BREAKING: Another Trump Judge Rebels Against Mass Deportations
Judge Kyle Dudek joins a wave of jurists slamming Trump’s misuse of mandatory detention, ruling ICE likely locked up a longtime Florida resident under the wrong law.
WASHINGTON — A Trump-appointed federal judge, confirmed just two weeks ago, has joined a growing chorus of jurists rejecting the administration’s sweeping use of mandatory immigration detention.
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In an order issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kyle C. Dudek granted limited emergency relief to Marvin Hernandez Lopez, a longtime Florida resident held without bond after a workplace arrest.
Lopez, who has lived in the U.S. since 2013, is married with children and runs a small business. He is seeking a waiver of unlawful presence from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but instead found himself locked inside Glades Detention Center under a statute that requires mandatory detention for “arriving aliens.”
Judge Dudek ruled there is a “substantial likelihood” Lopez is being held under the wrong law — one meant for migrants at the border, not those with deep roots in the country. That finding echoes recent decisions in Michigan, Kentucky, Texas, Maine, and Arizona, where judges have ordered ICE to provide hearings or release detainees in similar cases.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that §1225 applies primarily to aliens seeking entry,” Dudek wrote, emphasizing that Lopez has lived in the U.S. for over a decade. By applying the stricter statute, ICE “arguably detained [him] unlawfully,” the judge found.
The order temporarily bars the government from moving Lopez out of the Middle District of Florida until his full habeas petition is heard. While the judge stopped short of ordering a bond hearing, the ruling keeps pressure on ICE — and on Trump’s Justice Department — as federal courts from coast to coast cast doubt on the administration’s expansive detention practices.
MY TAKE: Even Trump’s brand-new judges are starting to question whether Trump’s deportation machine is running on unlawful fuel.
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They need to start following more of these as people are disappearing with no paper trails. How can someone be kidnapped and there be no paper work? So sloppy & illegal.
Thank God for the lower courts!!