A Clinton-appointed federal judge in Florida has died just days after he controversially released a Cuban plane hijacker who was awaiting deportation.

Judge John E. Steele, 77, passed away, according to a law clerk for Chief Judge Marcia Morales Howard of the Middle District of Florida — where Steele served.

A legal source in Miami also confirmed Steele’s sudden death. The circumstances of his passing were not immediately clear.

Steele came under criticism for his July 8 ruling to release Cuban plane hijacker Maikel Guerra Morales from ICE custody.

Guerra Morales took over a Cuban commuter plane in 2003 and forced the crew to land at Key West International Airport.

He spent more than 20 years in prison for aircraft piracy and conspiracy to interfere with a flight crew.

ICE took him into custody in December 2025 and intended to deport him to Mexico, but after more than six months in detention, Steele ordered him released under supervision again, meaning agents must try to monitor him before they can deport him.

On Wednesday it emerged that Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) filed an article of impeachment against Steele.

The House Resolution presented by Steube accused the judge of committing “high crimes and misdemeanors”.

“This is exactly the kind of activist judicial overreach the American people are sick of,” Steube told Fox News.

“Judge Steele had every legal justification to keep a convicted plane hijacker off our streets, and he chose to let him go instead.”

In his decision on Guerra Morales last week, the judge cited a landmark Supreme Court ruling regarding the detention of foreign nationals whose removal cannot be carried out.

The ruling claimed that ICE had not been able to deport Guerra Morales to Cuba because of an anti-torture convention and had provided no evidence that it had communicated with Mexico about sending him there.  

Steele said that Guerra Morales had to be let go because his “detention exceeds six months and there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future”.

“The Government cannot lock individuals in a cell indefinitely as a workaround for a stalled deportation process,” the order added.