U.S. District Court Judge Zahid N. Quraishi blasted President Donald Trump's administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi's Department of Justice for the illegal detention of a 29-year-old immigrant who had been released into the United States in 2016.
According to Quraishi's ruling on Thursday, Diana Elizabeth Cartagena Hueso was first taken into custody in 2016 after crossing the border. She was released after she was "found to have a credible fear of returning to her home country, and was therefore referred for removal and asylum proceedings."
Although the woman had no criminal record and was married with a 5-year-old child, "she and her husband were arrested by immigration officials in Elizabeth, New Jersey on their way to a doctor's appointment" on Jan. 26, 2026.
The government then repeatedly moved her to different detention centers as she struggled to challenge her situation in court.
"Where an alien is released outright, even where he is later paroled, he cannot be returned to mandatory detention under the statute because the Government has effectively abandoned its mandatory detention authority by releasing the alien into the United States without parole," the judge explained. "In this matter, the Government released Petitioner on her own recognizance in 2016, and left her at large in the United States for nearly a decade before returning her to custody."
"The Government's handling of Petitioner's detention is emblematic of its approach to immigration enforcement in this state. On the merits, its detentions are illegal. The Government knows this," Quraishi said, noting the government's refusal to release Cartagena Hueso. "Arguably worse, while the procedures for the Government's immigration arrest and detention may have had the initial appearance of negligence, they have since slid downward into manifest recklessness."
"Efforts by the Court in this District to protect detainees' rights have been largely frustrated by the Government," the judge added. "The undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today."
Quraishi cautioned the Department of Justice prosecutors that similar arrests could result in consequences. The judge ordered the woman "released immediately."
