Fort Myers federal judge dies before facing impeachment proceedings

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK)—A Fort Myers federal judge died before facing impeachment proceedings over his decision to release a convicted plane hijacker from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. 

Sources told WINK News Anchor Claire Galt that Senior U.S. District Judge John E. Steele died. The circumstances of his death were not immediately clear. 

The news came just hours after U.S. Rep. Greg Steube announced articles of impeachment against Steele, accusing him of abusing his authority after ordering ICE to release Maikel Guerra Morales from immigration custody.

Morales, a Cuban national, was convicted of aircraft piracy after federal prosecutors said he helped hijack a commuter plane in Cuba in 2003. Morales forced the pilot to fly to Key West in what investigators said was an attempt to reach the United States. He was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.

After completing his prison sentence, ICE took Morales into custody while trying to deport him.

In a July 8 ruling, Judge Steele wrote that ICE detained Guerra Morales after he was released from prison. The agency started removal proceedings until an immigration judge deferred deportation over a Convention Against Torture (CAT) claim. 

Migrants must demonstrate it's likely they will be tortured or killed in their home country to win a CAT claim. ICE released Guerra Morales in March of 2023 under an order of supervision, Steele wrote.

Despite complying with the terms of his supervision, Steele wrote that ICE arrested Guerra Morales in December 2025 with the intention of sending him to Mexico.

Steele found that ICE held Morales for more than six months without a concrete plan to deport him, violating a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The judge wrote that ICE provided no evidence it communicated with Mexico about Morales. 

Steele ordered him released from ICE custody under federal supervision. The judge said ICE could re-detain Morales if deportation is reasonably foreseeable.

"[ICE] have had more than three years since Guerra Morales's order of removal-and more than six months since his present detention-to remove him from the United States," Steele wrote. "[they] are still unable to articulate a specific plans for his removal to Cuba, Mexico, or another country."

Steube argued that Steele's ruling put public safety at risk.

"This is exactly the kind of activist judicial overreach the American people are sick of," Steube said in a statement. "ICE had a convicted aircraft pirate in custody while pursuing his removal, and Judge Steele ordered him released within 24 hours despite obvious public safety concerns."

Steube's impeachment resolution also argues the judge gave the executive branch less than 24 hours to appeal the ruling before Morales was released.

The Department of Homeland Security also criticized the decision.

"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," Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Steele has served as a federal judge in the Middle District of Florida since 1990 and most recently served as a senior judge in the Fort Myers Division. Former President Bill Clinton appointed him to a new seat in 2000, according to Steele's biography. 

It's extremely rare for federal judges to face impeachment proceedings, according to Jake Truscott, a University of Florida political science professor. There have only been 15 proceedings in the history of the U.S., Truscott said. 

G. Thomas Porteous Jr. is the last federal judge to be impeached and removed from the bench. His career ended as the result of a long-running FBI investigation, dubbed “Operation Wrinkled Robe.”

Though he never faced criminal charges, the U.S. Senate in 2010 found that Porteous took money from attorneys and bail bondsmen with business before the court, lied in his 2001 personal bankruptcy filing and hid the corruption in statements to the Senate during his confirmation for the federal judicial post. 

Truscott said he didn't expect Steele's impeachment proceedings to make it very far, even before his death.   

"A lot of folks that study congressional behavior will tell you that this is largely advertising," Truscott said. "It's a mechanism for them to connect with their voters to demonstrate that they are doing big, important things in Washington."

Cabinet officials have died during previous impeachment hearings, Truscott said. But never a federal judge.