ICE failed to tell Justice Dept. it could reveal warrant to judge; murder suspect went free

An illegal immigrant wanted for murder in another country was set free from immigration detention after ICE failed to tell the Justice Department that it could tell a federal judge about the arrest warrant, government lawyers said. The U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had told prosecutors there was a murder arrest warrant from the Dominican Republic for Bryan Rafael Gomez. But ICE gagged the prosecutors, saying they couldn’t reveal that information publicly. That left them to defend ICE’s detention of Mr. Gomez without being able to reveal the warrant. “I had been informed by ICE about the petitioner’s pending arrest warrant issued on January 24, 2023, from a court in the Dominican Republic and that I could not disclose that information,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan said in a filing Friday. “I relied on ICE’s representation that I was not permitted to disclose that information and understood that a legitimate law enforcement reason prevented disclosure.” U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose ordered Mr. Gomez released on April 28. Homeland Security responded to the release with a scathing statement attacking Judge DuBose as an “activist Biden judge” who had released a “violent criminal illegal alien.”