FHP arrests immigrant 'wanted for murder in Guatemala' during traffic stop, state says

Angie DiMichele, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Jul 22, 2025

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A man living in the U.S. illegally was arrested earlier this month after he was stopped by Florida Highway Patrol in Palm Beach County for speeding and was determined to be “wanted for murder in Guatemala,” the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said on Monday.

Calixto Lopez Domingo, 32, of West Palm Beach, was cited for speeding and driving without a license on July 10 after he was stopped by a trooper on Interstate 95 south near 6th Avenue South in Lake Worth Beach, according to Palm Beach County court records. The traffic citations said he was driving 89 mph on the interstate, 24 mph above the speed limit, and had never been issued a license.

The department did not provide further information in its post on X Monday about the allegations against Lopez Domingo in Guatemala. He was taken to U.S. Customs and Border Protection “for processing and removal from the United States,” the post said.

The department and FHP did not respond to emails seeking further information about the case.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials in recent months have touted Florida Highway Patrol troopers as the first in the country to be delegated authority to enforce federal immigration laws and as an agency that is setting an example for how other states could enforce President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations.

In February, DeSantis announced that all 67 county sheriffs in Florida had entered into 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which allow local officers to act with some immigration authority. He said the agreements would lead to “street-level” enforcement. FHP entered into their own agreement earlier that month.

Dave Kerner, FLHSMV’s executive director, said at a May news conference in Tampa alongside DeSantis that over 1,800 state troopers across all counties were credentialed to act with immigration authority under the agreement. As of that day, Kerner said FHP had assisted with or been the lead arresting agency of more than 1,000 immigrants living in the country illegally.

DeSantis announced at the Tampa news conference that more than 100 troopers had recently been sworn in as Special Deputy U.S. Marshals, which he said “is even over and above” the 287(g) agreement. That allows them to execute federal warrants and “remove dangerous criminal aliens from our communities,” he said, and conduct “stand-alone operations” without federal partners.

“What we have now with FHP is that they are able to conduct immigration operations wholly independent of the federal government. And there’s no one else in the country where they’re doing that,” DeSantis said. “… These guys now at FHP, they can do operations, they can get illegals and they can do everything that an immigration officer would do up until the point where they get processed for removal.”

Kerner’s agency has recently highlighted numerous arrests of immigrants that resulted from traffic stops. Last week, the agency said in a post on X that FHP arrested an alleged member of the MS-13 gang after a traffic stop in Wakulla County and taken to an ICE facility to be processed and deported. Last month, a “routine traffic stop” in Gadsden County led to the arrest of three men, one of whom was living in the country illegally, for allegedly trafficking a minor who was reported missing, the agency said in another post on X.

Hundreds of immigrants have been taken into custody in Central Florida alone this year after being stopped for minor traffic violations, a recent Orlando Sentinel investigation found.

The Orlando Sentinel’s analysis shows 55% of ICE detainees in Lake, Osceola and Seminole County jails earlier this year were arrested during vehicle stops. Less than 20% were charged with violent crimes.

Officers who stop people for minor infractions now routinely run their names, and those of their passengers, through a federal database to search for immigration warrants filed against them. Since January, federal authorities have been inputting thousands more warrants into the National Crime Information Center, local officials told the Orlando Sentinel, making matches far more common.

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—Information from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.