ICE Houston removes Honduran fugitive wanted for homicide

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston, with assistance from ERO Honduras and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) in Honduras, removed Jorge Munoz Pineda, a 32-year-old unlawfully present Honduran national, from the U.S. on March 8. Munoz is wanted in Honduras for homicide.

Munoz was flown aboard a flight coordinated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Air Operations Unit from the San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas, to the Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Upon arrival, he was transferred into the custody of Honduran authorities.

Munoz illegally entered the U.S. on Feb. 6, and was immediately apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol near Eagle Pass, Texas. On Feb. 9, he was transferred into ERO Houston custody. On Feb. 22, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Munoz removed from the U.S. ICE officers carried out that order and removed Munoz from the U.S. to Honduras on March 8.

“ERO Houston is committed to working with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to identify and remove dangerous foreign fugitives, criminal noncitizens and other immigration violators hiding out in southeast Texas,” said Bret Bradford, field office director for ERO Houston. “Our immigration officers are specially trained to locate and repatriate these threats to public safety to their country of origin, where they can be held accountable for their alleged crimes.”

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.

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.