A federal judge said on Feb. 26 that he would haul prosecutors and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials into court to answer questions under oath if they continue to pursue immigration detentions under a legal provision many judges have rejected.
U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi of New Jersey accused the Trump administration of defying the law by subjecting noncitizens to mandatory immigration detention. At issue is Section 1225(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the legal provision on which courts disagree. The section governs the inspection of applicants for admission to the United States.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi agreed with the Trump administration that the provision requires detention without bond hearings for individuals who entered the United States without presenting themselves for inspection.
Quraishi said in his new ruling that the Trump administration knows its policy of mandatory detentions is illegal. The government’s reliance on Section 1225(b) has been “roundly rejected” in about 300 cases to date, he said.
To bring what he called the government’s “intentional misconduct” throughout the court system to an end, Quraishi issued an order directing federal immigration authorities to immediately release Diana Elizabeth Cartagena Hueso from custody.
Cartagena Hueso is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was apprehended in Texas in August 2016. She was released from custody in October 2016. She remained in the United States for years and was arrested by immigration officials last month in Elizabeth, New Jersey, as she and her husband headed to a doctor’s appointment, according to the judge’s written opinion.
She was initially held at Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey. On Feb. 17, the court ordered that she not be transferred from New Jersey, unaware that the day before, she had already been sent to Oklahoma. On the date of the order itself, she was transferred from Oklahoma to Texas. On Feb. 19, she was transferred from Texas back to Oklahoma. The government failed to disclose these transfers to the court, the opinion said.
Earlier this month, the local U.S. attorney’s office acknowledged violating 72 orders issued in immigration habeas cases in the New Jersey judicial district alone, the opinion said. A habeas corpus petition allows a prisoner to challenge his or her detention. The Latin phrase means “you have the body.”
In the opinion, Quraishi warned the U.S. attorney’s office and DHS that if “further arrests and detentions under [Section] 1225(b)” come before him, he will likely order show-cause hearings at which federal officials would be required to testify as to specific detention cases.
At a show-cause hearing, a person or official has to justify or explain why a court should grant or decline to grant a motion or other relief.
Former immigration judge Matt O’Brien told The Epoch Times that at such a hearing, the court would likely tell DHS that the department doesn’t appear to be following a particular court order, so it needs to explain why it isn’t complying with the order.
After noting that courts disagree on Section 1225(b), DHS will likely point to the recent Fifth Circuit ruling and others supporting its position and say it believes this is “an unsettled area of the law,” he said, adding the department may ask the court to stay its order while it appeals to a higher court.
O’Brien, who is deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Quraishi is “one of a group of judicial activists that is trying to create civil rights for aliens that simply do not exist.”
The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Quraishi, Cartagena Hueso’s attorney, and the U.S. Department of Justice, which represents federal agencies in court.
No replies were received by publication time.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Feb. 27, 2026, in The Epoch Times.
Photo: U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi of New Jersey
