EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – El Paso District Court Judge Marlene Gonzalez will no longer hear cases involving immigrant children after she was accused of being impartial and biased against immigrant children during hearings.
El Paso District Court Judge Marlene Gonzalez
“As a judge, the Texas Judicial Code of Conduct prohibits me from granting interviews or commenting on cases from which I recuse myself. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond,” Gonzalez wrote in a statement, noting that she voluntarily recused herself from hearings in cases involving unaccompanied immigrant children.
On December 17, 2025, attorneys for the immigration advocacy group Estrella del Paso filed a motion asking Gonzalez to recuse himself from hearings involving unaccompanied immigrant children (children who entered the United States illegally without a parent or guardian).
In court documents, the organization’s attorneys and social services workers submitted written statements detailing allegations that Gonzalez displayed a “pattern and practice of cruelty” toward immigrant children during the hearing.
You can read the document here.
DMRS recusal download
The statements accuse Gonzalez of subjecting children to humiliating interrogations about why they left their country and of repeatedly humiliating children for abandoning their parents.
In one report, a lawyer claimed Gonzalez interrogated a 17-year-old Guatemalan boy who testified that he fled his country to Mexico because of his abusive alcoholic father, but was kidnapped and beaten while in Mexico. In response, Gonzalez “tirried” the boy: “Why didn’t you stay in another part of Mexico? It’s beautiful there and it’s big. Why didn’t you stay in another part of Mexico?” the document read.
At another hearing involving a 16-year-old Venezuelan girl from Venezuela who had been a victim of child prostitution, a lawyer claimed Gonzalez scolded the child “not to engage in prostitution.”
The document also states that despite Gonzalez’s alleged practices, she “unexpectedly” approved children’s applications seeking special immigrant youth visas, but she recently began denying those applications in 2025 without providing any reasons.
Estrella del Paso declined KTSM’s request for an interview and instead issued the following statement:
“For nearly 40 years, Estrella del Paso has been providing legal representation and other legal services to immigrants in El Paso. We are a not-for-profit law firm and we take our legal and ethical obligations to our clients very seriously, and we keep these obligations in mind with every motion and document we file with the court. Several detailed examples of the time and care taken by our legal team. For accuracy and completeness, we encourage you to refer directly to this document. We do not comment on these motions or our advice and we do not breach this obligation, particularly with regard to vulnerable children.”
Gonzalez’s current term runs through 2028.
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