'At odds with common sense': Judge grants habeas petition after ICE stops immigrant from self-deporting

A federal judge in New Jersey has ordered the Trump administration to release a Colombian man who was trying to self-deport but was unable to do so because immigration agents kept him detained.

The six-page opinion and order comes amid a long line of court cases challenging efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to institute a mandatory detention regime in the country.

In the case, the petitioner, Marlon Andres Torres Gomez, won habeas corpus relief by convincing U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz, a Joe Biden appointee, that his continued detention violates due process.

In its analysis, the court noted that the petitioner had already filed two prior habeas petitions — in March 2026 and then again in May. The court ultimately granted the requested relief on the third attempt.

Roughly one week after the second habeas petition was filed, an immigration judge ruled that Torres Gomez "be allowed to voluntarily depart from the United States," the court notes. In line with this decision, the petitioner was told to depart by June 11, 2026.

But that would-be self-deportation did not happen.

And it was entirely the Trump administration's fault, according to the judge.

Farbiarz notes that Torres Gomez's legal team emailed immigration authorities "several times" to let them know the immigrant was trying to self-deport, that he needed to "coordinate his departure," and that he should "be allowed to travel on June 10th" in order to comply with the immigration judge's voluntary departure order.

In service of those efforts, Torres Gomez "bought a one-way plane ticket from New York to Colombia, set to depart on June 10th."

For naught. Time passed. The plane ticket expired.

"ICE did not permit [Torres Gomez] to depart on or before June 11," Farbiarz explains. "Instead, the Petitioner was kept in custody, and the voluntary departure deadline came and went."

On his third habeas go-round, the Colombian man argued "among other things," that his detention violates the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution, the opinion and order notes.

"This gets it right," Farbiarz says.

The district court explains [emphasis in original]:

Petitioner was to leave the United States by June 11. But he has instead remained in the United States because [ICE has] kept him detained. Detention has prevented the Petitioner from complying with the immigration judge's order…

The materials filed by the parties do not suggest that the Petitioner's post-June 11 detention was based on any meaningful process — let alone any process that could satisfy the Supreme Court's [due process] test[.]

"What has instead been offered up by [the Trump administration are] after-the-fact and plainly non-persuasive justifications for the Petitioner's post-June 11 detention," the opinion and order goes on.

Farbiarz went on to reject out of hand an argument offered by the government that Torres Gomez was not allowed to leave the country due to an injunction against his deportation. The court notes that such an injunction only prohibited ICE from deporting the petitioner.

In similar fashion, the court rejected the government's argument that Torres Gomez was not released because the immigration judge extended the deadline for his voluntary deportation.

In both instances, the judge noted, ICE was responsible for keeping the petitioner in custody — essentially against a court order.

The greater part of the court's ire, however, is directed at the government's argument that Torres Gomez was kept behind bars for his own good, specifically so he could "pursue an appeal from the immigration judge's order to depart."

"This is at odds with common sense," the court says. "It is described by the United States Attorney's Office in only the most generic way. It runs against the extensive (though general) evidence that the Petitioner was actively seeking to timely depart from the United States. And it runs against the more specific information put forward by the Petitioner — about his statement on a particular date (June 5) to a particular, named ICE official that he did not want to appeal."

The judge then summed up the case.

"The Petitioner had been ordered to leave and was ready to leave," the order goes on. "But in the absence of a structured process, what happened here was not surprising…the Petitioner was kept in custody after June 11. Due process requires more, and plainly so."

In the end, Farbiarz ordered the government to release Torres Gomez and barred the government from detaining him.

"The Court assumes that, upon release, the Petitioner will take prompt action to voluntarily remove himself from the United States," the order reads.

The post 'This is at odds with common sense': Judge grants habeas petition after ICE stops immigrant who bought one-way plane ticket out of the country from self-deporting first appeared on Law & Crime.