A federal judge has ordered an illegal alien accused of stabbing and throwing a trash can at her coworker in Massachusetts to be released, citing how her husband had a recent “acute medical episode,” which the feds claim was a fake seizure.
U.S. District Judge Stacey D. Neuman, who sits on the federal court in Maine, determined Ecuadoran national Juliana Milena Ojeda-Montoya, at the center of last week’s viral ICE arrest in Fitchburg, is entitled to due process and should be released back to her family.
“Liberty is the norm and detention without trial is the ‘carefully limited exception,’” Neuman wrote in a court filing on Monday. “Her current detention without an opportunity to be heard violates her rights to due process.”
Ojeda-Montoya’s arrest last Thursday quickly became a national headline as her husband had an apparent seizure amid a scuffle with ICE agents inside a vehicle in Fitchburg. The feds have accused the husband of faking the medical episode to interfere with the apprehension.
The couple’s baby daughter was also in the car at the time.
Federal immigration agents took Ojeda-Montoya to Cumberland County Jail in Maine, where she has been detained since.
Though Neuman described the allegations of Ojeda-Montoya’s criminal case as “serious,” the judge ruled that it does not in itself “implicate the Laken Riley Act,” a federal law that mandates detention for noncitizens who have been charged with, convicted of, or admit to committing certain enumerated criminal acts.
“The Leominster District Court already determined that she is entitled to release on her own recognizance,” Neuman wrote. “Moreover, she has a young daughter at home whom she needs to breastfeed and a husband who recently suffered an acute medical episode, seemingly as a result of ICE agents’ actions.”
“Those factors alone weigh in favor of a finding of extraordinary circumstances,” the judge added in her order to release Ojeda-Montoya.
Neuman has ordered the defense and prosecutors to file briefs on the applicability of the Laken Riley Act in the case by Friday.
As video from the scene went viral, Fitchburg Mayor Sam Squailia called for “advance notice” from ICE before they conduct operations in her city and thanked residents for recording federal agents attempting to detain Ojeda-Montoya.
“Recording these interactions ensures our community’s stories are told,” Squailia stated in a Facebook post last Friday, “and it allows the public to see what occurs when federal agents operate in our city.”
“These unannounced federal actions place our local officers in an impossible situation,” the mayor added. “When federal agents report they are ‘in danger,’ our officers are obligated to respond.”
Ojeda-Montoya entered the country in February 2023, admitting that she illegally crossed the border in Arizona. In July 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued the woman a workplace authorization, which is slated to expire in 2029.
Ojeda-Montoya was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault with a dangerous weapon after she allegedly cut her Burger King coworker with scissors and threw a trash can at the victim.
The Department of Homeland Security responded to the backlash, accusing Ojeda-Montoya’s husband of “FAKING a seizure to help a criminal escape justice.”
“The target of this operation … is the WORST OF THE WORST,” the department stated in a social media post.
Congressional Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee reacted to the incident, stating, “DHS will lie. They always do. BUT LOOK WITH YOUR EYES!! Is this right? the WORST OF THE WORST?? Absolutely not. And shame on anyone who says otherwise.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a Herald request for comment on Tuesday.
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