Federal immigration officials have lodged a detainer against a Honduran national accused of attempting to disarm a police officer during an encounter in Northern Virginia.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is asking Fairfax County officials not to release Nehemia Noel Fuentes-Banegas after authorities said he ambushed a Fairfax County police officer Tuesday.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), officers responded to a report of a man who left a home in Annandale following an argument while allegedly armed with two knives.
Fairfax County police said the man also stabbed himself before leaving the residence and fleeing into a nearby wooded area.
As officers searched a wooded area, Fuentes-Banegas allegedly emerged from the brush, grabbed an officer’s firearm and attempted to disarm the officer, DHS said.
Fairfax County police said one officer fired his service weapon while a second officer simultaneously deployed a department-issued Taser. The bullet grazed Fuentes-Banegas’ shoulder, police said.
Fuentes-Banegas was arrested and charged with attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer. ICE has lodged a detainer requesting that Fairfax County notify federal authorities before his release.
According to DHS, Fuentes-Banegas entered the United States illegally through Texas in 2022 and was later released under the Biden administration.
“This criminal illegal alien from Honduras attacked a law enforcement officer and attempted to take the officer’s gun,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“He has now been charged with attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer,” she continued. “ICE is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this dangerous criminal from jail.”
DHS blamed Virginia’s sanctuary policies for limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, arguing they have made the commonwealth “a magnet for illegal alien crime.”
The department noted that Spanberger signed executive orders at the start of her administration ending former Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 287(g) agreements and limiting state cooperation with ICE.
“Under Governor Spanberger, Virginia has become a hotbed of illegal alien crime,” DHS said.
DHS also pointed to the recent arrest of Raul Genesis Ortiz Moran, a Mexican national charged with second-degree murder and aggravated sexual battery in connection with the death of a 2-year-old girl in Louisa County.
“This horrific tragedy was completely avoidable because this illegal alien should have never been in our country. Governor Spanberger’s sanctuary policies have made Virginia a hotbed for illegal alien crime,” DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis previously told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Spanberger’s office for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
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