July 22 marked ICE’s latest arrest of Martin Martinez-Ballinas, 38, after he finished a federal prison term for illegally reentering the U.S.; he now faces a third deportation.
Federal authorities tied Martinez-Ballinas to a 2017 Maryland hit-and-run that killed 21-year-old Marine James Ray Walden III, after he crossed into Walden’s lane while driving without a license or insurance, according to the victim’s father.
2020 and 2022 deportations failed to keep him out of the country: ICE said he tried to reenter through Texas in 2021, drew a 15-month sentence, was removed again in October 2022, then reentered undetected before agents arrested him in Maryland in December 2023.
Five arrests between 2012 and 2017 had also ended with his release, Walden’s father said, using the case to argue against calls to abolish ICE and for stricter immigration enforcement.