Federal judge weighs contempt charges after freeing third Venezuelan from ICE custody in Florida's Orange County
Published in News & Features
ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of yet another immigrant from ICE custody in Orange County, the third such case in nine days, arguing again that federal authorities unlawfully detained a Venezuelan national under a statute that doesn’t apply to his case.
Senior U.S. District Judge Roy Dalton also said in the latest case that he is weighing whether to hold federal authorities and jail officials in contempt for their actions.
All three Venezuelan migrants who Dalton recently freed had been held and threatened with deportation even though they were not charged with a crime nor facing a valid removal order.
In his Friday order, Dalton freed Fanderson Uzcategui-Rodriguez from the Orange County Jail. Uzcategui-Rodriguez was arrested earlier this month at the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, his lawyer Phillip Arroyo told the Orlando Sentinel. He’d gone to the sheriff’s office to get his fingerprints taken, as they were needed for his application for a construction job, and was then taken into custody.
An SCSO spokesperson confirmed ICE was the agency to detain Uzcategui-Rodriguez but did not answer the Sentinel’s questions about the arrest, including when he was arrested and whether it took place during an appointment there.
Arroyo, who also represents the other two recently freed Venezuelans, got them released after arguing his clients were illegally detained under the dubious application of a statute meant to address migrants at U.S. borders, rather than a different one concerning immigrants already living in the country.
“At The Arroyo Law Firm, we will continue to flood the courts with well-founded habeas petitions and aggressively challenge these abuses and constitutional violations,” Arroyo said in a statement.
Dalton’s latest order was brief but he cited the case of Javier Gimenez-Rivero, who he freed last week. In that case, Dalton threatened U.S. attorneys with sanctions for relying on arguments “with a fistful of cases that don’t apply and no cogent argument for why they should.”
His latest ruling favoring Uzcategui-Rodriguez gives ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Orange County Jail until Monday to explain why they should not be held in contempt after the man was moved from the jail in violation of a temporary restraining order.
It is not clear where Uzcatequi-Rodriguez was moved to, but Arroyo said several of his clients have been “fast-tracked” to “Alligator Alcatraz,” the federal government’s Everglades detention center, after filing a habeas corpus petition.
Court records show Uzcategui-Rodriguez filed a habeas corpus petition on Jan. 24, demanding the government explain his detention. The document is marked as restricted from public release, so no details were available.
Amid the Trump administration’s stern enforcement of immigration laws, Dalton, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, has made it clear that he won’t sanction detentions that aren’t legally justifiable.
In his brief order Friday, Dalton wrote that the legal issues in Uzcategui-Rodriguez’s case “are identical” to those of Daniela Guaiquire. A Venezuelan asylum seeker represented by Arroyo, she was detained Jan. 20 despite having a social security number, a valid Florida driver’s license and an employment authorization card, and was later released.
Dalton ordered her release on Wednesday.
Several other clients of Arroyo’s are scheduled to be in court next week for hearings about their detentions, with even more awaiting consideration by a judge. Arroyo said litigation from his clients may go beyond their pleas for release.
“All of our clients are reserving their right to subsequently sue not only the federal government, but all local law enforcement agencies and the jail who are knowingly illegally arresting and detaining immigrants that are here lawfully,” he said in a statement.
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