A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a disciplinary review of immigration officials’ conduct for their serious breakdown in handling a deportation case, but she bowed to the government’s demands by allowing ICE to rearrest the migrant homicide suspect she set free just a week earlier.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose denounced U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for ordering government attorneys to withhold key information about Bryan Rafael Gomez — namely, that he is the subject of an investigative homicide warrant in the Dominican Republic.
It is not clear why ICE gagged its own attorneys on that subject, and the judge said the disciplinary ethics review is designed to get to the bottom of the matter.
“It’s the candor and the lack of candor to this court that has to be addressed,” Judge DuBose said during a hearing.
She said she would not have ordered Mr. Gomez’s outright release from ICE custody last week if she had known.
“I’m going to authorize the re-detention of the petitioner,” Judge DuBose said.
The case has become the latest in a series of rebukes from federal judges directed at the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
A major problem for ICE is that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the deportation agency, issued an April 30 press release labeling Judge DuBose an “activist Biden judge” who released a “violent criminal illegal alien wanted for murder.”
The Department of Justice has called Homeland Security’s press release “inaccurate” because it suggested that Judge DuBose knew about the arrest warrant but still ordered Mr. Gomez’s release on April 28.
In fact, she did not know about the warrant because the Justice Department never brought it to her attention. The Justice Department said its attorneys were aware of the warrant, but ICE forbade them from informing the judge.
Judge DuBose said it seemed to violate ethics for the Justice Department to withhold critical information — in this case, leading to the release of a man the U.S. government says is a danger to the community.
Compounding her dismay was the fact that Homeland Security still had the press release posted as of Tuesday afternoon, despite the judge’s criticism and the Justice Department’s calls for it to be taken down.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan told the court that his office had made “a very firm, very direct request” that the press release be removed, but “I regret to inform you that it was still up.”
The Washington Times has sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security.
During the hearing Tuesday, Judge DuBose said her issue was with ICE, not with Mr. Bolan.
Her written order after the hearing referred him, by name, for discipline.
Melanie Shapiro, Mr. Gomez’s attorney, questioned the validity of the arrest warrant. She said the government claimed her client was wanted for “murder,” but the warrant, as translated, may suggest the investigation involved manslaughter rather than murder.
She said the government’s repeated public statements have tainted her client’s ability to get a fair deportation hearing in immigration court.
She urged Judge DuBose not to authorize the rearrest of Mr. Gomez, saying it would be rewarding ICE’s bad behavior.
“Since ICE deliberately withheld this information, then that is insufficient for satisfying the requirement for reopening the case,” Ms. Shapiro said.
Judge DuBose said that despite ICE’s conduct — and she made clear she blamed the deportation agency, not the Justice Department — it couldn’t affect her decision on the community’s safety.
“I cannot be motivated by my feelings about how this process played out and my disappointment in this process,” she said.
She said ICE can rearrest Mr. Gomez and then must place his case before an immigration court within a week. The immigration judge will then have the next say in whether he remains detained while his deportation case plays out.
The judge said Ms. Shapiro can raise objections to the Dominican Republic investigative warrant at that time.
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