Illegal Immigrant Accused of Rape in Fairfax County Days After Being Released for Another Crime

His name is Denis Humberto Navarette Romero. He’s an illegal immigrant from Honduras and last week he was arrested for raping a woman in Herndon, Virginia. The crime took place just four days after Romero was released from jail on an indecent exposure conviction. He was sentenced to 50 days for that crime but got out early for good behavior.

An illegal Honduran migrant has been charged with raping a woman on a popular hiking trail outside Washington, DC just days after he was released from jail on another sex crime charge — and it’s the first sexual assault of that kind in the town for more than a decade, according to authorities.

“This is the only stranger rape that we have had in the town in my more than 12 years as chief of police,” said Herndon, Virginia, police chief Maggie DeBoard in a press conference Tuesday.

From the description it doesn’t sound like there’s much doubt about his guilt.

Officers arrested Navarette Romero around 9 p.m. Monday in a parking lot in the 700 block of Station Street, where he had the cellphone of the woman who reported being raped, according to court records. Police said she was walking along the trail after leaving a bar in downtown Herndon when Navarette Romero grabbed her, forced her to the ground and assaulted her.

Romero has been living in Fairfax County for 11 years but he first came to the attention of police in 2018 when he was accused of a sex crime involving a young teenager.

The agency received a report that year saying he had fondled a 14-year-old. When a Fairfax County sex crimes detective investigated, the officer was told that Navarette Romero had exposed himself to a 13-year-old and 10-year-old a year before, according to the police report. A parent of those children said the incident went unreported because the family “did not want any problems.” Ultimately, police wrote, their attempts to speak with the people involved were met with resistance. They closed the investigation and Navarette Romero faced no charges.

Four years later he was homeless and was arrested several times, including once for trying to choke a police officer.

Herndon police first arrested him roughly four years later, when a woman reported that he smacked her butt while she was waiting for food from a restaurant in the 1200 block of Elden Street. When officers arrived, they found him in a nearby Kohl’s parking lot, where he resisted arrest by choking one officer and striking another in the face, police say.

He was facing two felony charges in that case, but the County Attorney pleaded it down to three misdemeanors. He did six months. When he’s not committing crimes in Fairfax County, he apparently goes to Washington, DC where he has also been accused of lewd acts and, in one case that is still pending, attempted murder. 

So why is this guy still here?

Fairfax County instituted what it calls a “Trust Policy” in 2021 which is essentially a sanctuary county policy. That wasn’t in place at the time of the 2018 incident but it was by the time of his next series of crimes. 

However, Fairfax claims ICE Is notified every time an illegal immigrant is incarcerated in the city jail. Romero has been in that jail four times, but the county says they never received a detainer requests for him. It’s not clear why that didn’t happen, but there’s no guarantee they would have honored it even if it had been filed. We know that the county has not honored these requests in other, similar cases.

…three suspects were arrested and charged with malicious wounding by a mob in connection to a homicide in Oakton, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. ICE has issued multiple “immigration detainers,” which notify local police the individuals should be detained against one of the suspects. Still, according to an official in the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office didn’t notify ICE about the suspect honoring it. 

In the murder, Nicacio Hernandez Gonzalez, 47, of Fairfax, was found dead in the 9500 block of Route 29 in Oakton with body trauma. According to FCPD, police officers arrested Maldin Anibal Guzman, 27, who previously had 23 charges, eight of them felonies, between July 2022 and July 2024, including malicious wounding. FCPD had also arrested Guzman in March and charged him with malicious assault and other crimes. ICE issued several detainers against him. Wis Alonso Sorto-Portillo, 45, was also arrested in connection with Gonzalez’s death. 

Of the charges against Guzman in the past two years, 15 were not prosecuted, and four were dismissed.

Why didn’t the county call ICE about these suspects? Why didn’t they pick up the phone about Romero even if ICE failed to file a detainer? It seems safe to assume the “Trust Policy” had something to do with it.

 Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was disgusted that Romero was put back on the street to commit this crime.

“I am heartsick for this victim and outraged that local Fairfax County officials recklessly release violent illegal immigrants who should have been prosecuted and deported,” the Republican told The Post.

“This is a dereliction of their most basic duty to keep people safe. Prioritizing violent illegal immigrants over the safety of Fairfax residents is unacceptable,” he continued — adding that Virginia is not a sanctuary state.

It’s hard to believe the people in Fairfax County are willing to tolerate this but it remains one of the reliably bluest counties in the state. Unfortunately, rapes and even murders by illegal immigrants don’t seem to be enough to change people’s minds about the wisdom of their approach.