Clinton-Appointed Judge Dies Days After Freeing Convicted Plane Hijacker
Senior U.S. District Judge John E. Steele has died at the age of 77, just days after a ruling that set off a major backlash from conservatives and immigration hawks.
According to The New York Post, Steele’s death was confirmed by a legal source in Miami and by a law clerk for Chief Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida. His cause of death has not been made public.
Steele was appointed to the federal bench by former President Bill Clinton. His name was already in the news this week after he ordered the release of Maikel Guerra Morales from ICE custody.
Guerra Morales is a Cuban national who was convicted after a 2003 plane hijacking. He took control of a Cuban commuter plane and forced the crew to land at Key West International Airport. He later spent more than 20 years in prison for aircraft piracy and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew.
ICE took Guerra Morales into custody in December 2025 and planned to deport him to Mexico, according to the report. But Steele ruled on July 8 that he should be released under supervision while the government continued the deportation process.
That did not sit well with Republicans. For many on the right, the case was a clear example of courts making it harder for immigration agents to remove convicted criminals from the country.
Steele said ICE could not deport Guerra Morales to Cuba because of an anti-torture convention. He also said the agency had not shown evidence that it had communicated with Mexico about sending him there.
After the ruling, Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, filed an article of impeachment against Steele. The House resolution accused the judge of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Steube did not mince words when speaking to Fox News.
“This is exactly the kind of activist judicial overreach the American people are sick of,” Steube explained to Fox News. “Judge Steele had every legal justification to keep a convicted plane hijacker off our streets, and he chose to let him go instead.”
The Department of Homeland Security also blasted the ruling, arguing that it put the public at risk and interfered with the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.
“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,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “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.”
The timing of Steele’s death has drawn attention because it came so soon after the controversial order. Still, no official cause of death has been released, and there is no public evidence linking his death to the case.
For now, the legal fight over Guerra Morales remains another flashpoint in the broader battle over immigration enforcement, deportations, and the power of federal judges to block or slow the government’s removal efforts.