District Court Judge recuses herself from unaccompanied migrant child’s immigration case

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Court documents show that District Court Judge Marlene Gonzalez has recused herself from the case of an unaccompanied migrant child.

"Not for the reasons alleged in Petitioner’s Motion to Recuse, but in the interest of judicial economy, this Court voluntarily recuses itself from further ruling in this cause," a document signed by Gonzalez on January 5, 2026, reads in part.

The petitioner in this case is Estrella del Paso, a ministry of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso that
provides legal services to immigrants in the Borderland. The organization alleged in a Motion for Recusal filed last month that Gonzalez has a "pattern and practice of cruelty toward unaccompanied noncitizen children" who appear before her in court.

In its motion, Estrella del Paso detailed several alleged instances in which the organization says Gonzalez treated the young migrants cruelly. Those instances include a teen suffering from a mental illness who appeared before Gonzalez in 2023 and a Guatemalan teen who had been kidnapped in Mexico.

"Judge Marlene Gonzalez commonly shames the children by accusing them of abandoning their parents, often in the form of leading questions like, 'Isn’t it true that you abandoned your parents when you came to the United States?' Estrella del Paso wrote in its motion.

The case that Gonzalez agreed to recuse herself from involved an unnamed unaccompanied migrant child.

Gonzalez has served in her current position since 2021.

ABC-7 reached out to Gonzalez for comment. She provided us with the following statement:

"As a judge, the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct prevents me from submitting to an interview or commenting on a case that I have recused myself from hearing. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to provide this response."

Marlene Gonzalez