A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to not deport a witness in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a federal immigration agent earlier this month in Houston.

U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison issued the directive on Monday after an attorney for Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, a passenger in Salgado Araujo's van during the shooting, filed a petition seeking his release from immigration detention.

Sign up The order also said Rojas Pliego cannot be transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside of the Southern District of Texas while the petition is pending without the court's permission.