Obama-appointed federal judge orders MS-13 member with rape and robbery history freed from ICE custody

A federal judge appointed by President Obama has ordered the release of an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who has a criminal history that includes rape, robbery, and violently assaulting ICE officers during his arrest.

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered Carlos Antonio Flores-Miguel freed from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody earlier this month. Flores-Miguel was arrested by ICE in Minneapolis on Jan. 20 after being released into the United States under the Biden administration in 2022.

When officers moved to take him into custody, Flores-Miguel punched and kicked ICE law enforcement officers and allegedly grabbed an officer's gun holster. His criminal record in the U.S. includes rape, resisting an officer, and illegal re-entry. He was previously arrested in El Salvador for robbery.

And a federal judge put him back on the street.

Three entries, three chances, zero accountability

The timeline tells a story that policy papers never could. Flores-Miguel first illegally entered the United States in September 2016. He was deported the following month. He entered illegally again and was removed in March 2017. He entered illegally a third time in October 2021 and was released in June 2022 under the Biden administration.

A judge subsequently ordered his deportation after ruling that Flores-Miguel could be removed to any country other than El Salvador. As Fox News reported, however, that legal finding did not stop Judge Nelson from ordering his release from ICE custody. Her stated reasoning took aim not at the law, but at how the administration described the man it was trying to deport.

Nelson cited the administration for publishing Flores-Miguel's photo on a DHS website and describing him as one of the "Worst of the Worst." She wrote:

"Respondents make no attempt to explain why Mexico, or any country, would agree to accept the 'Worst of the Worst.'"

She also characterized the administration's conduct as "reckless."

The logic here deserves examination. The judge's concern was not that Flores-Miguel posed no danger. It was not that his criminal record had been fabricated. It was that the government described a violent gang member too harshly, and that harsh description might complicate diplomatic arrangements with receiving countries. So she freed him.

DHS fires back

Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis did not mince words in response:

"This activist, Obama-appointed judge RELEASED Carlos Antonio Flores-Miguel, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador and MS-13 gang member, from ICE Custody."

"Releasing violent criminals is inexcusably reckless and now this criminal will be able to perpetrate more crimes against innocent Americans."

Bis drew a clear line on where the administration stands:

"We are applying the law as written. If an immigration judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period."

A federal appeals court recently agreed to allow the Trump administration to continue deporting illegal immigrants to nations other than their home countries, a legal avenue that directly addresses cases like Flores-Miguel's, where removal to the country of origin faces restrictions.

The pattern behind the ruling

This case is not an anomaly. It fits a pattern that has become distressingly familiar: federal judges, insulated from the consequences of their decisions, intervening in immigration enforcement to produce outcomes that no community would voluntarily accept.

Consider what the residents of Minneapolis now face. A man who:

• Is an identified MS-13 gang member
• Has illegally entered the country at least three times
• Has been accused of rape
• Violently attacked federal officers during his arrest
• Allegedly reached for an officer's firearm

That man is now free. Not because a court found him innocent. Not because the evidence was insufficient. Because a judge objected to the government's public messaging about him.

This is where the judiciary's immigration interventions have landed. The question is no longer whether someone is dangerous or whether they have a legal right to remain in the country. The question, apparently, is whether the government was polite enough about a gang member's deportation proceedings.

Consequences without owners

The Biden administration released Flores-Miguel in 2022. Judge Nelson released him again in 2025. At no point in this cycle has anyone who made these decisions borne any personal risk from them. The risk falls entirely on the people of Minneapolis and whatever community Flores-Miguel ends up in next.

That asymmetry is the core of the immigration enforcement crisis. Officials who release dangerous criminals face no consequences when those criminals reoffend. The consequences land on someone else, someone who never had a say in the matter, someone whose name will never appear in a judicial opinion.

The Trump administration has made its position plain: enforce the law, remove those who have no legal right to be here, and do not apologize for it. A federal appeals court has backed the legal mechanism to make that happen in cases involving third-country removal.

Judge Nelson chose a different path. Flores-Miguel is free. And the next crime he commits will belong to everyone who put him back on the street.