The ruling set two precedents: First, it established that ICE cannot detain an immigrant with final removal orders for longer than the \u201cpresumptively reasonable\u201d period of six months. Second, it prohibited indefinite detention by stating that, if after six months, there was no significant likelihood of deportation in the foreseeable future, the government must generally release the person under supervision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see the language in the Zadvydas case heartily reaffirmed \u2013 that people cannot be detained indefinitely if a lawful removal is not reasonably foreseeable,\u201d said Gracie Willis, a rapid response coordinating attorney with the National Immigration Project<\/a>. The nonprofit legal advocacy organization works to defend the rights of immigrants in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to see us just reaffirming our commitment to those protected values, as well as reaffirming our commitment to due process overall,\u201d Willis said.<\/p>\n In an email statement to El Paso Matters, the Department of Homeland Security said \u201cthe Trump Administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Please release me\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Frometa\u2019s case is complicated by several factors.<\/p>\n The 63-year-old was a witness to a detainee death at Camp East Montana earlier this year, after which the federal government served him with a notice of removal to Mexico \u2013 which requires consent of a deportee from a third country. Frometa would not agree. And because the detainee\u2019s death was the subject of a lawsuit, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the government prohibiting DHS from removing Frometa from the country.<\/p>\n RELATED: \u2018Why are you taking her?\u2019 ICE arrests surge in El Paso region as families feel the impact<\/a><\/p>\n The restraining order became moot after Frometa was no longer needed as a witness.<\/p>\n But Frometa has refused to be deported to Mexico. He fears extortion and violence from the cartels which Human Rights Watch<\/a> reports often target Cuban and other third-country nationals deported from the United States.<\/p>\n In November 2025, months before the death in Camp East Montana, ICE attempted to remove him to Cuba, but the country refused him. Cuba has refused to accept certain deportees, especially those such as Frometa who left the island many years ago or have criminal convictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Frometa was sentenced to five years probation in 2002 for a felony conviction of battery on a person older than 65 in Palm Beach, Florida. Because he didn\u2019t show up for a removal hearing in October 2008, he was issued the deportation order in absentia.<\/p>\n In its statement, DHS cited Frometa\u2019s criminal history and the deportation order, saying \u201che will remain in ICE custody pending removal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Wearing red scrubs, black slip-on shoes and a detainee identification bracelet, Frometa from detention talked openly about his arrest, saying he owns up to his \u201cmistake.\u201d But, he argues, his conviction was more than 20 years ago and he has completed his punishment.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand I did not fully comply with the law in the past when I got sentenced to four years probation and successfully completed the program,\u201d he said in a March 2026 handwritten habeas corpus petition challenging his detention without bond. He filed the petition pro se, meaning he was representing himself because he didn\u2019t have an attorney at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI ask for an opportunity to reunite myself with my family and establish a positive relationship. I have never been to prison. I\u2019m not a threat or flight risk to others because I have never done anything that shows I am.\u201d<\/p>\n On March 5, U.S. District Judge Leon Schydlower of El Paso issued a show cause order to the federal government, which responded by saying that ICE has the discretion to hold immigrants with orders of removal beyond 90 days even if the government doesn\u2019t have a country that will accept them.<\/p>\n Schydlower, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2024, has been far more reluctant<\/a> than the other three El Paso federal judges to grant habeas corpus petitions to detained migrants, an El Paso matters review of the petitions has shown.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO: El Paso, West Texas federal courts deluged with challenges to immigration detention<\/a><\/p>\n In its court filing, DHS said that under what is known as the Zadvydas precedent, Frometa\u00a0 must provide \u201cgood reason\u201d to believe there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future, and he hadn\u2019t met that burden.\u00a0<\/p>\n Attorney Frederic Goodwill II of Illinois, who began representing Frometa in April, in court documents argues that the Zadvydas precedent means his client should be freed because the government hasn\u2019t shown that it has a country willing to accept him as a deportee.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a July response to an amended petition by Frometa\u2019s attorney, the government said that it \u201ccontinues to evaluate removal to Cuba, Mexico or other countries.\u201d An affidavit from a deportation officer says the \u201canticipated timeline to remove petitioner is currently unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n Willis, of the National Immigration Project, said she questions the legality of third-country removals \u2013 those where the immigrant is deported to a country other than their home country. She said she believes the definition of a \u201clawful removal\u201d should be \u201cvery strongly protective\u201d of immigrants\u2019 rights and safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat question that\u2019s implicit in this is: Is there a significant likelihood of a lawful removal in the reasonably foreseeable future? Not just a removal that the government makes happen because they ignored the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n The most recent addition to Frometa\u2019s federal court file is a handwritten note from him in English, dated Aug. 14, that was entered in the federal court system Sept. 17.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a threat or flight risk to others because I have never done anything that shows I am, and being deported to Mexico or any other country I would fear persecution in regards to never being there and I would feel like a stranger,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI seek a constitutionally adequate hearing to be conducted in which I can explain my state of position in way I could not before, and I don\u2019t want to go to Mexico as an illegal alien cause ICE is not giving us no type of status in Mexico. I have 1 years and 15 days detention. I appreciate your time and God bless. Please released me please,\u201d Frometa concluded his letter.<\/p>\n Cuba to Guantanamo, Alligator Alcatraz to Camp East Montana<\/p>\n Months after filing the petition, Frometa\u2019s case remains stalled as his health gradually declines.<\/p>\n \u201cQuiero que todos vean mi caso, que sepan porque estoy aqu\u00ed,\u201d he told El Paso Matters through the handset at the processing center visitation stall. \u201cI want everyone to know about my case, that they understand why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite having slightly slurred speech because he\u2019s missing several teeth, Frometa spoke with assurance about his ordeal as his slender frame leaned into the window.<\/p>\n Frometa came to the United States in 1994 as part of the massive maritime exodus of Cubans fleeing economic hardship and political turmoil under the Fidel Castro regime. He left behind his parents, siblings and a daughter. He spent time in Guant\u00e1namo Bay, the U.S. Navy base where thousands of refugees were held before being paroled into the United States.<\/p>\n Over the next 30 years, he built a life in Florida, where he remained lawfully and held a work permit and Social Security number. He worked six days a week trimming trees, raised two sons, now 26 and 28, made friends and started new relationships.<\/p>\n On his way to work in West Palm Beach on Aug. 14, 2025, he was stopped by the Florida Highway Patrol under Operation Tidal Wave, a statewide immigration crackdown involving local and state law enforcement agencies. He was turned over to ICE and placed in the South Florida Detention Facility, also known as Alligator Alcatraz. He alleges he was left deaf in his right ear after a guard there hit him on the side of his head for speaking out when a guard choked another detainee.<\/p>\n A week later, Frometa was transferred to ERO El Paso Camp East Montana \u2013 the largest ICE detention center in the nation that had just opened under the Trump administration\u2019s mass detention and deportation agenda.<\/p>\n He remained locked up as allegations of mistreatment and assault on detainees at the detention facility mounted.<\/p>\n Witness to ICE detention death<\/p>\n Frometa said he witnessed the death of fellow detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos \u2013 a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant he had spent time with at Guantanamo. He considered him a friend, Frometa said.<\/p>\n Following months of pleading for his medication and reported suicide attempts, Campos on Saturday, Jan. 3, had an altercation with the guards at Camp East Montana who threatened to put him in isolation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Campos, who was asthmatic and used an inhaler, suffered from bipolar disorder and anxiety, according to the autopsy report. The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide, citing the cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.\u00a0<\/p>\n DHS has maintained Lunas Campos was attempting to take his own life and in its statement to El Paso Matters again said he \u201cviolently resisted\u201d staff trying to \u201dintervene to save his life.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Government Accountability Office in a June report about issues at Camp East Montana noted that while ICE filed a \u201cdiscrepancy report\u201d on the contractor related to the death, the contractor at the time did not provide use of force and death reports to ICE as required. Further, \u201cevidence associated with the incident was missing or destroyed<\/a>,\u201d the GAO said in its report.<\/p>\n Frometa told El Paso Matters he saw the guards assault Campos, who begged for his asthma medicine as they beat him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey handcuffed him and I saw that they were hitting him as they took him away,\u201d he said in Spanish. Campos didn\u2019t return to his quarters that day or the next morning.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Report: ICE detainees at Camp East Montana report frequent beatings, other human rights abuses<\/a><\/p>\n Concerned, Frometa the following day called Campos\u2019 wife, who told him he had died.\u00a0<\/p>\n Frometa had a different perspective, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cLo asesinar\u00f3n, no hay otra manera de decirlo,\u201d he said, his blue eyes unyielding, the pronounced wrinkles on his face becoming deeper. \u201cThey assassinated him, there\u2019s no other way to say it.\u201d<\/p>\n No one has been charged in connection with Campos\u2019 death.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Antonio-Frometa-ID.jpg\")
Antonio Frometa\u2019s detainee identification bracelet<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790685051_208_20260903_201848-scaled-e1788913926338-1024x548.jpg\")
The detention building inside the ICE El Paso Service Processing Center, 8915 Montana Ave., (El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AP26196475757280.jpg\")
A sign marks the entrance to a series of hardened tents at the Camp East Montana immigrant detention center on Fort Bliss in East El Paso, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo\/Morgan Lee, File)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_0037.jpg\")
An immigrant from Cuba, Antonio Frometa , center, celebrates with family in Florida. He has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since August 2025. (Courtesy family)<\/p>\n