Judge orders return of MN immigrant, feds file appeal

New tonight, the government is now fighting a federal judge's order to bring a deported man back to Minnesota. It says it needs more time to appeal the order. Fox 9's Mike Manzoni has been following this story for days. And so, Mike, the deported man's attorney told you tonight that this could end with him being deported again. Yeah, Canice Gonzalez's attorney says the government deported his client without due process. And that is why a federal judge ordered the government to return him to Minnesota at its own expense. Gonzalez most recently lived over in Shakopee. Gonzalez was first deported more than 20 years ago. His attorneys say border officials allowed him to enter the U.S. through the U.S.-Mexico border back in 2022. They say he then moved to Minnesota and applied for asylum, claiming he feared for his safety in his native Nicaragua. But he was detained in 2024 and then ordered deported. The judge then granted him an order of supervision, which allowed him to live and work in the community. But this past January, ICE agents detained him again and sent him to the Central African Republic in August. Now, he has no ties to that country, and even the U.S. government warns people against going there. He and the other Nicaraguans and Cubans who were deported along with him are sort of stuck in a decommissioned hotel. And, you know, there's basically guards at the hotel to make sure that, you know, sort of roving bands of bandits don't attack them. Even if he wanted to sort of make his own way to an international airport and try to find safety in, I guess, a fourth country, he's unable to do that because ICE is still hanging on to his Nicaraguan passport. Homeland Security officials sent us a statement saying in part, quote, this Biden-appointed judge is openly defying the Supreme Court by ordering this illegal alien's return despite him having already received a final order of removal from a judge and due process. This illegal alien should have never been released into our country by the Biden administration. That's from DHS. Gonzalez's attorney says he expects the judge to rule against the government's request For more time, he says the case will then have to wait. head to an appeals court, which could tie things up for months, Kelsey.