Immigrant released after contempt threat

The detained immigrant whose case led a top federal court judge in Minnesota to threaten the head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency with a contempt of court finding has been released from custody in Texas, court filings on Wednesday show.

The lawyer for the released immigrant, Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, told the judge in a letter that “a contempt proceeding may still be appropriate” given the federal government’s violations of a prior order by the judge in the case that a bond hearing be held for Tobay Robles.

The attorney, Graham Ojala-Barbour, asked Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz for that hearing to be held in a week or more, to give him time to assemble evidence about the “harms” Tobay Robles incurred as a result of the government’s conduct.

Schiltz, in a scathing filing Monday night, ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to personally appear in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Friday to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court after ICE repeatedly violated judicial orders related to immigration enforcement actions.

Schiltz said that if he were told before Friday’s hearing that Tobay Robles had been released, he would not require Lyons to appear in court.

In a joint filing on Wednesday, Ojala-Barbour, Lyons, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and ICE’s St. Paul field office chief David Easterwood stipulated that Tobay Robles had been released.

In a separate filing, Ojala-Barbour told Schiltz that after the judge issued the order to Lyons, “my office learned [on Tuesday afternoon] that ICE finally released Mr. Tobay Robles from custody in Texas.”

“A supporter of Mr. Tobay Robles drove from Minnesota to Texas and is presently driving him back to Minnesota to reunite with his family and reestablish his interrupted medical care,” Ojala-Barbour wrote.

“As your Honor’s January 26th order indicates, the consequence of the government’s recent failures to comply with this Court’s orders has frequently been significant hardships to the noncitizens involved,” the lawyer wrote.

“I believe the hardships Mr. Tobay Robles has suffered as the result of the government’s violations of this Court’s January 14th order [mandaring a bond hearing] are significant, and that they do warrant an individual contempt proceeding,” the lawyer wrote.

“However, fully documenting those harms has been impossible due to his extended detention and current travel back…