Exporting Maya references to UE

Exporting Maya ‘references’ as FBX to UE does not seem to work well. In Maya, is there a way to break the reference so the asset is in the scene but not a reference anymore?

Unloading the reference in Maya deletes the asset from the scene. I would like the referenced asset to still be in the scene (but not be a reference) so I can export it to UE.