Courts and Immigration Enforcement

A federal judge has ruled in favor of Any Lucia López Belloza, the Babson College student mistakenly deported to Honduras, and ordered the Trump administration to remedy the error within three weeks. The ruling explicitly recognizes the removal as erroneous and grants the relief her lawyer had sought to effect her return.

A federal judge ruled that ICE illegally detained an Iowa man before issuing a notice to appear, saying agents tried to "cover its tracks." In a related sign of judicial pushback on immigration enforcement, a Florida judge has harshly criticized the Trump DOJ’s immigration position as “incoherent” and threatened sanctions.

A federal judge in Texas has issued a temporary order blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing or transferring 5‑year‑old Ecuadorian boy Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, whose Minnesota arrest last week became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s interior‑enforcement surge. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ruled Monday that the pair must remain where they are while a court case proceeds, effectively freezing their status as detainees at the family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, near San Antonio. The two were taken into custody in Minnesota in an incident that quickly drew national outrage and claims that ICE used the child as bait, accusations DHS disputes, and their rapid transfer to Texas had raised fears among advocates that they could be deported before courts could review their asylum claims. Biery’s order adds a new legal constraint on DHS and ICE operations tied to Operation Metro Surge and underscores how individual family cases are now being used by federal judges to put at least temporary brakes on elements of Trump’s mass‑deportation campaign. Immigrant‑rights lawyers and Minnesota officials are pointing to the ruling on social media as evidence that courts are starting to push back on what they call "deportation by ambush," while administration allies frame it as another example of the judiciary hamstringing lawful enforcement.

Former Des Moines schools superintendent Ian Roberts has signed a plea agreement and is expected to plead guilty to falsely attesting to U.S. citizenship on an I‑9 and to unlawful possession of firearms as a non‑citizen, with the deal acknowledging he could be deported and exposing him to maximum penalties of five years and $250,000 on the false‑statement count and 15 years and $250,000 on the firearms count. Court filings and ICE say he fled a Sept. 26, 2025 traffic stop after which agents found a loaded handgun wrapped in a towel and $3,000 in a school‑issued Jeep Cherokee and later seized three more guns from his home; filings also outline a long immigration history ending in a 2024 final removal order that district officials say they were unaware of.

Jury will hear closing arguments in the federal trial of Juan Espinoza Martinez in Chicago, accused of an alleged murder‑for‑hire plot against Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino based largely on Snapchat messages offering $2,000 for information and “10k if u take him down” alongside a photo that were sent to his brother and to informant Adrian Jimenez, who testified he reported them to Homeland Security. Judge Joan Lefkow barred prosecutors from portraying Martinez as a “ranking member” of the Latin Kings; the defense, which rested without calling Martinez, says the messages were neighborhood gossip, jokes or anger about immigration policy rather than a real plot.