Overview
- U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered David Antonio Aviles Perez freed from ICE custody on Aug. 26 after ruling officials held him for about five months without a bond hearing or an individualized assessment of danger or flight risk.
- Aviles Perez was convicted in absentia in El Salvador in December 2025 and sentenced to 20 years for an MS-13 execution-style murder, and he remains subject to an international warrant and removal proceedings.
- Ohta’s order requires an immigration judge to hold a bond hearing before ICE may re-detain him, a remedy grounded in the court’s finding that his Fifth Amendment due process rights were violated.
- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sharply criticized the ruling as putting public safety at risk, and DHS confirmed the detainee’s release, highlighting a clash between enforcement officials and federal judges.
- The decision follows a near-concurrent release order by another judge in the same district and could prompt more habeas challenges, appeals, or policy moves as courts test when and how ICE must give individualized bond hearings.