Staff Report
Ariel Nunez Figueroa, a 30-year-old Mexican national, was deported to Mexico by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 6.
He faces charges of kidnapping and organized crime linked to the 2014 disappearance and murder of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Teachers’ College.
ICE transferred Nunez from the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, to the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge Port of Entry in Laredo, Texas, where Mexican authorities took him into custody.
According to ICE, Nunez is accused of involvement in the tragic events of September 2014, when 43 students were abducted and killed — a case that sparked national and international outrage.
“For nearly eleven years, this fugitive evaded capture while the families of those 43 murdered students waited for justice,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford.
“Thanks to the collaboration between ICE, Interpol, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, we tracked him down and returned him to face prosecution.”
Nunez had entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown time and place. ICE received a tip from Interpol in September 2024, indicating he was living in the Houston area.
On September 9, 2024, ICE fugitive operations officers apprehended Nunez.
An immigration judge from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered his deportation to Mexico on January 22, 2025.
