HOUSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston, with assistance from ERO Mexico and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force, deported Nestor Flores Encarnacion, 58, to Mexico on Thursday. Flores, who illegally entered the U.S. four times, is wanted in Veracruz, Mexico, for the rape of a child.
Flores was removed from the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, and transferred into the custody of Mexican authorities at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo, Texas.
“This foreign fugitive brazenly entered the U.S. in violation of our nation’s laws on four separate occasions to evade prosecution in Mexico for allegedly raping a child,” said Bret A. Bradford, ERO Houston Field Office Director. “Dangerous foreign fugitives and criminal aliens…will find no safe haven in Southeast Texas.”
Flores first illegally entered the U.S. in February 2002 and was apprehended and voluntarily returned to Mexico by U.S. Border Patrol three times that same month. He entered the U.S. a fourth time at an unknown location and date. ERO officers apprehended him on Aug. 23, 2024, at a Houston residence after receiving an alert linking him to the child rape charges in Mexico.
Flores was placed into immigration proceedings and granted a voluntary departure under safeguards by an immigration judge on Dec. 19, 2024.
The deportation was part of the SAFE Program, which facilitates collaboration between U.S. and foreign authorities to apprehend fugitives with outstanding foreign warrants. ICE’s ERO unit continues to target individuals who threaten public safety and violate immigration laws.