The Honduras government announced that the procedure for extradition of the United States had begun to be an unfathomable immigrant charged with killing a young Iowa woman in 2016, the case that President Trump made a focus in his first presidential campaign.
The move to fulfill the American request to extradite Eswin Mejia comes as Honduras and other Latin American countries sought to show their willingness to cooperate with Trump’s administration.
Mr. Mejia allegedly drove drunk when he crashed into a Sarah Root vehicle in January in January 2016. He was closed and accused, but he escaped from the country after being released on Bond.
He was arrested on Thursday in the city about 125 miles northwest of the Honduran Tegucigalpa capital, where he was taken and appeared before the Judge of the Supreme Court on Friday, according to Hondurase officials.
Enrique Reina, a Honduras Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview that the Supreme Court ordered Mr. Mejia’s arrest and that the judge would determine whether to apply for the extradition of the United States.
“It has to go through the procedure,” Mr. Reina said, adding that the Honduran government received more than 50 requests for extradition from the United States since the President of Xiomara Castro took the post of 2022.
The White House did not respond to the commentary requests. The State Department sent a request for comment on the Ministry of Justice, which did not respond.
Trump’s administration pressed nations in the region to send individuals that the US authorities wanted back to the United States, seeking early victories in issues of illegal immigration and crime that are central to Mr. Trump’s political brand.
On the same day of the arrest of Mr. Mejia, Mexico sent 29 Top operatives of cartels wanted by US authorities. The group includes Rafael Caro Quintero, the founder of the Drug Cartel Sinalo, who was convicted in Mexico for monitoring the killing of Enrique Camaren of 1985, a drug administration. This week, Trump’s administration met with a high -level Mexican delegation to try to draw a new security agreement.
Ricardo Zúniga, a retired state department, which served as his special envoy for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, said that concessions were part of the wider efforts of Latin -American countries to show their efforts to target criminal groups and illegal immigrations, as Mr. Trump threatens new tariffs.
“For many governments in the region, an agreement where Trump is giving what they want, they are left alone and no one will go into their job, they are quite comfortable with that agreement,” said Mr. Zúniga. “On the other hand, they are pretty concerned about the tariff.”
The Sarah Root case, which was 21 when she was killed, became a focus for Mr. Trump during his first 2016 campaign. In this race, he repeatedly emphasized his plans for breaking illegal immigration and sought to point out cases where the unfathomable immigrants were charged with crimes.
Unlike Mexico, Honduras does not face immediate tariffs. But the government government is eager to show that it is open to work with Trump’s administration.
Last month, Honduras left the Secretary of State Secretary Marc Rubioa through Central America, on his first official trip, sending what experts said to be a clear message to President Castro.
Mrs. Castro last year moved to the end a longtime extradition contract with the United States, and on New Year’s Day threatened Build an American army From an important air basin if Mr Trump made mass deportations.
Recently, the Honduran government has reversed the course.
Last week, the country agreed to allow its air base Soto Cano to serve as a portable point for flights of deportation from Guantán. The Venezuelan deportitions of US authorities flew out of the Honduras Maritime Base, where they were transferred to a flight sent by the Venezuelan government.
Mr. Reina, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said at the time that it was a sign of Honduras’ clear relations with the United States.
Honduras also agreed last month to continue his extradition contract with the United States that Mrs. Castro had previously converted to the end. Tony García, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview when Honduras hoped he would do it to “warmer and fluid relations” with the United States, “because it was a thorny topic.”
On Thursday, the Honduran government announced the capture of Mr. Mejia in a post on social media and said that “historical arrest was made possible thanks to the cooperation between the Government of the President @xiomaracastroz and the administration of President @realaldonaldrump.”
Honduras was aware that Mr. Mejia has been in the country for some time, said a person aware of the situation, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke about the state of anonymity. The Castro government crossed it quickly after a request for extradition from the United States came, said the person.
The Honduran government could still face the domestic legal challenges in the sending of Mr. Mejia back to the United States, said that person. The Honduran law makes it difficult to extradite individuals charged with murder.
Mr. Mejia will remain in custody in Honduras to Next hearing in MarchThe authorities announced on Friday.
His arrest comes because Mr. Trump continued to associate crime with illegal immigration, the central part of his strategy for the construction of support for his immigration agent. He had some success. The survey during the latest campaign showed that Americans support Republicans more than democrats about immigration.
One of his first victories in the second term was the legislation called a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia, killed last year by a migrant from Venezuela, who illegally moved to the United States. The proposal of the law requires the detention of migrants who enter the country without approval and have been arrested or accused of certain crimes.
While the crimes have been committed by immigrants have attracted national attention, Mr. Trump also has a long history of inflatable his crime. The last 150 years of immigrants have been Less likely commit crimes from people born in the United States, The study was concluded in 2023.
