U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at Trump National Doral Miami in Miami, Florida, U.S., March 9, 2026.
President Donald Trump's immigration policies have often found themselves in the crosshairs of America's legal system. Now a judge appointed by Trump himself has blasted federal agents for arresting people even when they are not undocumented immigrants and then claiming to have misidentified them.
"Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointee in New York, rebukes ICE for arresting two people erroneously — including a U.S. citizen — and later claiming 'mistaken identity,'" reported Politico's Kyle Cheney on Monday on X. He quoted Brown as saying, "ICE agents falsified official records."
In his decision, Brown condemned ICE's overall approach to enforcing the law.
"In countless ICE habeas petitions involving individuals detained for civil — not criminal — proceedings, respondents advised judges of this court that various petitioners had been jailed due to misidentification: officers erroneously identified the petitioner as a 'target' of an ICE 'operation' based on similarities of height, weight, description, and sometimes a photograph," Brown wrote. "The undersigned has, in prior cases, accepted this explanation based on representations of counsel and/or sworn statements by ICE agents. This case required exploring that proffered justification in connection with two such non-criminal arrests."
This is not the first time Brown has slammed Trump's immigration policies. In March, Brown harshly criticized ICE for detaining an honors student swept up in a raid despite possessing Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status. Honduran national Hester Asaf Garcia Lanza, who came to the United States at the age of 9 and worked lawfully in the United States for years, was picked up in an ICE/DHS sweep. Garcia Lanza was then subjected to removal proceedings in defiance of his legal certifications, and after the court determined Garcia Lanza should be released because he was in the United States legally, ICE imposed unsanctioned conditions and DHS added a large fine.
“This isn’t how things are supposed to work in America,” Brown argued in his decision, further describing the actions as "unimaginable cruelty" and concluding, "The laws of human decency condemn such villainy.”
Brown is not alone among Trump-appointed judges to denounce the administration. U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif and U.S. District Judges Timothy J. Kelly, Karen Immergut, Thomas Cullen, Stephanie Gallagher, Fernando Rodriguez Jr., Trevor N. McFadden and Mary S. McElroy have all ruled against Trump in high profile cases, even though the president appointed them.
"To date, GOP-appointed judges have ruled against the administration in more than a dozen high-profile cases," CNN's Aaron Blake wrote last year. "They’ve also often used strong language that suggested Trump and his administration were blatantly violating the law."