By Newspot Nigeria Global Desk
A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump has ordered the release of a Cuban immigrant from immigration detention, sharply criticizing the U.S. government for what the court described as a failure to justify continued imprisonment.
According to reports by Law & Crime, U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek ruled that Mauricio Castellanos-Gorra, a Cuban national who has been under a deportation order since 2004, could no longer be lawfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The six-page ruling reportedly gave the Trump administration 48 hours to release Castellanos-Gorra after the court found there was no significant likelihood that he would be deported in the foreseeable future.
Castellanos-Gorra entered the United States in 1986 and later became a lawful permanent resident. However, following a criminal conviction involving a minor, an immigration judge ordered his removal in 2004. Despite the deportation order, U.S. authorities were unable to remove him to Cuba for years due to diplomatic and political complications between both countries.
For nearly two decades, he reportedly remained in the United States under an “order of supervision,” a form of immigration parole. ICE later detained him again in October 2025 and attempted to remove him to Mexico.
Judge Dudek, however, relied heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, which established that the government cannot detain immigrants indefinitely when deportation is not realistically possible.
The court stated that once detention exceeds six months, the burden shifts to the government to prove deportation is likely in the near future. In this case, the judge found that federal authorities failed to meet that burden.
According to the ruling, the government allegedly failed to submit additional evidence requested by the court regarding efforts to deport Castellanos-Gorra.
“The Government’s response? Crickets. Nothing was filed,” the judge reportedly wrote in the opinion.
Judge Dudek further stressed that constitutional protections still apply even in cases involving immigrants with criminal convictions.
“The Government cannot lock individuals in a cell indefinitely as a workaround for a stalled deportation process,” the ruling stated, according to court documents cited by Law & Crime.
The case comes amid increasing legal scrutiny over aggressive immigration detention policies under President Donald Trump, particularly as ICE operations reportedly continue to strain immigration courts and detention systems across the United States.
Legal analysts say the ruling could become another important reference point in ongoing debates surrounding indefinite immigration detention, constitutional due process rights, and the limits of executive immigration enforcement authority.
— Newspot Nigeria
