Instead of upholding the law and his oath as a judge, federal Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes decided to let his hatred for President Donald Trump override his duty.
The Chicago judge released a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who was detained during a Chicago immigration raid over the weekend. The suspect, 24-year-old Edward Martinez-Cermeno, was previously arrested on felony charges.
So why would a judge release an illegal immigrant with felony charges?? He claims that Martinez-Cermeno was not a flight risk.
A federal judge ordered the release of an illegal alien who was detained by ICE in a Chicago area raid last week.
Edward Martinez-Cermeno, a Venezuelan national, was arrested for felony retail theft in January 2024 after illegally entering the country in the previous year. pic.twitter.com/BqP73Gxec3
— Cullen McCue (@CullenMcCue) January 29, 2025
Trending Politics reports:
Martinez-Cermeno, who was a police officer in Venezuela before illegally entering the United States, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Sunday for making the illegal entry. In addition to the charge for illegally entering the United States, Martinez-Cermeno was arrested on felony theft charges by Chicago police in January of last year. He ultimately failed to appear for his court appearance, leading to an additional arrest warrant.
During his initial court appearance before federal Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes of the Illinois Northern District Court, the illegal alien’s public defender argued that his client was not a flight risk due to the fact that he has an asylum hearing scheduled for April 2026. Judge Fuentes ultimately ordered Martinez-Cermeno’s release after agreeing that his scheduled asylum hearing, as well as his “ties to the community,” meant that he is not a flight risk.
The judge ultimately ruled that immigration officials did not have the “legal paperwork necessary for detaining and deporting him” and ordered his immediate release. Martinez-Cermeno was then freed from the MCC federal prison in downtown Chicago on Tuesday after spending roughly 48 hours in custody.
“This kind of case is what we call a mandatory release case, meaning that this man has to be released unless the prosecutor can actually prove that there is a, quote, ‘serious risk’ that he will flee the jurisdiction if he’s released and they would need to prove that by what we call a preponderance of the evidence,” explained Alison Siegler, Professor of Law for the University of Chicago’s Law School, claiming that Fuentes “absolutely did the right thing here.”
Too bad Martinez-Cermeno was soon re-arrested by ICE agents, and is currently “in custody” at a detention center in Indiana.
His re-arrest happened mere hours after Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires federal authorities to detain any illegal immigrant accused of crimes.
The bill was named after University of Georgia student Laken Riley, who was killed by an illegal alien from Venezuela while out on a jog. Riley’s killer, an illegal who has since been sentenced to life in prison, had a lengthy criminal record across multiple states before committing the murder.
With the Laken Riley Act now signed into law, illegal aliens charged with non-violent crimes, such as Martinez-Cermeno, will be arrested and scheduled for deportation.
“Under the law I’m signing today, the Department of Homeland Security will be required to detain all illegal aliens who have been arrested for theft, burglary, larceny, shoplifting,” Trump said on Wednesday. “Today’s signing brings us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all.”