Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, speaks during a press conference about “Operation Midway Blitz,” an immigration enforcement campaign, at a hangar in Gary, Indiana, Oct. 30, 2025.
Leah Millis | Reuters
The detained immigrant whose case led a top federal court judge in Minnesota to threaten the head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency with a contempt of court finding has been released from custody in Texas, court filings on Wednesday show.
The lawyer for the released immigrant, Juan Hugo Tobay Robles, told the judge in a letter that “a contempt proceeding may still be appropriate” given the federal government’s violations of a prior order by the judge in the case that a bond hearing be held for Tobay Robles.
The attorney, Graham Ojala-Barbour, asked Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz for that hearing to be held in a week or more, to give him time to assemble evidence about the “harms” Tobay Robles incurred as a result of the government’s conduct.
A man protests against the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, during a rally outside the Whipple federal building in Minneapolis against increased immigration enforcement across the city, Jan. 8, 2026.
Tim Evans | Reuters
Schiltz, in a scathing filing Monday night, ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to personally appear in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Friday to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court after ICE repeatedly violated judicial orders related to immigration enforcement actions.
Schiltz said that if he were told before Friday’s hearing that Tobay Robles had been released, he would not require Lyons to appear in court.
In a joint filing on Wednesday, Ojala-Barbour, Lyons, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and ICE’s St. Paul field office chief David Easterwood stipulated that Tobay Robles had been released.
In a separate filing, Ojala-Barbour told Schiltz that after the judge issued the order to Lyons, “my office learned [on Tuesday afternoon] that ICE finally released Mr. Tobay Robles from custody in Texas.”
“A supporter of Mr. Tobay Robles drove from Minnesota to Texas and is presently driving him back to Minnesota to reunite with his family and reestablish his interrupted medical care,” Ojala-Barbour wrote.
“As your Honor’s January 26th order indicates, the consequence of the government’s recent failures to comply with this Court’s orders has frequently been significant hardships to the noncitizens involved,” the lawyer wrote.
“I believe the hardships Mr. Tobay Robles has suffered as the result of the government’s violations of this Court’s January 14th order [mandaring a bond hearing] are significant, and that they do warrant an individual contempt proceeding,” the lawyer wrote.
“However, fully documenting those harms has been impossible due to his extended detention and current travel back from Texas.”
Federal agents conduct immigration enforcement action in Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S., Jan. 27, 2026.
Seth Herald | Reuters
Ojala-Barbour had no comment when contacted by CNBC beyond saying, “We stipulated with the government that Mr Tobay Robles has been released from custody.”
ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC sent by email.
Schiltz, in his order Monday demanding Lyons’ appearance in court, called that “an extraordinary step.”
But the judge also said, “This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result.”
Minneapolis has been flooded with ICE and other federal agents as the Trump administration seeks to round up undocumented immigrants there and elsewhere in the state.
Two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have been fatally shot this month by federal agents during separate confrontations. Those killings have led to a nationwide backlash over the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.