EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — The U.S. government has returned to Mexico a man wanted in connection with the 2014 disappearance and abduction of 43 college students.

Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations turned over Alejandro Tenescalco-Mejia to Mexican authorities on Wednesday at the international boundary at the Santa Teresa(New Mexico) Port of Entry, the agency said in a news release.

Tenescalco-Mejia, 41, is from of Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. He entered the U.S. illegally on Dec. 14, 2022, by climbing over the border wall near the Santa Teresa border crossing. He had been in ICE custody up until his removal on Wednesday.

Forty-three male students from a rural teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico, went missing when traveling by bus on Sept. 26, 2014.

Tenescalco-Mejia, ICE said, is one of several individuals wanted in the case, according to Mexican court documents.

“ERO made good on its promise to protect the American people by removing a suspected violent criminal back to his home country,” said Mary De Anda, field office director for ERO El Paso. “The ongoing cooperation between ICE and our Mexican counterparts resulted in holding another fugitive accountable for his actions, highlighting the critical public safety role ERO plays in the community.”

Mexican authorities have arrested a retired general and three other members of the army for alleged connection to the students’ disappearance.

Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejia said in late September that among those arrested was the former officer who commanded the army base in the Guerrero state city of Iguala in September 2014, when the students were abducted.