U.S. federal judge mandates the Trump administration to reinstate a Guatemalan, previously deported to Mexico, back in America.
In a significant ruling late Friday, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man who was unlawfully deported to Mexico amid fears of being harmed there.
The man, known as O.C.G., is a gay immigrant who was protected from being sent back to his native country under a U.S. immigration judge's order at the time. However, the U.S. distressingly placed him on a bus and sent him to Mexico, an act that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found likely "lacked any semblance of due process."
Court documents reveal that O.C.G. was subsequently returned to Guatemala by Mexico, where he is now concealed. An earlier court proceeding determined that O.C.G. faced persecution or torture if he were returned to Guatemala. Yet, he also feared the prospect of returning to Mexico, citing evidence of past rape and kidnapping there while seeking asylum in the U.S.
Judge Murphy wrote, "No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat. In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped."
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin maintained that O.C.G. was in the country illegally and that Mexico served as a "safe third option" for his asylum claim, pending resolution in the U.S. She designated Murphy as a "federal activist judge" and stated that the administration anticipates being exonerated by a higher court.
The court order issued for O.C.G. is part of a series of judgments handed down by federal courts against recent Trump administration deportations, including deportations to third countries and the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran who had resided in Maryland for approximately 14 years. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the United States from a notorious Salvadoran prison, dismissing the White House's claim that it couldn't retrieve him following the incorrect deportation.
Judge Murphy, in his ruling, acknowledged the disputes over the term "facilitate" in similar cases, stating that returning O.C.G. to the U.S. is far from complicated since the man is not in custody of any foreign government. The government has yet to take action on Murphy's order, and the broader legal context regarding these deportation policies remains under appeal in federal courts.
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