A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to release a Venezuelan Temporary Protected Status holder who was wrongfully detained in January and was almost put on a deportation flight to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera also ordered the government to pay for Adrian Gil Rojas’ travel back to his home in New York from a detention center in Texas.
The judge recommended an ankle monitor be placed on Rojas pending a future immigration hearing.
According to court records, Rojas was arrested more than two months ago after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers entered his home looking for another individual.
“He opened [the door] holding his 2-year-old son,” Rojas’ attorneys said in a complaint filed in March. “The officers took his son from him, handcuffed and fingerprinted him, all without permission or consent.”
Rojas, according to court records, repeatedly told the immigration officers that he has valid TPS status and showed them his immigration paperwork.
“The officers ignored him but retained the paperwork,” the complaint said.
In a filing on Tuesday, a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that was included as an exhibit said that Rojas’ TPS status had been revoked and alleged that he is a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
According to the letter, the U.S. government determined Rojas is a member of TdA because of his social media posts that indicate he resided with a known TdA member and because of his tattoos.
Rojas’ attorneys pushed back on the letter from USCIS saying the document “does not suffice to terminate his TPS status and it does not render his detention lawful.”
“Respondents informed Petitioner for the first time today that they intend to withdraw his existing TPS grant,” Rojas’ attorneys said in the filing. “The letter Petitioner received indicates that Respondents believe he is a “member or affiliate” of Tren de Aragua, a representation they have not made before this Court.”
In the court order on Wednesday, Judge Olvera said Rojas has valid TPS status.
On March 14, after Rojas was “suddenly transferred” to a detention center in Texas, he and other individuals were placed on a removal flight they were told was going to Venezuela — but “due to mechanical problems,” the plane did not take off, according to the complaint.
Rojas, according to court records, was told he was going to be put on a new flight the next day. Rojas’ partner then informed his attorneys that Rojas was going to be deported from the U.S., and later that day a judge granted the attorney’s request for a temporary restraining order preventing his removal.
The next day, over 200 Venezuelan men who the government claims were gang members — who were being held at the same Texas facility as Rojas — were placed on flights and deported under the Alien Enemies Act to a notorious prison in El Salvador with little-to-no due process.
“We were horrified that the government would disregard the legal protections that Gil Rojas enjoys and was ready to send him to El Salvador, to that awful prison,” attorney Javier Maldonado told ABC News.
“He got lucky and I hope that the administration learns that they have to comply with the law and they have to make sure that the individuals that they’re rounding up are not individuals who have a right to remain in the U.S. and have legal rights that can be asserted in court,” Maldonado said.
In its response, the government acknowledged that Rojas was not “deportable today” but argued that he should remain detained until his TPS benefits were expected to expire on April 2.
Rojas missed a court date in September that resulted in an in absentia order of removal. Rojas’ attorneys have since filed a motion to rescind that order.
One of Rojas’ lawyers is lead counsel on a separate case challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end TPS protections earlier than the October 2026 date that had been granted by the Biden administration. Last week, a federal judge barred the administration from ending protections for up to 350,000 migrants on April 2.
“Even if TPS does expire, Mr. Gil Rojas will not become subject to removal unless and until the Immigration Judge presiding over his removal case denies his motion to reopen,” Rojas’ attorneys said in a filing last week.
“The government can detain people only where it has authority to do so now, not where it might gain such authority in the future,” his attorneys said.
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