The father of a U.S. Marine killed in a 2017 hit-and-run crash involving an undocumented immigrant is voicing his frustration as federal authorities arrested the man for a third time, again facing deportation.

Martin Martinez-Ballinas, 38, a Mexican national, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on July 22, following his release from federal prison for illegally reentering the United States. Federal officials stated Martinez-Ballinas was convicted in the 2017 crash in Maryland that killed 21-year-old U.S. Marine James Ray Walden III.

After being deported in 2020, Martinez-Ballinas was apprehended attempting to illegally reenter the U.S. in Texas the following year and received a 15-month prison sentence. ICE removed him again in October 2022, but he later reentered the country undetected, a situation his case has drawn criticism of the current administration's border policies.

Agents arrested Martinez-Ballinas in Maryland in December 2023, after he completed his federal prison sentence in New Jersey. Walden recounted that Martinez-Ballinas was driving without a license or insurance when he crossed into his son’s lane, fatally striking his motorcycle head-on.

James Ray Walden III's father learned that Maryland officials were aware Martinez-Ballinas was in the country illegally and that he had been arrested five times between 2012 and 2017, yet was released each time. He remembered his son as an accomplished Marine and gifted intelligence analyst whose future was cut short.

"My son was 21 years old. He was just starting his life," Walden said during an appearance on "The Will Cain Show." "He was in the Marine Corps. He worked for intel. He worked for the National Security Agency as a crypto analyst, basically Jimmy Spide with a computer.

"He was extremely good at what he did. His NSA boss told me that he was one of the most gifted analysts he’d ever worked with. And they were wanting him, once he got out of the Marine Corps, to come to work for them. And all that ended in the blink of an eye."

Walden has spoken out against calls to abolish ICE, stating, "It’s got to be one of the most insane ideas I’ve ever heard. I cannot believe that they’re condemning our ICE agents and our DHS for actually doing their job and enforcing the laws that Congress passed."

He emphasized the necessity of immigration enforcement, explaining, "You’re never gonna understand the pain, the hole in your soul that this brings until it happens to you. And don’t think that it can’t. It can happen to anyone at any time. My son was minding his own business. He’d gone for a ride after work, doing nothing wrong, and his life was taken.

"You can’t predict it, but you can prevent it."

Walden has credited former President Donald Trump for prioritizing immigration enforcement, adding, "I believe that he’s probably going to go down as one of the greatest presidents in this country. He stood by what he said. He said what he was going to do, and he’s doing it."