HOUSTON - A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release one of the men detained after ICE agents shot and killed a driver in Houston's Magnolia Park neighborhood.

Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego was a passenger in the vehicle driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during the deadly July 7 encounter.


In a five-page order signed Monday, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison granted Pliego's petition for a writ of habeas corpus and denied the federal government's request for summary judgment.

This comes less than a week after the judge blocked Pliego from deportation.

ICE must release Pliego within 48 hours of the order.

The federal government argued Pliego was subject to mandatory detention under federal immigration law because he entered the country without being legally admitted or paroled.

Ellison agreed that the mandatory detention statute applies to Pliego under a recent Fifth Circuit ruling. However, the judge found that applying the law to Pliego without considering his individual circumstances violates his Fifth Amendment right to due process.

 The Due Process Clause does not permit the government to  detain any noncitizen, no matter how long they have actually lived in the United States, for any length of time, without any individualized justification,'  Ellison wrote, quoting an earlier ruling.

The order states that Pliego has lived continuously in the United States for nearly 30 years. He has no criminal history, is in a common-law marriage with a U.S. citizen and has multiple children and stepchildren who are U.S. citizens.

Pliego was on his way to work July 7 when ICE officers stopped the vehicle in which he was riding, according to the order.

Agents shot and killed Salgado Araujo before taking Pliego and two other men, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Victor Salgado Araujo, into ICE detention.

He has remained in ICE custody without an individualized bond determination.

Ellison said the concern was not simply how long Pliego had already been detained, but the possibility that his detention could continue indefinitely as his immigration cas

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