DHS slams judge for releasing trans migrant held in male section of ICE facility

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ripped a federal judge in Washington for releasing a transgender illegal migrant from detention, saying the release was caused by the judge bowing to activist pressure.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, a President Joe Biden appointee, ignored the rule of law and promoted “gender ideology fanaticism” by releasing the migrant, a transgender woman who is claiming asylum in the U.S.

The migrant, identified by DHS as “Odalis Jhonatan Martinez-Velasquez, a male illegal alien from Mexico,” entered the country in 2023 and was released under the Biden administration. 

Odalis Jhonatan Martinez-Velasquez entered the country in 2023 and was released under the Biden administration.  (Department of Homeland Security)

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Martinez-Velasquez was detained on June 2 and placed into ICE’s male detention center for the safety of women in ICE custody in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at protecting women, DHS said.

Baggio ordered Martinez-Velasquez released this week, despite having already been processed for expedited removal, ruling that the asylum seeker had been deprived of liberty without proper procedural safeguards.

“The activist judge is ignoring the biological reality of sex, undermining ICE’s commitment to promoting safe, secure, and humane environments for women in custody, and subverting the American people’s mandate to restore commonsense to our immigration system and reject extreme gender fanaticism,” McLaughlin said. 

“An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Odalis Jhonatan Martinez-Velasquez should be released or detained.”

On his first day back in office, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order of Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, which prohibits DHS from detaining males in women’s detention centers.

McLaughlin said Martinez-Velasquez is no exception. 

Judge Amy Margaret Baggio speaks during her Senate judiciary nomination hearing. Baggio has come under fire from DHS for releasing Odalis Jhonatan Martinez-Velasquez. (U.S. Senate)

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“The President made it clear on Day One: DHS will not buy into radical gender ideology when detaining illegal aliens,” McLaughlin said.

Martinez-Velasquez is claiming asylum after allegedly being abducted and raped by cartel members in Mexico. 

The migrant was arrested outside a Portland courtroom last month and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. and held there for over 40 days after a judge granted the government’s request to dismiss the asylum case. 

The nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, whose attorneys represent Martinez-Velasquez, decried the fact that Martinez-Velasquez was being held at a men’s facility.

Martinez-Velasquez’ attorneys filed a habeas petition, a legal motion asking the court to review whether the detention was lawful, saying they were not aware of their client’s location after the migrant was taken into custody. 

Under due process standards, especially in asylum cases, attorneys must be able to locate their client and ICE is required to notify or justify sudden detentions and transfers.

In Martinez-Velasquez’s case, the judge found that ICE’s failure to provide timely, specific information about the migrant’s location and legal status violated fundamental procedural fairness. 

The judge had also demanded to know why it was deemed immediately necessary.

One of the migrant’s attorneys, Stephen Manning, of Immigrant Law Group, previously told OPB that Martinez-Velasquez was processed into the Tacoma detention center, but he had not been granted access to her since her transfer. Martinez-Velasquez was identified only as “O-J-M” in court documents.

An aerial view of detainees exercising in an outdoor recreation area at the Northwest ICE Processing Center  (David Ryder/Getty Images)

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“They threatened to kill her because O-J-M is a transgender woman,” her habeas petition states, per OPB. “Fearing for her life, she fled and sought asylum in the United States in September 2023,” Manning said.

Manning told Willamette Weekly that his client had not committed a crime while in the U.S. and had regularly checked in at ICE offices as instructed.

Oregon sanctuary laws prevent it from having long-term immigration detention facilities, and — aside from temporary holding cells at the Portland ICE office — the nearest immigration detention center is the Tacoma facility.