ICE Deports Honduran Woman Wanted on Human Trafficking Charge

U.S. authorities deported a Honduran woman who had been on the run since 2019 on a human trafficking charge.

Dora Patricia Flores Canales was sent back to Honduras on Friday, after spending over seven months in ICE custody.

Flores allegedly trafficked a vulnerable woman to Mexico five years ago, allowing her to be sexually exploited.

She was detained in November 2023 after crossing into the U.S., with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) team in Harlingen, Texas, securing a final order of removal at the end of June.

The allegations started in 2018, when Flores called the victim and offered her a job at a bar in Mexico.

The suspect told the victim her travel expenses would be covered and that she would earn good money once she got to Mexico, according to the public prosecutor’s office in Honduras.

When she got to the Pantera Rosa bar in Chiapas, however, the owner told her that her salary would depend on how many drinks she sold.

She was also told that she could charge customers 230 pesos, $12.50, to have sex with her.

“In addition, the victim had to pay the expenses of the trip, she was controlled by the owner of the bar and by the woman who took her, they fined her if she left the place or arrived late and threatened that they would hand her over to Immigration, so the offended woman got tired of these abuses and turned herself in to the authorities to be deported to Honduras,” the office said in a press release.

An arrest warrant for Flores was issued by Honduran authorities in 2019, for the crime of human trafficking.

In November 2023, Flores arrived at the U.S. border at or near Eagle Pass, ICE said on Monday. She was arrested and detained the same day for arriving in the country without a visa.

On Feb. 26, authorities in Honduras confirmed Flores was wanted on the human trafficking charge and she was eventually removed on Jun. 26.

“With this removal, we are sending a clear message: ERO will find, arrest and remove foreign fugitives wanted in their home country while acting within the laws and policies of the United States government,” ERO Harlingen Field Office Director Miguel Vergara said in a statement.

“We will continue to safeguard the American public from those who pose a significant threat to our nation.”

On Monday, ICE announced it had also arrested 11 known or suspected human rights violators as part of a nationwide operation between June 10 and 14.