COLDSPRING, Texas — The “wife” of the four-time deported Mexican national accused of murdering five Honduran migrants in their home is also an immigration fugitive, according to federal immigration officials. The woman, now in the Montgomery County, Texas, jail on felony charges of helping accused murderer Francisco Oropesa evade arrest, is herself an immigration fugitive after being ordered removed from the U.S. for a second time.
Responding to an inquiry from Breitbart Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officials reported they placed an immigration detainer on 52-year-old Divimara Lamar Nava, an unlawfully present Mexican national. Officials say Nava was removed from the U.S. by ERO officers after an immigration judge ordered her removal on December 29, 2009.
Sometime after her deportation, Nava illegally re-entered the U.S. at an unknown location, officials stated. Members of an ICE ERO Houston fugitive operations team encountered Nava again at a residence in Conroe, Texas, on September 25. Officials reinstated her previous order of removal.
Nava was allowed “for humanitarian reasons” to report later to an ICE facility for an order of supervision prior to being removed to Mexico. “Nava absconded from immigration authorities before she could be removed and has remained an immigration fugitive until she was encountered at the Montgomery County Jail on May 3, 2023,” officials stated.
This is the day that a law enforcement team consisting of Border Patrol BORTAC agents, U.S. Marshal Service deputies, and Texas DPS CID agents raided a home in Cut & Shoot, Texas, and arrested murder suspect Francisco Oropesa, as reported by Breitbart Texas.
In an interview with Breitbart Texas, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said Nava was present at the scene as the team arrested Oropesa. While the couple is not legally married, Oropesa reportedly refers to Nava as his wife.
“Ms. Nava was on the scene (of the murders of five Hondurans including a young child) when we first saw her,” Dillon stated. “The evidence we have so far in the investigation is that she probably wasn’t assisting him int he early hours of this (incident).
When the law enforcement team caught up with Oropesa four days later, “Ms. Nava was there,” Dillion said. “It’s suggesting at this point that her acts that she committed were actually within the jurisdiction of Montgomery County (Texas).”
He said that if information comes out that she assisted his movement out of San Jacinto County she could face additional charges.
Montgomery County jail records obtained by Breitbart Texas indicate Nava is facing a felony charge of Hindering Apprehension/Prosecution of a Known Felon. She is being held on a $250,000 bond. In addition, the immigration detainer placed by ICE would keep her in jail if she were to raise the bond fee.
ICE officials previously confirmed to Breitbart Texas that the man charged with the murders of the five Honduran migrants living next door to his house in Cleveland, Texas, is also a previously deported Mexican national with a criminal history in Texas.
Officials report that an immigration judge first ordered Francisco Oropeza Perez-Torres, 38, to be removed from the United States on March 19, 2009. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers deported the migrant to Mexico later that month.
Subsequent to this, Oropeza illegally re-entered the U.S. and was removed, once again, in September 2009. He was removed two more times in January 2012 and July 2016.
In January 2012, a Texas court in Montgomery County (which neighbors San Jacinto County where the alleged murders took place) convicted the Mexican national of driving while intoxicated. The court sentenced him to an unreported period of incarceration.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.