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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A federal judge in New Jersey ordered the release of a Colombian man from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after finding the agency violated his due process rights by preventing him from leaving the United States under a voluntary departure order and then arguing he could be detained because he failed to depart by the court-imposed deadline.
U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled in a six-page order that Marlon Andres Torres Gomez was ready and willing to leave the country before a June 11 deadline set by an immigration judge, but remained in the United States because ICE kept him detained, according to court filings.
The ruling is the latest in a growing series of judicial rebukes, with a litany of judges admonishing the administration and ICE over the conduct and treatment of detainees, even as the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dismissed many of those decisions as the work of "activist judges."
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The decision represents a blow to the Trump administration and its handling of Torres Gomez's case, with the court concluding that ICE could not prevent a migrant from complying with a voluntary departure order and then use that failure as grounds for continued detention.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Torres Gomez had been detained March 18, in an email to Newsweek Thursday afternoon.
“Torres-Gomez illegally entered our country on December 21, 2022, and was released into the United States by the Biden administration," the spokesperson said. "On May 12, he was granted voluntary departure by an immigration judge. On July 22, he was ordered released by a Biden-appointed activist judge. ICE will continue to fight for the detention and removal of this illegal alien. He will receive full due process."
Newsweek has contacted Torres Gomez's legal team for comment outside office hours.
Marlon Andres Torres Gomez: What We Know
On May 12, an immigration judge granted Torres Gomez voluntary departure, allowing him to leave the United States on his own rather than face a formal removal order. The process, commonly referred to as "self-deportation," has been promoted by the administration through financial incentives for migrants who agree to depart voluntarily. Torres Gomez was ordered to leave the country by June 11, per the filings.
Court records show Torres Gomez repeatedly sought to coordinate his departure with ICE before the June 11 deadline, with his attorney contacting immigration officials multiple times to stress that he needed to leave the country and requesting assistance in arranging his travel. He also purchased a one-way ticket from New York to Colombia scheduled to depart on June 10.
After June 11 passed, the government argued that, because Torres Gomez had not departed the United States, he became subject to a final order of removal and mandatory detention under federal immigration law. The government also suggested that statutory penalties associated with failing to comply with a voluntary departure order could apply.
Judge Farbiarz rejected ICE's justification, finding that Torres Gomez remained in the United States only because immigration officials kept him in custody and prevented him from boarding a June 10 flight he had purchased to comply with a court-ordered voluntary departure deadline.
"Detention has prevented the Petitioner from complying with the immigration judge's order," the judge wrote, noting that continued custody prevented Torres Gomez from boarding the flight he had purchased before the deadline.
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The judge also concluded that Torres Gomez's detention after June 11 was not supported by meaningful process and therefore violated constitutional due process protections.
In the opinion, the court examined and rejected three explanations offered by the government for Torres Gomez's continued detention. First, officials argued that injunctions issued in Torres Gomez's earlier habeas cases prevented his departure. Farbiarz found those cases had been closed before June 11 and said the injunctions did not prevent Torres Gomez from self-deporting from the country.
The government also pointed to an offer to extend Torres Gomez's voluntary departure period. The judge found that the extension was proposed on June 12, after the original deadline had already expired, and therefore did not justify keeping him detained.
Finally, immigration officials said they kept Torres Gomez in custody to protect his ability to appeal the immigration judge's decision, arguing that doing so preserved his right to appeal.
The court said there was little evidence supporting that explanation and instead credited evidence that Torres Gomez wanted to leave and had informed a named ICE official that he did not wish to pursue an appeal.
Wider Scrutiny of ICE Detention
The ruling comes amid mounting judicial scrutiny of the Trump administration's immigration detention policies. In May, POLITICO reported that federal judges had ruled against ICE detention practices in more than 10,000 cases—roughly 90 percent of the decided challenges stemming from the administration's mandatory detention policy.
Judge Farbiarz's ruling relied in part on the Supreme Court's 2025 decision in Monsalvo v. Bondi, which held that when the government grants voluntary departure, detention and removal become contingent on a noncitizen remaining in the country after the voluntary departure period expires.
Farbiarz said that principle did not apply in Torres Gomez's case because he remained in the United States only after ICE prevented him from leaving.
"The Respondents cannot detain the Petitioner because he 'remains' in the United States when it is the Respondents who have prevented him from leaving," the judge wrote. The court added that allowing detention under those circumstances would turn the government's own due-process violation into a basis for mandatory detention.
The court ordered that Torres Gomez be "promptly released" from immigration custody and said it assumed he would take immediate steps to voluntarily leave the United States upon release. The judge did not decide whether ICE could lawfully detain him again at some point in the future if he continued to remain in the country.
Farbiarz noted in the filings that an immigration judge had previously found Torres Gomez was not a danger to the community when considering his bond status, a point that was not disputed by the parties.
Update 7/23/26, 3:37 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from DHS.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson, James Debens, and Dan Gooding.
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