A US federal judge in California has ordered the release of an MS-13 gang member convicted of a 2014 murder in El Salvador, prompting sharp criticism from the Trump administration. US District Judge Jinsook Ohta, appointed by President Biden, ruled that immigration officials had breached David Antonio Aviles Perez's due process rights by detaining him for nearly five months without a bond hearing or an individual assessment of whether he posed a danger to the public or a flight risk. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin condemned the decision, accusing the judge of endangering the public and highlighting that this was the second time the man had been freed in California.

Aviles Perez, 35, known as "the witch" or "La Bruja," was convicted in absentia in December 2025 and sentenced to 20 years for an execution-style killing in which he and another gang member allegedly chased down and shot a man in La Unión, El Salvador. He had previously been arrested in Monterey in 2023 for allegedly swinging a machete at a homeless man, then released under California's sanctuary policies before being re-arrested by ICE in San Diego in March. He was held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center pending removal to El Salvador until Judge Ohta ordered his immediate release on 26 August, ruling that authorities had failed to justify his continued detention.