A Clinton-appointed judge has suddenly passed away after freeing a dangerous migrant earlier this week.
As The New York Post reported, a legal source in Miami and a law clerk for Chief Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida, confirmed that Senior District Judge John E. Steele passed away at the age of 77.
His cause of death remains unknown at this point.
Back on July 8, Steele, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, infuriated conservatives after issuing a ruling ordering the release of Cuban plane hijacker Maikel Guerra Morales from ICE custody.
The agency took him into custody in December 2025 and intended to deport him to Mexico.
Via The Post, here is exactly what Guerra Morales did:
Guerra Morales took over a Cuban commuter plane in 2003 and forced the crew to land at Key West International Airport.
He spent more than 20 years in prison for aircraft piracy and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew.
Despite these facts, Steele ordered the Cuban native to be released again under supervision. This means agents must try to monitor him before they can deport him.
Steele claimed that ICE could not send Guerra Morales to Cuba because of an anti-torture convention, and that the agency had provided no evidence that he had communicated with Mexico about sending him there.
Following Steele’s ruling, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) filed an article of impeachment against him. The House Resolution presented by the congressman alleged that the judge had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“This is exactly the kind of activist judicial overreach the American people are sick of,” Steube explained to Fox News. “Judge Steele had every legal justification to keep a convicted plane hijacker off our streets, and he chose to let him go instead.”
The Department of Homeland Security also issued a scathing response to the now-deceased judge for his outrageous decision:
“This activist judge forced ICE to release a criminal illegal alien who was convicted and sentenced to 22 years for hijacking a plane back into American communities,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will continue to fight for the detention and removal of criminal illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country.”
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