Las Vegas Federal Judge Releases Illegal Aliens Despite Criminal History

After a review of public records, The Globe has found that a Las Vegas federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama has released criminal illegal aliens into the community before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can appeal the bond, continue to detain, and prepare to deport them.

Within the last month, Judge Richard F. Boulware II has released at least three criminal alien defendants, assigning two $1,500 bonds and one $2,000 bond, respectively. The defendants (petitioners) named in the immigration cases are Miguel Anel Maldonado Vazquez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, Heriberto Herrera Torralba, an illegal alien from Mexico, and Jose Vasquez-Jacobo, an illegal alien from Mexico.

These cases collectively pertain to the question of whether illegal aliens are deprived of due process when ICE invokes the automatic stay while the appeal of their bond determinations are pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

These cases also reveal that Judge Boulware is proving to be a judicial activist and vigilantist by exceeding his judicial authority–overruling immigration judges, obstructing federal immigration law, and bypassing federal procedures.

For background, the legal procedures to remove criminal aliens, the Department of Justice explains:

“The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) administers the nation’s immigration court system. Immigration court hearings are civil administrative proceedings that involve foreign-born individuals (called respondents) whom the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has charged with violating immigration law. In these hearings, immigration judges determine whether respondents should be ordered removed from the United States or granted relief or protection from removal (such as adjustment of status, asylum, cancellation of removal, or other remedies provided by immigration law) and permitted to remain in the country.”

In the above three cases, Boulware has permitted the respondents to remain in the country by suspending the EOIR’s imposed automatic stay–citing the government violated due process, issuing low bonds, and ordering DHS/ICE to release two defendants before the payment of their bond. Judge Boulware, in each case, superseded a prior immigration judge’s order and bypassed the BIA.

According to a recent report, Boulware, while speaking at an American Bar Association meeting in Miami on white collar crime, said threats against the judiciary had gone up “exponentially.”

“We’re in a dark space, and we have to stop pretending like we’re not in that space,” Boulware said.

What about the threats posed to law-aiding Nevadans by Judge Boulware’s judicial activism?

It’s important to note that the federal clerk should randomly assign immigration cases among seven judges, yet upon our review, Judge Boulware has been assigned a majority of these habeas petitioners.