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A federal judge in Florida appointed by President Donald Trump ordered the release of Mauricio Castellanos-Gorra, a Cuban citizen who had been held for nearly seven months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after the government failed to provide any documents or evidence to justify his prolonged detention.
On May 20, the U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, Kyle C. Dudek, issued a six-page order granting the habeas corpus appeal and ordering the release of the detainee within the next 48 hours, under the conditions of supervision prior to their arrest.
The case has a history of more than two decades. Castellanos-Gorra arrived in the United States in 1986 and obtained permanent legal residency. After being convicted of lewd conduct against a minor, an immigration judge ordered his deportation in 2004. However, since Cuba has historically refused to accept many of its deported nationals, ICE was unable to carry out the order and released him under a supervision regime for over twenty years.
On October 25, 2025, during a routine inspection, ICE arrested Castellanos-Gorra and detained him at a facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz", in the Everglades of Florida. In November of that year, ICE notified him of its intention to deport him to Mexico.
Judge Dudek applied the legal framework established by the Supreme Court in the case Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), which prohibits the indefinite detention of immigrants when their deportation is not reasonably foreseeable. According to that precedent, the first six months of detention are presumed to be reasonable; however, once that period has passed, the burden of proof shifts to the government.
The court noted that Cuba "is currently immersed in a political conflict with the United States," that the Cuban government does not issue travel documents and has a history of rejecting deportees. "The government has had nearly two decades to deport Castellanos-Gorra, and it has failed. This is more than enough to believe that his expulsion is not in sight," Dudek wrote.
In response, on May 12, the judge ordered the government to provide concrete evidence that the deportation was feasible by May 19, warning that failure to comply would result in the release of the detainee without further proceedings.
The government's response was total silence. "The file does not provide any documents, diplomatic agreements, or concrete evidence that he will be deported in the near future," Dudek wrote. "The government's response: silence. Nothing was presented in response to the court's order. Since the government does not offer anything to suggest that deportation is more likely now than it was months ago, Castellanos-Gorra must be released."
This ruling occurs in the context of a surge in habeas corpus petitions related to the Trump administration's immigration policy: requests increased from 222 in 2024 to about 8,000 in 2025, overwhelming the capacity of federal prosecutors' offices. ICE reached approximately 73,000 individuals in detention in January 2026, setting a historical record. The Cuban deportees from the U.S. who are stranded in third countries like Mexico illustrate the same diplomatic reality that the judge described in his ruling.
Judge Dudek himself, appointed by Trump in September 2025, acknowledged the discomfort of the outcome—Castellanos-Gorra is a "convicted criminal" who should face "the ultimate immigration consequence"—but was emphatic: "The law is clear: the Government cannot detain individuals indefinitely as an alternative solution to a stalled deportation process, nor can it use indefinite detention merely to appease public opinion. The Constitution cannot be ignored simply because the facts are frustrating."
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