ERO Houston removes Mexican fugitive wanted for attempted femicide

HOUSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston, with assistance from ERO Mexico and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force, removed Martin Israel Quintero Uresti, a 43-year-old unlawfully present Mexican national, from the U.S. on Aug. 25. Quintero is wanted in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for aggravated attempted femicide.

Deportation officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transported Quintero from the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, to the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo. Upon arrival, he was transferred into the custody of Mexican law enforcement authorities.

Quintero illegally entered the United States on an unknown date and at an unknown location. On May 6, 2005, he was convicted of driving while intoxicated in Harris County, Texas.

ERO Houston fugitive operations officers apprehended Quintero on July 27, 2023, at his residence in Houston. On Aug. 14, he was ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. ERO Houston deportation officers carried out his removal on Aug. 25.

“This individual is accused of committing gender-based violence in Mexico and then fleeing to the United States to evade prosecution,” said ERO Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “By successfully locating him and repatriating him to Mexico to stand trial for his alleged crime, we fulfill ERO’s sworn duty to uphold public safety and keep our communities safe.”

Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives should contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 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 ERO Houston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Southeast Texas, follow us on X, formerly known as 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 United States 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.

As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.