JULY 15, 2026
Cuban national who hijacked plane to Florida in 2003 ordered released by federal judge after serving 22-year sentence
Maikel Guerra Morales, a Cuban national convicted of hijacking a Cuban commuter plane to Key West, Florida in 2003, was ordered released by a federal judge in Fort Myers after completing a 22-year sentence for aircraft piracy. U.S. District Judge John Steele, appointed by President Clinton, cited a Supreme Court precedent requiring release when there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. A federal immigration judge had issued an order of removal against Morales in 2023, but no country has been confirmed to accept him.
In 2003, Morales and several others assaulted a flight crew aboard a Cuban commuter aircraft and forced it to fly more than 100 miles north from Nuevo Gerona on Cuba's Isle of Youth to Key West International Airport. U.S. Air Force jets scrambled from Homestead Air Reserve Base to intercept the plane before it landed. Morales was arrested that evening and subsequently sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for aircraft piracy.
After completing his prison sentence in 2025, Morales was transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody under a 2023 removal order. Judge Steele ruled last week that federal officials had indicated an intention to deport him to Mexico but that there was no evidence of "a significant likelihood that Guerra Morales will be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future."
Steele's ruling relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, a case involving an ethnic Lithuanian lawful permanent resident born in a German displaced-persons camp who had been ordered deported in 1994 but had no country willing to receive him. Under that precedent, foreign nationals cannot be held in immigration detention indefinitely when removal is not reasonably foreseeable. Morales remains subject to an order of supervision following his release.