Suspect in Va. Muslim teen slaying detained by ICE

The 22-year-old man accused in the killing of a Muslim teenager in Virginia on Sunday has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to reports.

Authorities arrested Darwin Martinez Torres on Sunday after he allegedly beat and killed Nabra Hassanen, a high school student from Reston, in what police have described as an act of road rage.

{mosads}Hassanen and friends were returning from IHOP after attending an all-night prayer session for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan before an altercation ensued.

An ICE spokeswoman issued a statement Monday confirming that ICE has issued a detainer request, indicating probable cause that Torres was in the country illegally, The Daily Caller reported.

“On June 19, ICE lodged a detainer on Darwin Martinez Torres, a citizen and national of El Salvador, with the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax, Virginia. ICE lodges detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges when the agency has probable cause to believe an alien is removable from the United States. Mr. Martinez Torres has no prior encounters with ICE,” ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell told the website, adding that the agency was unaware he was in the states.

The Fairfax County Police Department confirmed to the Caller that Torres “is a resident of El Salvador.”

According to the Daily Caller, Cutrell also specifically confirmed that Torres was in the U.S. illegally and had not applied for amnesty under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The Washington Post reported Monday from Torres’s court arraignment that the suspect works in construction. His family told the newspaper that he has a girlfriend and a 4-year-old son.

In statements Monday, the Fairfax County Police Department said that Hassanen’s death was not a hate crime, although investigations are ongoing.

– Updated: Thursday, 1:23 p.m.