DHS criticizes Rhode Island judge after accused murderer’s release, omitting warrant

Federal court officials in Rhode Island are confronting a rare credibility crisis after the government attacked a judge for ordering the release of a man it later said was wanted overseas for homicide, while not giving her the warrant before she ruled. U.S. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose said she would consider sanctions, a sign that the dispute had become less about one detainee than about whether the government was forthright with the court.

The case centers on Bryan Rafael Gomez, a 27-year-old Dominican national held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls. DuBose granted him a writ of habeas corpus on April 28, allowing him to seek a bond hearing before an immigration judge in Massachusetts. Court filings say Gomez entered the United States in 2022, after saying he feared he would be killed following his brother’s shooting, and later married a U.S. citizen in May 2025. He was also scheduled for an immigration court hearing on April 16 over an asylum claim.

Before the release order, Gomez had been arrested by Worcester police on April 4 on assault and battery charges and then taken into ICE custody. DHS later said he was wanted in the Dominican Republic for homicide under a warrant issued by a National District of Santo Domingo court on January 24, 2023. But that warrant was not disclosed to DuBose before she acted, and Rhode Island’s U.S. Attorney’s Office later apologized, saying the court had not been given all the necessary information.

A federal court spokesperson said it was inaccurate to suggest the court knew about the murder warrant. That omission matters because detention fights turn on what the judge is told about flight risk, criminal history, and the basis for custody. If the government withholds a homicide warrant, the factual record used to decide whether a person can be released is incomplete, raising due process concerns at the center of the judiciary’s role.

DHS escalated the dispute on April 30, calling DuBose an “activist judge” and emphasizing that she was appointed by Joe Biden. The agency also said Gomez entered the country illegally near Lukeville, Arizona, in 2022 and was later released by the Biden administration. After it emerged that ICE had requested the warrant not be disclosed, even though DHS had already mentioned the warrant publicly on social media, the public line softened into a correction and apology. The episode has widened into another test of how the administration handles high-stakes immigration cases, and how much candor it owes federal courts when liberty is on the line.