The Honduras government said that the extradition process in the United States had begun an undocumented immigrant who was accused of assassinating a young Iowa woman in 2016, a case that President Trump made a focal point in his first presidential campaign.
The passage to fulfilling a US request to extradite Eswin Mejia comes when Honduras and other Latin American countries have tried to prove their willingness to cooperate with the Trump administration.
Mr. Mejia allegedly went drunk when he crashed against Sarah Root’s vehicle in a light style in Omaha in January 2016. He was detained and accused, but fled the country after being released in bonds.
He was arrested on Thursday in a city about 125 kilometers north -west of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where he was taken and appeared before a Supreme Court judge on Friday, according to Honduran officials.
Enrique Reina, Honduras Foreign Minister, said in an interview that the Supreme Court had ordered the arrest of Mr. Mejia, and that a judge would determine if he would grant an extradition request from the United States.
« This has to go through a process, » said Reina, adding that the Honduran government had received more than 50 US extradition applications since President Xiomara Castro took office in 2022.
The White House did not respond to comments applications. The State Department sent a comment request to the Department of Justice, which did not respond.
The Trump administration has pressed the region’s nations to send individuals desired by the North -American authorities back to the United States, seeking early victories on illegal immigration and crime issues that are fundamental to Mr. Trump’s political brand.
The same day of the arrest of Mr. Mejia, Mexico send 29 TopS posters desired by the North -American Authorities. The group includes Rafael Caro Quintero, a founding member of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, who was sentenced to Mexico to dominate the 1985 murder of Enrique Camarena, an agent of drug administration. This week, the Trump administration also met with a high -level Mexican delegation to try to eliminate a new security agreement.
Ricardo Zúniga, a retired state department official who served as a special envoy to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, said that concessions were part of a wider effort in Latin American countries to show their efforts to guide criminal groups and illegal immigration, as Mr. Trump threatens to impose new rates.
« For many governments in the region, with an agreement where they give Trump what he wants and, in return, they are left alone and no one will go into their business, they are very comfortable with this agreement, » said Zúniga. « On the other hand, they are very worried about the rates. »
The case of Sarah Root, 21 when he was killed, became a focus for Mr. Trump during his first campaign in 2016. In this race, he repeatedly emphasized his plans to demolish illegal immigration and sought to raise cases where undocumented immigrants were accused of crimes.
Unlike Mexico, Honduras does not face imminent rates. But the government of the country has been eager to show that it is open to work with the Trump administration.
Honduras was left out of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s itinerary through Central America last month, on his first official trip, sending what experts said was a clear message to President Castro.
Last year, Ms. Castro He moved to finish A long -term extradition treaty with the United States and New Year’s Eve, threatened eject the north -Americans From an important air base if Mr. Trump carried out massive deportations.
The Honduri government has recently invested the course.
Last week, the country agreed to allow its Air Base Soto Cano to serve as a transfer point for the deportation flights of Guantanamo. Venezuelan deportees were flown by the North -American authorities from a naval base to Honduras, where they were transferred to a flight sent by the Venezuelan government.
Queen, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, then said that it was a sign of strengthening Honduras’s bonds with the United States.
Honduras has also agreed last month to continue the extradition treaty with the United States that Ms. Castro was previously moved. Tony García, the Vice Foreign Affairs Minister, said in an interview at that time that Honduras hoped to do it to « warmer and more fluid relations » with the United States, « because it has been a thorny theme. »
On Thursday, the Honduran government announced the capture of Mr. Mejia in a position on social networks, saying that « historical detention was made possible thanks to the cooperation between the government of President @xiomaracastroz and the administration of President @realdonaldrump ».
Honduras had been aware that Mr. Mejia was in the country for some time, according to a person who knew the situation, who was not authorized to publicly comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Castro government moved to arrest it quickly after a US extradition request came, the person said.
The Honduran government could still face domestic challenges to send Mr. Mejia again to the United States, the person said. The Hondurian law makes it difficult to extradite the people accused of murder.
Mr. Mejia will remain in preventive detention in Honduras until their next audience in MarchThey said the authorities on Friday.
His arrest comes when Trump has continued to link crime to illegal immigration, a central part of his strategy to create support for his anti-immigration agenda. He has had some success. The poll during the most recent campaign showed that the North -Americans supported Republicans more than Democrats in immigration.
One of his first victories of his second term was the legislation named for a 22 -year -old Georgia Nursing student killed last year by a Venezuela migrant who had crossed the United States illegally. The bill requires the arrest of migrants who enter the country without authorization and are arrested or accused of certain crimes.
While the crimes committed by immigrants have received national care, Mr Trump also has a long history to inflate his crime. Over the past 150 years, immigrants in general have been less likely commit crimes that people born in the United States, A study of 2023 was concluded.
Leave a Reply