A Clinton-appointed U.S. District Judge in Florida ordered the immediate release of Maikel Guerra Morales, an illegal migrant convicted for the 2003 hijacking of a passenger plane, and set him free on American streets.
Prior to his release, Guerra Morales was under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, pending deportation proceedings, after he finished serving his 22-year prison sentence in December.
Maikel Guerra Morales is one of six Cuban nationals convicted in December 2003 for their role in the March 19, 2003, hijacking of a commercial flight in Nueva Gerona, Cuba. At the time, witnesses reportedly testified that the hijackers broke into the cockpit door and held a knife to the pilot’s throat — demanding that he redirect the 37-passenger plane to land in Key West, Florida.
Guerra Morales served a 22-year prison sentence on charges of aircraft piracy and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew. The Cuban national finished serving his sentence in December 2025, after which he was placed under ICE custody to undergo deportation proceedings.
The New York Post reported on Monday that Florida Judge John E. Steele ordered the Cuban national’s release under supervision from ICE custody on July 8. Judge Steele was appointed to his position during the Democrat administration of former President Bill Clinton.
The New York Post reported that ICE intended to deport Guerra Morales to Mexico but, according to court documents, he “might end up directly in Cuba.” Following his release, he is reportedly believed to be living in Miami.
Guerra Morales briefly spoke with Telemundo after the judge ordered his release and affirmed, “If the judge didn’t get tough, ICE wouldn’t have let me go.” He asserted to Telemundo that he spent 33 days at the immigration detention center in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” and was subsequently transferred to the Krome Processing Center in South Florida. According to Telemundo, Guerra Morales was released wearing an electronic ankle bracelet.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement on Tuesday condemning the Judge Steele-ordered release of the criminal illegal alien.
“This activist judge forced ICE to release a criminal illegal alien who was convicted and sentenced to 22 years for hijacking a plane back into American communities,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will continue to fight for the detention and removal of criminal illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country,” Bis added.
DHS noted that a Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge issued a final order for the removal of Maikel Guerra Morales on March 1, 2023 — acknowledging that ICE took custody of the Cuban national at the end of his prison sentence on December 2025.
Reports published in 2003 identified Maikel Guerra Morales as the brother of the hijacking’s alleged ringleader, Alexis Norniella Morales. The siblings testified that “everyone on board was in on the plot, with five knives used only as props.”
Per NBC News, the defendants unsuccessfully argued before the court that the hijacked plane was a “freedom flight” out of communist Cuba. The plane’s pilot denied being part of such a plot, while Prosecutor Harry Wallace found the argument “laughable,” denying that the trial had anything to do with Cuba, then-dictator Fidel Castro, or his communist regime.
The pro-Castro New York Times reported in 2003 that the March 2003 hijacking and two subsequent hijackings that year led Fidel Castro to “crack down on hijackers” and accuse the United States of “encouraging illegal migration by violent means.” In reality, the Castro regime has been identified as a state sponsor of terrorism for decades and is linked to a wide variety of violent activity around the world.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.