ICE Houston removes Honduran fugitive wanted for murder

HOUSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed Ruben Alonso Urbina Martinez, a 39-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, from the U.S. April 2. Urbina is a foreign fugitive wanted in Honduras for murder.

Urbina was transported aboard a flight coordinated by ICE's Air Operations Unit from the Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, to the Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Upon arrival, he was transferred into the custody of Honduran authorities.

Urbina illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at an unknown location. ICE received information Feb. 20 confirming that Urbina was wanted in Honduras for murder and safely took him into custody that same day in Dublin, Texas, during a targeted enforcement action with the Erath County Sheriff’s Office. Urbina was processed as an expedited removal and repatriated to Honduras April 2.

“This foreign fugitive fled to the United States to evade prosecution for murder in his home country of Honduras,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret A. Bradford. “Working in tandem with our partners at the Erath County Sheriff’s Office, we were able to quickly locate him and safely take him into custody. By repatriating him to Honduras to face justice for his alleged crimes, we have eliminated a threat to public safety in our local communities and sent a resounding message that Southeast Texas will not be a refuge for foreign fugitives or anyone else who undermines the integrity of our nation’s immigration laws.”

ERO Honduras and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement Task Force assisted with Urbina’s removal.

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 Assistant Attaché for Removal, 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.

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 X, formerly known as Twitter, @EROHouston.