Article of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, against John Edwin Steele, Senior District Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.

John Edwin Steele, Senior District Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, has engaged in conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him as a judicial officer, as follows:

On July 8, 2026, in Miakel Guerra Morales v. Field Office Director, Miami, et al., Judge John E. Steele granted a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered the release of Miakel Guerra Morales from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility. Guerra Morales is a Cuban national who took part in the hijacking of a commuter aircraft in Cuba in 2003 and forced the pilot to land in Key West, Florida. He was sentenced to 264 months in prison for aircraft piracy and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew.

After spending 21 years in prison, ICE placed Guerra Morales in removal proceedings, accompanied by an immigration judge’s order for him to be removed from the United States. Notwithstanding the deferral of his removal to Cuba due to a claim made in 2023 pursuant to the Convention Against Torture, ICE detained Guerra Morales on December 30, 2025, with the intention of removing him to Mexico instead.

In Judge Steele’s subsequent order releasing Guerra Morales from detention, he ignored the executive branch’s suggestion that granting Guerra Morales’ habeas petition would not respect the presumptively reasonable detention period typically afforded to such petitions, which typically requires habeas petitions to be filed after 180 days of detention. In his reasoning for accepting the petition, Judge Steele suggested that the executive branch’s request for Guerra Morales to refile the same petition after 180 days would add to the crushing amount of case management associated with petitions filed during the previous 6-month period. Judge Steele let an alleged backlog of casework serve as a reason to release an alien convicted of aircraft piracy into American communities.

In his order, Judge Steele disregarded a justification for continued detention for illegal aliens posing a special danger to the public. Specifically, Judge Steele failed to adequately consider that continued detention was in compliance with Federal regulations authorizing such detention for aliens determined to pose a special danger to the public. Judge Steele’s order relied in part on an apparent delay in removal proceedings as a justification necessitating the release of Guerra Morales from detention. Moreover, by ordering the release of Guerra Morales from an ICE detention facility within 24 hours, Judge Steele denied the executive branch an opportunity to pursue appellate review and allocate sufficient resources to ensure the safety of the public from such a dangerous individual.

In taking this action, Judge Steele marginalized core public safety, homeland security, and national security considerations, and thereby contributed to an environment of impunity for illegal aliens convicted of grave and violent offenses against the United States. His ruling placed the interests of criminal illegal aliens seeking residence in the United States by any means necessary above the security of the United States and the American people. By releasing an illegal alien convicted of aircraft piracy from an ICE detention facility, it is evident that Judge Steele committed an egregious dereliction of duty by abusing the discretion entrusted to him as a Federal judge, especially at a time of elevated public concern about national security and terrorism.

Accordingly, Judge Steele has engaged in conduct so utterly lacking in judicious restraint and basic fidelity to public safety and national security that he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, is unfit to hold the office of United States District Judge, and should be removed from office.