ICE Urges Dallas Not to Release Mexican National Accused of Murdering Two Women Six Years Apart

The Department of Homeland Security is publicly asking Dallas officials not to release a Mexican national accused of murdering two women in Central Texas in crimes that spanned six years, warning that letting him go could endanger the community.

Luis Fernando Benitez-Gonzalez was arrested in the Dallas area on April 27 by U.S. Marshals and Texas police. ICE has lodged a detainer requesting that local authorities notify the agency before any release and hold him long enough for federal agents to take custody.

DNA evidence allegedly ties Benitez-Gonzalez to two separate murder scenes. Authorities say the victims, 28-year-old Alba Jenisse Aviles-Marti and 34-year-old Alyssa Ann Rivera, were killed years apart. Police believe there could be additional victims.

🚨DALLAS: @ICEgov is asking local authorities to NOT RELEASE Luis Benitez-Gonzalez, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, who has been accused of committing TWO MURDERS in Central Texas.

DNA evidence links Benitez-Gonzalez to separate murders in Texas over the course of six… https://t.co/GT5L7EKlsF pic.twitter.com/SVrUgwJbMX

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) May 13, 2026

DHS confirmed the detainer and laid out the charges against Benitez-Gonzalez:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer for Luis Fernando Benitez-Gonzalez after his arrest in Texas and asked Dallas officials not to release him. The department identified him as a Mexican national accused of murdering two women in Central Texas. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said Alba Jenisse Aviles and Alyssa Ann Rivera should still be alive and framed the case as another example of why immigration enforcement matters for public safety. Benitez-Gonzalez is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and he has also faced a dangerous drugs possession charge. ICE’s detainer asks local authorities to notify the agency before release and to hold him long enough for ICE to take custody.

That detainer is the operational hinge of the story. It is the mechanism ICE uses so a local jail does not quietly release a removable alien before federal officers can step in, interview the suspect, and assume custody if the criminal case or detention status allows it.

That statement from DHS is not subtle. Lauren Bis is saying the quiet part out loud: these women should be alive. If Benitez-Gonzalez had been permanently removed after his voluntary deportation in 2020, the second murder and the subsequent shootings allegedly never happen.

The timeline here is staggering. According to court documents and police accounts, Aviles-Marti was murdered in April 2018. More than six years later, Rivera was found dead in an abandoned Austin house in June 2024. DNA connected the two crime scenes before investigators even had a name to attach to the evidence.

Austin Police say DNA evidence linked Luis Benitez-Gonzalez, a Mexican national in the country illegally, to the murders of two women in Texas that happened six years apart. He was arrested in Dallas, and investigators now believe there could be more victims because of the large… pic.twitter.com/58u8ymykkM

— Brooke Taylor (@Brooketaylortv) May 13, 2026

Fox News reported the details of the arrest and the broader investigation:

U.S. Marshals and Texas police arrested Luis Fernando Benitez-Gonzalez in the Dallas area on April 27. He is accused in the killing of 34-year-old Alyssa Ann Rivera in Austin and 28-year-old Alba Jenisse Aviles-Marti in Bastrop County, plus two later shootings in which female victims survived. The arrest came after investigators tied several separate cases together and warned publicly that the pattern could extend beyond the charges already filed.

Austin Police Detective Chris Anderson said investigators believe there is a strong likelihood that Benitez-Gonzalez is responsible for further acts of extreme violence. Authorities said he is a Mexican national who had previously been voluntarily deported in 2020. Police said Aviles was sexually assaulted and strangled in 2018, Rivera was found in an abandoned home in 2024 with an extension cord around her neck, and DNA evidence had linked the two murder scenes before investigators identified Benitez-Gonzalez.

Investigators also said he may have crossed paths with potential victims in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Hidalgo County. Anderson pointed to the gap between the 2018 and 2024 murder cases and said people who commit crimes with such a distinct pattern usually do not simply stop for six years.

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Read that last line from Detective Anderson again: investigators believe there is “a strong likelihood” he is responsible for further acts of extreme violence. That is a veteran detective telling the public they are still looking for more victims.

The local reporting fills in the crime-scene picture.

FOX 7 Austin detailed what investigators found at both locations:

Court paperwork shows that Aviles was murdered on April 14, 2018, after she was last seen alive at Club Caribe in Austin. Detectives found evidence she had been dragged, strangled, and assaulted, including mud on her clothing, bruising on her neck, chin, and lip, blood on her face and car, and an earring found away from the vehicle.

Rivera was found dead on June 21, 2024, in an abandoned house in Austin with an extension cord around her neck, a bloody rock, bloody handprints, and evidence she had been dragged inside and assaulted. Police said in 2024 that DNA from both scenes linked back to the same suspect, but he was not in the database. Later shooting cases and a public selfie helped investigators identify Benitez-Gonzalez, and police said they are reviewing other cases for possible connections.

The local affidavit details are what make the detainer issue feel less abstract. This is not a generic immigration-statistics story. It is a case file with two dead women, two surviving shooting victims, biological evidence, surveillance work, tips from the public, and investigators still checking whether other unsolved violence may fit the same pattern.

Between the 2018 murder and the 2024 murder, Benitez-Gonzalez was voluntarily deported in 2020. He came back. According to authorities, he allegedly killed again. Two more women were shot in separate incidents but survived. And police are still reviewing other unsolved cases for connections.

This is exactly the kind of case that makes ICE detainers matter. A detainer is not a dramatic legal weapon. It is a simple request: do not release this person without telling us first, and give us enough time to pick him up. When local jurisdictions honor detainers, federal agents can take custody of someone who has already been deported and is accused of violent crime. When they do not, that person walks back onto the street.

DHS is making this case public for a reason. The agency wants Dallas officials to comply. The charges against Benitez-Gonzalez include first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and a dangerous drugs charge. Two women are dead. Two more were shot. A detective says there may be more. And the suspect had already been removed from the country once.

Alba Jenisse Aviles-Marti was 28. Alyssa Ann Rivera was 34. Their families deserve justice, and the public deserves to know that the system meant to prevent exactly this kind of horror is only as strong as the local officials willing to cooperate with it.