ICE faced two significant criticisms from federal judges within hours. This followed a New Jersey judge detailing multiple violations of court transfer orders and a Texas judge ordering a bond hearing or release for a long-held detainee.
In New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz reviewed the detention case of Baljinder Kumar, who submitted a habeas petition because he did not receive a bond hearing. Farbiarz issued a Jan. 26 order preventing federal officials from transferring Kumar out of the district. However, ICE moved him to Texas on Jan. 31 and brought him back to New Jersey days later, according to court records.
Farbiarz mentioned that an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office revealed “no-transfer injunctions issued by New Jersey district judges have been recently violated 17 times.” He added that this rate was “around three every two weeks.” The opinion recounted the government’s explanation that transfers occurred “inadvertently due to logistical delays in communicating the court order” or “administrative oversight,” and emphasized the consistent nature of these errors.
In a different ruling in Texas, Senior U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama ordered ICE to either provide a bond hearing or release Victor Zamudio Sanchez, a Mexican national held for more than eight months without a final removal order, according to court filings.
🚨BREAKING: ICE agents are now following people to church… and arresting them outside.
In New Jersey, agents were following a vehicle and waited until the car pulled up in front of its church… Iglesia Cristiana Dios De Amor… and only then did they move in and make the arrest.… pic.twitter.com/RW9Lhe8OTk
— Jesus Freakin Congress (@TheJFreakinC) February 22, 2026
Guaderrama stated that the government violated Sanchez’s procedural due process rights by detaining him “without the opportunity for a custody redetermination hearing.” The judge instructed that if ICE does not release Sanchez, it must bring him for a bond hearing where “the Government shall bear the burden of justifying, by clear and convincing evidence,” that Sanchez poses a danger or flight risk. The order also required the government to confirm the bond decision or Sanchez’s release by March 12 and to return his personal belongings if he is released.
Newsweek reported that it reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for a comment.
The New Jersey and Texas orders came amid an increase in immigration detention cases in federal courts. A Reuters investigation published on Feb. 14 stated that since October, federal courts have ruled over 4,400 times that ICE unlawfully detained immigrants, with a rise in habeas petitions challenging custody decisions and compliance with release orders.
Courts have also disagreed on the legal framework for mandatory detention and access to bond hearings. In February, the AP reported that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Trump-era policy allowing indefinite detention of some immigrants without bond, which contrasted with lower-court rulings ordering hearings in individual cases.
In New Jersey, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey described the reported violations as “shamefully unsurprising” in a statement on Feb. 19 attributed to Executive Director Amol Sinha.
This comes as ICE faces legal battles across the country. As previously reported on the Inquisitr, Noem’s DHS has violated federal court orders more than 50 times as it’s prosecuted immigration cases in New Jersey, the Justice Department’s lead attorney in the state acknowledged in a recent filing.
