ICE deported a cooperating federal witness before a cartel-linked trial, and his co-defendants were acquitted

In March 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Javier Hernandez (a pseudonym used by the Los Angeles Times to protect him from retaliation) to Tijuana, Mexico -- a cooperating federal witness in a Los Angeles drug-trafficking prosecution, removed about six months before he was set to testify. ICE had detained Hernandez in Fontana, California in February 2025. He had cooperated with federal prosecutors after a 2015 Fontana drug bust in which DEA agents and Fontana police seized roughly 22 pounds of methamphetamine, agreeing to testify against two men prosecutors said were connected to the operation. U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder said during a hearing that ICE did not consult with the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles before moving to deport the prosecution's witness. Without Hernandez's testimony, his two co-defendants were acquitted of all charges.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson described Hernandez as a "clear and present threat to public safety" whom agents had to detain quickly, citing prior convictions for weapons offenses, driving while intoxicated, and drug possession, and said he had illegally reentered the country in 2013 after an earlier deportation; the spokesperson did not answer questions about the deportation's effect on the prosecution. John Sandweg, who served as ICE's acting director under President Obama, said it would have been "shocking" for a prior administration to remove a federal defendant or critical witness from the country during an active case, and former ICE officials and ex-federal prosecutors told the Times the case illustrates the administration prioritizing deportation over coordination with other federal law-enforcement functions, even in serious drug prosecutions.

Updates

2026-05-12 — House Judiciary Democrats cited case in "Acquittal by Removal" report [2]

The House Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff cited Hernandez's deportation as a specific example in a report finding that ICE deportations of cooperating witnesses were undermining state and local criminal prosecutions and allowing accused perpetrators to avoid conviction.