ICE released an illegal immigrant wanted for murder in El Salvador into the U.S. without an ankle monitor or any other conditions of supervision, and now a federal judge is pondering what sanctions she can slap on the deportation agency.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose was incensed when Homeland Security issued a press release last week accusing her of knowingly releasing the man, when it was ICE that had ordered the government’s lawyer not to tell her about the arrest warrant.
She told the Justice Department, which is representing the government, that concealing the warrant from the court — even though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had issued another press release revealing the arrest — was “misconduct from your client.” She said she would seek some punishment for the agency.
“This entire situation fell down, basically, because there was a decision made not to be truthful to the court,” she said during a hearing Monday.
Judge DuBose had ordered the release last week of Bryan Rafael Gomez, directing ICE to place him on conditions of supervision.
But his lawyer, Melanie Shapiro, told the judge he was released without any restrictions, despite ICE calling him a “violent criminal illegal alien.”
“He told me that when ICE brought him to Burlington to process him. They released him with no conditions, no ankle monitor, no requirement to report in, which is highly unusual,” she said.
ICE didn’t respond to an inquiry Monday seeking comment on Mr. Gomez’s release.
Mr. Gomez is now at his home in Massachusetts, his lawyer told the court.
Kevin Bolan, the Justice Department lawyer handling the case, didn’t address that matter but repeatedly apologized to the judge for failing to tell her about the arrest warrant.
He said he should have done more to delay the case or somehow let the judge know about the matter, even though he was under orders from ICE not to reveal the warrant. He said the Dominican Republic, where the warrant was from, hadn’t approved its release.
“The government did not disclose that information to you, and so the press release that came out last Thursday took the position that somehow you knew about something we had not disclosed to you,” Mr. Bolan said.
He said a simple Google search might have shown him the arrest warrant was already public knowledge.
But Judge DuBose said she couldn’t square the gag order on Mr. Bolan with the fact that ICE had issued a press release more than a week earlier that revealed Mr. Gomez’s immigration arrest and the murder warrant.
Judge DuBose was also miffed that the DHS press release hadn’t been taken down, despite the government apologizing for it being untrue.
Judge DuBose said leaving it up is not only a disservice to the public but also puts judges’ security at risk.
“I would argue it’s actually dangerous,” she said.
It remained the DHS website as of Monday evening, hours after the hearing concluded.
The government has now asked the judge to reconsider her release order — but waited until Monday, days after ICE attacked the judge, to make the request.
Judge DuBose said she needs to gather more information before ruling on that matter. She scheduled another hearing for Tuesday.
• This article has been updated to clarify that the press release criticizing the judge was issued by Homeland Security, not U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE is a component of DHS.
