Federal Judge Holds a Justice Department Lawyer in Contempt After ICE Dumped a Man in Texas

U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino held Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Isihara, a military lawyer detailed to the Justice Department, in civil contempt in February 2026 for violating her February 9 order in the case of Rigoberto Soto Jimenez. The order required his release from ICE custody without conditions in Minnesota with all property returned. Instead the government released him in Texas without his identification documents, and he spent a night in a shelter. He had been arrested in mid-January during an immigration operation in Minnesota and sued for release, arguing ICE lacked an administrative warrant.

Civil contempt against a government attorney is a rare remedy, used when a court concludes its orders are not being carried out. It goes to whether immigration enforcement is complying with individual release orders during a large enforcement surge.

Provinzino ordered Isihara to pay $500 a day until the documents were returned. The government complied the next day and she waived all fines, saying she expected "100% compliance" and rejecting the government's understaffing explanation.