Federal Judge in Orlando pushes back on AG Bondi’s ‘activist judges’ remark

ORLANDO, Fla. – A federal judge based in Orlando Monday expressed frustration over a recent social media post made by United States Attorney General Pam Bondi.

During a hearing in which he released three immigrant detainees he deemed to be “unlawfully held” in the Orange County Jail, U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell suggested that Bondi had impugned the character of federal judges like himself.

“She’s basically accusing the entire Article III judges of being traitors,” Judge Presnell said.

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Presnell was referring to Bondi’s post on X responding to a decision handed down by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals late Friday night.

The appeals court ruled that the Department of Homeland Security could continue denying bond to immigrants arrested by federal agents, a boon to President Donald Trump’s administration as it continues to take an aggressive approach in immigration enforcement.

“Tonight our [Justice Department] attorneys secured yet another crucial legal victory in support of [President] Trump’s immigration agenda,” Bondi wrote on X. “The Fifth Circuit just held illegal aliens can rightfully be detained without bond — a significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn.”

Phillip Arroyo, the lawyer who represents the three men in Presnell’s courtroom Monday, broached the post, arguing in front of the judge that it “undermined” the independence and neutrality of the bond process.

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As Arroyo recited the post, he approached the words “activist judges,” but was cut off by Presnell.

“Which would be me,” Presnell said with a smirk.

Presnell said he wanted to move on to discuss the matter in front of him, but not before questioning Bondi’s thinking.

“It’s rather shocking for the Attorney General of the United States to pejoratively ... refer to me as an ‘activist judge,’” Presnell said.

In two of the three cases before the court Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not object to Presnell releasing them on their own recognizance.

Presnell ordered that the three men not be arrested for at least 14 days. He said that after that period, if re-arrested, the men must be entitled to a bond hearing before an immigration court.

“Sending clients to an immigration court bond hearing is illusory,” Arroyo told News 6 after the hearing.

While the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision last week does not apply to Florida, Arroyo pointed to Bondi’s post on X in arguing that a bond hearing in immigration court would be a losing battle.

“Can we really believe that they’re going to get a fair shake with immigration judges that are employed by the executive branch?” Arroyo asked rhetorically. “The answer is no.”

Arroyo said that on Sunday, the immigration court scheduled a bond hearing for one of his clients the very next day.

In an emergency motion filed Monday on behalf of the client, Reynel Bautista, Arroyo called the timeframe between the notice Sunday and the hearing Monday “facially unreasonable.”

Arroyo wrote in his motion that an immigration judge continued the hearing to Wednesday.

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“Petitioner remains detained today, proving that referral to immigration court does not provide a real or timely remedy for unlawful attention,” Arroyo wrote.

Bautista was one of the three men Presnell ordered released Monday. They became the eighth, ninth, and tenth of Arroyo’s clients ruled to be unlawfully detained inside the Orange County Jail.

As of the morning of Feb. 9, there were 32 inmates with an ICE hold and no local charges in the jail. That is a dramatic decrease from last week, when as of February 3, there were 134 inmates with an ICE hold and no local charges in the jail.