Officers quickly recovered the individual’s bag, which contained what appeared to be two pellet guns and a manifesto. EMS, FBI, and the NYPD are on the scene."

Two law enforcement sources told Fox News that the suspect was identified as Andrew Arrabaca and that he possessed "anti-ICE stuff" during the attack.

Video of the smoke billowing up from the federal building and the police response was widely circulated on social media.

Getty photographs from the location also showed a cart with a sign reading, "ICE OFF OUR STREETS."

RELATED: Democratic mayor installs 'anti-ICE' signs all over L.A. — Trump admin issues MOCKING response

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) released a statement condemning the attack.

"What occurred outside 26 Federal Plaza this morning was deeply disturbing," he said on social media. "I’m relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody. My team is in touch with the NYPD, and we will support the federal investigation. Our administration will continue to ensure that every New Yorker is safe in their city — and hold accountable any who threaten that."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also issued a statement.

"Acts of terror and violence have no place in our city and will never be tolerated. The individual responsible for this must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Jeffries said in part.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Meet Election Attack Bombshell With The SAVE Act Or There Won’t Be A Republic Left To Save

We have a republic if we can keep it, and we will not keep it without the SAVE America Act.