DHS, which oversees ICE operations, fired off a press release criticizing DuBose, a former Providence teacher turned judge who was sworn onto the federal bench early last year, for releasing “a violent criminal illegal alien who is wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic.”Get Rhode MapA weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State.Enter Email“This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.But what DuBose didn’t know was that ICE had told the US attorney’s office in Rhode Island “not to confirm or deny” in court proceedings that there was a homicide warrant for Gómez in another country, according to legal filings. On Tuesday, DuBose ordered that Gómez be re-detained. But by Friday afternoon, ICE still had not been able to locate him. “Nobody knows where he is,” Melanie Shapiro, an attorney representing Gómez said Friday.The Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, R.I.Barry Chin/Globe StaffThe unusual case has raised serious ethical questions and prompted court officials to initiate an investigation into whether the US attorney’s office committed misconduct when it withheld information from DuBose at the behest of ICE.On Thursday, US District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. appointed Niki Kuckes of the Roger Williams University School of Law as special counsel to investigate what happened and provide a written report.“I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a scenario where an attorney coming before a judge in any court can, at their client’s request, withhold material information,” DuBose told Assistant US Attorney Kevin Bolan in court on Monday.According to Brian E. Sullivan, acting assistant field office director for ICE in Burlington, Mass., ICE told Bolan on April 24 “not to confirm or deny the existence” of a 2023 arrest warrant against Gómez “because ICE had not yet been given ‘use authorization for it’ from authorities in the Dominican Republic.”DuBose issued her order to release Gómez on April 28. Two days later, according to Sullivan, ICE received confirmation the warrant was active and could be disclosed in court proceedings. That same day, DHS issued its press release slamming DuBose. Bolan on Monday said he was unaware DHS had made information about the warrant public when it included Gómez in an April 16 press release.“Among the things that I should have done but did not do ... was to conduct something that would have been very simple to do ... a Google search,” Bolan said in court.Bolan has apologized to DuBose. Still, DuBose said, “There was a serious breakdown in the ethical codes here.”Judge Melissa R. DuBoseHandout“We operate here under the color of good faith, and we’ve had a wonderful, functioning, working relationship with your office until this time,” DuBose told Bolan in court on Monday. “It’s going to take a while to rebuild that trust. I believe that we can, but there certainly was a massive breach of this court’s trust in this case.”The remarks from DHS continue a pattern of the Trump administration disparaging judges whose decisions do not align with its political agenda. Judges who have ruled against the administration have reported an increase in the number of threats they have received.In Rhode Island, McConnell has said he has received six credible death threats and has been subjected to other intimidation tactics while ruling on a series of high-profile legal challenges to the administration’s policies.DuBose, the first person of color and first openly LGBTQ judge to serve on the US District Court in Rhode Island, said the press release from DHS about her sets a “false narrative” that “puts people at risk.”“It’s a threat to judicial security, but more importantly, there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is that we’re doing every day, and it’s not helpful,” the judge said.Bolan has said the US attorney’s office made “a very firm, very direct request” that the release be taken off of the DHS website. Yet it was still on the government’s website Friday.Gómez allegedly entered the United States illegally in 2022 and is seeking asylum, according to a habeas corpus petition filed by Gómez on April 23. People held by the government may file a habeas corpus petition to challenge their detention.Now married to a US citizen, Gómez fled the Dominican Republic after a gang shot his brother and attempted to kill him, the petition states.He was arrested by Worcester, Mass., police on April 4 on a charge of assault and battery and released on bail, according to the petition. He was then detained by ICE at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., the filing states.“ICE arrested [Gómez] on unsubstantiated allegations in a police report, even though [he] has no prior criminal history,” the petition states. “[Gómez] has a strong likelihood of having the criminal case dismissed. Witnesses and the evidence show that [Gómez] is innocent.”According to a copy of the warrant against Gómez filed in court, Gómez is accused of shooting and killing a man in the Dominican Republic in March 2021.First Assistant US Attorney Charles C. Calenda — a Trump administration appointee — acknowledged DuBose did not have knowledge of the warrant before she made her decision to release him on April 28.In a status update filed in court Thursday, Bolan wrote Gómez was expected to voluntarily report to an ICE office in Burlington, Mass., by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, but “that has not happened.”ICE did not return a request for comment on Friday.“His family members have been trying to contact him, too, but have not been able to get in touch, so they’re understandably worried about him,” Shapiro, the attorney representing Gómez, said in an interview Thursday night.Shapiro noted that when ICE released him last week, he was not given “even a piece of paper or ankle monitor or anything like that.”“There’s a lot of conditions that could have been imposed, like prohibiting him from leaving the state, putting on an ankle monitor, or making him do check-ins at the office or check-in phone calls,” she said Thursday.It “really doesn’t make any sense, since they knew about the warrant,” Shapiro said.Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.