Another Venezuelan released from ICE custody as federal judge weighs sanctions on US attorney

Cristóbal Reyes, Orlando Sentinel on Jan 28, 2026

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ORLANDO, Fla. — A federal judge released a Venezuelan woman from ICE custody Wednesday, a week after taking the same step in a similar case, as he threatened to sanction the U.S. attorney over “ill-informed” arguments made in court.

“In this country, we don’t enforce the law by breaking the law,” U.S. District Judge Roy “Skip” Dalton wrote in a newly released order in the first case. The two immigrants had been held and threatened with deportation even though neither was charged with a crime or faced a valid removal order.

Meanwhile, the law firm that represented both detainees has filed petitions seeking to get several more of their clients freed from federal detention, insisting they are in similar circumstances.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Josephine Arroyo told Orange County commissioners earlier this week, raising the alarm over immigrants being unlawfully detained by federal authorities. “It is a pattern.”

Amid the Trump administration’s stern enforcement of immigration laws, it has been uncommon around the country — and especially rare in conservative Florida — for immigrants in custody to win release. But Dalton, appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, has made it clear that his patience with lightly justified detentions has worn thin.

His Wednesday release of Daniela Guaiquire, 30, followed her Jan. 20 arrest earlier this month on seemingly dubious circumstances. Authorities claimed she was in the country illegally despite her being an asylum seeker with a social security number, a valid Florida driver’s license and an employment authorization card.

She also wasn’t charged with any local crimes, prompting her lawyers to file a petition before Dalton to force the government to explain her detention, which he granted.

The Arroyo Law Firm representing Guaiquire lauded her release, the second they were able to secure in a week. The habeas corpus petitions filed for their other clients remain pending, with the next expected to be heard in court next week.

“When the government cuts corners, we don’t stay quiet — we go to federal court and force accountability,” the firm, run by attorneys Phillip and Josephine Arroyo, said in a statement posted to social media. “… To our client and family: you were heard. To anyone being unlawfully detained: there is hope.”

Guaiquire’s arrest was made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in an email disputing court filings that claimed she had been detained by deputies. A CBP spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Dalton’s written ruling on Guaiquire’s case was not made public Wednesday.

But he also issued a scathing rebuke of U.S. attorneys who sought to defend the detention of Javier Gimenez-Rivero, a 20-year-old Venezuelan picked up under similar circumstances.

“In this country, we don’t enforce the law by breaking the law,” Dalton wrote.

In his order, he said attorneys relied on a federal statute meant to address migrants seeking admission at the border. Gimenez-Rivero, however, has been in the country for about four years and didn’t have a removal order when he was arrested on Jan. 7. Nor was he accused of a local crime.

The government’s use of that statute, the judge ruled, “is wrong, and plainly so.” Starting Monday, however, Dalton’s order allows immigration authorities to detain him under a different law covering people present in the country.

But Dalton further targeted the region’s U.S. Attorney, Gregory Kehoe, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Joy Warner, accusing them of knowingly making flimsy legal arguments using the incorrect statute. While they are allowed to argue to expand a law’s interpretation, they must “cite the contrary binding authority and argue why it’s wrong,” Dalton wrote.

“Don’t hide the ball. Don’t ignore the overwhelming weight of persuasive authority as if it won’t be found. And don’t send a sacrificial lamb to stand before this Court with a fistful of cases that don’t apply and no cogent argument for why they should,” he added, ordering them to file a response as to why they shouldn’t be sanctioned by Feb. 9.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, which covers Central Florida, declined to comment on Guaiquire’s release and Dalton’s order in Gimenez-Rivero’s case.

More than 800 people have been booked in the Orange County Jail on immigration holds since Jan. 1. It marks a notable spike in detentions even amid the ongoing “Operation Tidal Wave,” touted by Gov. Ron DeSantis as “the largest joint immigration enforcement operation in ICE’s history” which has resulted in 10,000 arrested statewide since April

The Arroyo Law Firm has been in the public eye in the past year as immigration enforcement operations have exploded since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. In June, they announced the successful release of two women released from ICE custody in Texas after being arrested in Central Florida.

Like Gimenez-Rivero, those immigrant were detained following a traffic stop and were taken despite being legally allowed in the country.

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