A Mexican man facing deportation after being framed for sending a threatening letter to Donald Trump could be released in the coming days.
A Chicago immigration judge ruled on Tuesday that Ramón Morales-Reyes, 54, was not a threat to the public and set his bond at $7,500.
“Today’s decision gives us hope that he can be by our side again,” Morales-Reyes’s daughter Ana said in a statement via the organization Voces de la Frontera. “We are so grateful to the judge and to the community for supporting us.”
The Department of Homeland Security insists the 54-year-old is still a threat.
“While this criminal illegal alien is no longer under investigation for threats against the President, he is in the country illegally with previous arrests for felony hit and run, criminal damage to property, and disorderly conduct with domestic abuse,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“We are hopeful that Ramon can still be released this week,” Morales-Reyes’s lawyer Cain Oulahan told The Independent. “Justice demands that he be allowed to reunite with his family.”
Reyes was arrested in May in Wisconsin after initially being thought to be the author of letters containing threats to Donald Trump and immigration agents.
“We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans – we have done more for this county than you whites – you have been deporting my family and now I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him,” the phony letter read.
Homeland Security officials initially celebrated the arrest of Morales-Reyes, who they said was an “illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump,” while attorneys and family members of the man said the letter couldn’t be valid since Morales-Reyes can’t speak or write in English.
Last week, Wisconsin man Demetric D. Scott admitted to writing the letters under the Mexican man’s name, in the hopes of getting him deported to prevent his testimony in a robbery case, according to officials.
In an interview with police in May, Scott “admitted that he wrote everything on the letters” and “believed the letters were the simplest way to get Morales-Reyes “off his back,” according to court documents obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio.
Scott was allegedly recorded on a call from a Milwaukee County jail detailing the scheme to frame the immigrant to prevent him from testifying about a 2023 robbery in which authorities say Morales-Reyes was the victim.
“[I]f he gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial so they will probably dismiss it that day,” Scott said, per court records.
Scott, 52, was charged earlier this month with identity theft, intimidating a witness and two counts of bail jumping over the alleged scheme.
The charges add to previous allegations of armed robbery, aggravated battery, second-degree recklessly endangering safety and bail jumping over a 2023 incident in which he allegedly attacked Morales-Reyes with a corkscrew while he was riding a bicycle, leaving him with a lung abrasion.
Scott insisted the bicycle had been stolen from him and Morales-Reyes had previously threatened him.
DHS said in a statement that Morales-Reyes entered the U.S. unlawfully at least nine times between 1998 and 2005.
The 54-year-old immigrant’s family says he is in the process of seeking a U visa for survivors and witnesses of violent crime.
If Morales-Reyes is unable to post bond, removal proceedings begin on July 10.
Homeland Security can appeal the bond decision.
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