Criminal illegal immigrant arrested on most wanted list

HOUSTON, TX – The Texas Department of Public Safety has captured another fugitive from Texas’s Ten Most Wanted illegal alien list in Houston, just days after he was placed on the list.

There is no reward offered by Crime Stoppers for this arrest.

Jose Miguel Zelaya-Ponce, 20, a criminal illegal immigrant from Honduras, was wanted out of Harris County since July 2024 for aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14. He was taken into custody on Friday, August 23, by special agents from the DPS Criminal Investigations Division (CID) assigned to the Texas Anti-Gang (TAG) Center in Houston, along with Texas Rangers and Texas Highway Patrol (THP) Troopers. Zelaya's arrest was the result of investigative efforts and a number of tips from special agents and Texas Rangers assigned to his case.

In April 2021, Zelaya-Ponce was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and charged with deportation. He was subsequently issued an arrest warrant and released. In June 2024, a final deportation order was issued against Zelaya-Ponce.

For more information, see Zelaya-Ponce’s captured bulletin here.

Texas Crime Stoppers is funded by the Governor's Office of Public Safety and offers cash rewards to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest of one of Texas's Ten Most Wanted illegal immigrants. To date, DPS and other agencies have arrested 31 of Texas' Ten Most Wanted fugitives, sex offenders and illegal immigrants in 2024, including 11 sex offenders, 10 gang members and 4 illegal immigrants.

To be eligible for cash rewards, whistleblowers MUST provide information to authorities using one of the following three methods:

• Call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477).
• Submit a web tip through the DPS website by selecting the fugitive you have information about and then clicking the link below their picture.
• Send a Facebook Tip by clicking the “SEND TIP” link (in the “Info” section).

All tips are anonymous – regardless of how they are submitted – and the tipster receives a tip number instead of a name.

DPS special agents work with local and federal law enforcement agencies to apprehend all identified criminal illegal immigrants and select fugitives who are on the Texas Ten Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants list. The current lists – with photos – can be found on the DPS website.

Do not attempt to arrest these refugees. They are considered armed and dangerous.