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A New Bedford man is back in federal immigration custody after an immigration judge ruled last week that he was a danger to the community.
Darwing Inocente Xitumul Morales, a Guatemalan worker arrested in New Bedford on Feb. 11, was released Feb. 24 after a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered his release and a bond hearing.
But at the March 2 bond hearing, Immigration Judge Luciana Dubuc denied Morales bond.
Morales turned himself in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s field office in Burlington March 3. He is now being held at Plymouth County Correctional Facility. His next hearing is scheduled for April 23.
Morales has faced criminal charges in two cases since 2024. A domestic violence charge in New Bedford was dismissed. In Wareham, he was charged with misdemeanor larceny under $1,200 and a felony charge of breaking and entering a vehicle. The felony charge was dismissed, while Morales admitted to sufficient facts on the larceny charge.
Even if a felony charge does not result in a conviction, immigration enforcement authorities still have wide discretionary powers on whether to commence removal proceedings against an immigrant based on the charge alone.
The news of Morales’ charges and his new detention came to light after Assistant U.S. Attorney Taylor Dean filed a status report ordered by Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., chief judge of U.S. District Court Rhode Island.
Dubuc, the Chelmsford Immigration Court judge, is a former ICE prosecutor, appointed to the bench by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Feb. 5. McConnell was appointed a federal judge by President Barack Obama in 2010.
Dubuc’s finding that Morales was a danger to the community came as court observers began to bring attention to a noticeable uptick in such findings by immigration judges at bond hearings ordered by federal judges through habeas corpus petitions.
Charges in New Bedford and Wareham
In Wareham District Court, Morales faced a misdemeanor charge of larceny under $1,200 and a felony charge of breaking and entering a vehicle from an incident on June 24, 2024.
According to a police report obtained by The Light, the incident occurred near the Planet Fitness on Cranberry Highway in Wareham. A man and a woman met there, and the woman left her car and went to the man’s car “to fool around,” according to the report. At that moment, the man noticed that the brake lights lit up in the woman’s car. The couple went to investigate and found Morales in the driver’s seat of the car. As Morales tried to exit the vehicle with the woman’s iPhone, the man forced Morales to the ground. He then called 911, the report said.
The officer said in the report that when he tried to talk to Morales, he said, “Sorry.”
“He did not speak much English,” the officer wrote.
Morales admitted to sufficient facts — when a defendant acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to prove guilt without formally admitting guilt — on the larceny charge on Jan. 21, 2025. Prosecutors dismissed the felony charge. Judge Teresa Lamarre sentenced Morales to six months’ probation.
As part of his plea, Morales received an “alien warning,” as required by statute, informing him of possible immigration consequences related to the plea. Court records show that a Spanish translator was present for the proceedings.
On May 11, 2025, New Bedford police responded to a call at Morales’ North End home. According to a police report of the incident, an intoxicated Morales got into a verbal argument with Nicolette Rand, Morales’ U.S. citizen partner, whom he has since married. Morales then allegedly grabbed Rand by the arm and pulled her off the bed. No arrest occurred, but police charged Morales with misdemeanor assault and battery on a family or household member.
That charge was dismissed due to a failure to prosecute after Morales paid a $150 court counsel fee on Aug. 15.
Before the dismissal, the New Bedford charge resulted in a continuance of the Wareham case and a probation violation hearing on Aug. 11. That hearing found no probation violation and Judge Edward H. Sharkansky of the Wareham District Court discharged the 2024 case.
The Light reported on Feb. 13 that its review of Massachusetts court records found no criminal charges for Morales since he came to the U.S. in 2019. That February report was based on the name that Rand gave The Light: Darwing Xitumul Morales. Multiple checks of court records using his birthdate conducted by reporters and by clerks at the New Bedford and Fall River district courts turned up no criminal charges in the Commonwealth under that name.
After his bond denial last week, a source told The Light his full name is Darwing Inocente Xitumul Morales. Two criminal dockets, at New Bedford District Court and Wareham District Court respectively, then appeared in a search using his full name and birthdate.
Contact Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org
We don’t need people like this, send him home
Let him have his day in court. As he is eligible for, then send him out of the country! We as American citizens would be charged so, first for domestic violence, no excuse. Then for larceny. Be deported, do not pass go, send him back to his home country!
I agree. Constitutional rights protect us all. We should observe them. If he violated our laws, then he should be deported.
Dismissing felony charges against a criminal, illegal immigrant is criminal, in and of itself, to all law abiding residents of the USA.
Failure to prosecute a familial assault and battery by a criminal, illegal immigrant is another abysmal failure of the current judicial system in Bristol County, MA.
Deportation is the minimal punishment this criminal deserves and it will make the USA a safer place for all residents.
Deport immediately!
Some of the comments are tough, but a deeper dive should have been done sooner by the New Bedford Light to find all the facts, and maybe the first article would not have been written.