Federal Judge Criticizes Alina Habba’s Former Office for 72 Court Order Violations, Orders Immediate Release of Detained Woman

In a strong rebuke, a federal judge criticized the Trump administration for continuing to impose mandatory detention on noncitizens residing in the U.S., despite numerous court rulings against the practice. The judge highlighted that the federal government knowingly persists in this “illegal” action, yet fails to amend its conduct.

In a decisive move to address this “intentional misconduct,” U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi ordered the immediate release of Diana Elizabeth Cartagena Hueso from federal detention on Thursday. Quraishi, appointed by President Joe Biden, expressed his growing frustration with the administration’s actions in this case, as well as others involving habeas corpus petitions.

Judge Quraishi had previously mandated a bond hearing for Cartagena Hueso and instructed authorities not to transfer her from New Jersey. However, he later discovered she had already been moved to Oklahoma. Over a span of just two days, she was transferred three times, including a stint in Texas, which the administration has yet to justify.

Cartagena Hueso, who entered the United States in 2016 fearing persecution if returned to El Salvador, had lived peacefully in the country for nearly a decade. With no criminal history, she married and had a child, now five years old. Nevertheless, she and her husband were detained by immigration agents on January 27 while en route to a medical appointment in New Jersey, according to court documents.

Cartagena Hueso, who entered the U.S. in 2016 with “credible fear” of a return to El Salvador, was released from detention after entry and lived in the U.S. for a decade, with no criminal record. She got married and had a child, who is now 5 years old. But on Jan. 27, she was arrested by immigration agents along with her husband while “on their way to a doctor’s appointment” in New Jersey, court documents said.

For Quraishi, the decade of time that government “permitted her to be at liberty within the United States” matters because it means she is not akin to an “arriving alien” and not subject to mandatory detention.

“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. While release for such a length of time is ‘not … regarded as an admission of the alien’ and will permit an alien to be returned to mandatory detention status, the outright release that the Petitioner received is a legitimate change in status,” the judge wrote. “An individual like Petitioner who has been released into the United States without parole is no longer considered to be standing at the border.”

“The Government has abandoned its right under the statute to take Petitioner into custody. Her continued detention is therefore unlawful,” he added.

Writing that the Trump administration “knows” this because courts have articulated as much in more than 300 cases and counting, Quraishi decided it would not be enough to simply force the government to facilitate a bond hearing, as that was tried already and the petitioner ended up in Oklahoma.

“No more,” the judge said. “On the individual merits of this case, the undersigned now finds that this relief is insufficient and will instead order that Petitioner be released.”

Quraishi also seized the opportunity to criticize the performance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, once the home of Alina Habba.

Law&Crime has chronicled how U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s unsuccessful maneuvering to keep Habba in place as acting U.S. attorney backfired in the courts to the point that Habba stepped aside in December, leaving the office and the state with no U.S. Senate-confirmed top federal prosecutor.

U.S. attorney offices across the country have experienced turmoil in leadership and in the rank-and-file, causing varying degrees of issues in court, while having to respond to the flood of habeas petitions challenging the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions. Multiple judges have pressed attorneys working for the DOJ on a volunteer or special assignment basis about why the lack of compliance with court orders has become so commonplace in immigration cases.

By Quraishi’s count, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey has violated 72 court orders and “expressly admitted” violating 56, albeit unintentionally, as “[i]mmigrants are swept up into custody and shifted repeatedly around the country without warning or explanation.” The judge found that “objectively appalling” and said the formerly Habba-led office has “eroded” the presumption of its credibility.

“That number by itself is objectively appalling, but at least one judge has indicated that it underreported,” the judge remarked. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office has counted these citations as unintentional. Sadly, the well-deserved credibility once attached to that distinguished Office is now a presumption that ‘has been undeniably eroded.’”

In a final blow, the judge threatened to force prosecutors or DHS officials to “testify under oath” and provide explanations if the mandatory detention cases continue to come before him.

“The government’s continued actions after being called to task can now only be deemed intentional,” Quraishi concluded. “The undersigned will not stand idly by and allow this intentional misconduct to go on. It ends today.”