ERO Houston removes foreign fugitive wanted in Honduras for murder

HOUSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston, with assistance from ERO Tegucigalpa and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force in Honduras, removed a foreign fugitive from the U.S. Jan. 27 who is wanted in Honduras for murder.

Edgar Omar Guzman Ferrera, a 25-year-old unlawfully present Honduran fugitive, was flown from Alexandria, Louisiana, on a charter flight coordinated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Air Operations Unit to the Ramon Villeda International Airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Upon arrival, he was handed over to Honduran law enforcement authorities.

Guzman Ferrera illegally entered the U.S. on May 2, 2022, at the Port of Entry in Hidalgo, Texas. During processing, it was discovered by immigration officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that he is wanted in Honduras for murder with aggravating circumstances and he was taken into custody. On May 3, he was transferred into ICE custody and taken to the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, to begin immigration proceedings. On Dec. 6, 2022, an immigration judge (IJ) with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered him removed from the U.S. ICE officers carried out his removal from the U.S. to Honduras Jan. 27, 2023.

“ERO Houston is committed to work closely with our foreign law enforcement partners to repatriate fugitives who unlawfully enter the U.S. to escape justice for their alleged crimes,” said Acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez, ERO Houston. “By repatriating foreign fugitives to stand trial for their alleged misdeeds, we bolster public safety here in the U.S. and ensure crime victims in other countries receive the justice they deserve.”

Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 1 (866) 347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form.

For more news and information on how the ICE ERO Houston Field Office carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Southeast Texas follow us on Twitter @EROHouston.

The SAFE Program is a fugitive enforcement and information sharing partnership that was created in 2012 to better use subject information derived from local in-country investigative resources and leads to locate, apprehend, detain, and remove individuals residing in the U.S. illegally who were subject to foreign arrest warrants. The SAFE Program operates under the respective host nation’s AAR, which constructs a SAFE task force composed of relevant foreign law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, attorneys general, and national identification repositories – as well as other regional, national, state, and local government agencies. The managing AAR ensures that each task force member complies with SAFE policies and standards consistent with the program’s standard operating procedures. Once established, the AAR-led SAFE task force generates new leads and vets existing SAFE fugitive referrals for ERO action.

ERO, a directorate of ICE, upholds U.S. immigration law at, within, and beyond our borders. ERO operations target public safety threats, such as convicted criminal noncitizens and gang members, who have violated our nation's immigration laws, including those who illegally re-enter the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges. ERO deportation officers assigned to Interpol also assist in targeting foreign fugitives for crimes committed abroad at-large in the U.S. ERO manages all aspects of the immigration enforcement process, including identification and arrest, detention, bond management, supervised release, transportation, and removal. Additionally, ERO repatriates noncitizens ordered removed from the U.S. to more than 150 countries worldwide.