U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington, D.C. recently apprehended a Guatemalan gang member, Mykol Santos-Santos, who was residing illegally in the United States. Santos-Santos, 25, was arrested on May 12 in Fairfax after the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center did not honor ICE’s sixteenth immigration detainer against him.
During the arrest, Santos-Santos resisted heavily, resulting in an injury to an ICE officer. “Mykol Santos-Santos is a habitual offender. He is a documented member of a violent criminal gang with a lengthy criminal history and represents an egregious danger to our Virginia communities,” stated Russell Hott, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington, D.C. Field Office Director.
Hott criticized local law enforcement for not cooperating with federal authorities: “While we are happy to have arrested him, we find it inexcusable that local law enforcement refused to honor 16 separate immigration detainers against Santos-Santos, forcing ICE officers to make an at large arrest where one of our officers was injured.”
Santos-Santos entered the U.S. illegally near Hidalgo, Texas on July 11, 2014. He was later issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge by Border Patrol officials. He has been involved in numerous criminal activities since then and has been arrested multiple times by Fairfax County Police for various charges including assault and battery and drug-related offenses.
On June 30, 2023, he was ordered removed from the United States to Guatemala by an immigration judge. Despite this order and repeated detainers lodged by ICE between June 17, 2022, and May 12, 2025, the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center released him back into the community each time.
Members of the public can report crimes or suspicious activity related to immigration enforcement by contacting ICE through their hotline or online tip form.
More information about ICE’s mission can be found on X at @EROWashington.
