‘Banal horror': Judge orders Trump administration to return Guatemalan rape survivor ‘wrongfully' deported to Mexico
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return a Guatemalan man who was 'wrongfully' deported to Mexico.
The man, referred to as 'O.C.G' in court documents, says he fled Guatemala in April 2024. While passing through Mexico, he says he was raped, targeted for being gay and held prisoner until his sister paid a ransom. Now, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy says he must be returned to the U.S.
'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,' Murphy wrote in a Friday evening ruling.
The man has no known criminal history, and no one has 'ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat,' Murphy wrote.
Murphy also says he received false information from government attorneys. At first, the Trump administration told Murphy that the man was asked if he had any fears about going to Mexico. But soon afterward, government attorneys admitted they couldn't find any official who remembered asking the question.
'Finally, it must be said that, while mistakes obviously happen, the events leading up to this decision are troubling,' Murphy wrote. 'The Court was given false information, upon which it relied, twice, to the detriment of a party at risk of serious and irreparable harm.'
Murphy added that the man's attorneys are likely to succeed in arguing he wasn't given proper due process, which is required under law.
'Defendants' retraction of their prior sworn statement makes inexorable the already-strong conclusion that O.C.G. is likely to succeed in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process,' Murphy wrote.
This ruling comes after the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the Trump administration 'illegally' deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father and husband from Maryland. Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager in 2011. Now, he's in a Salvadoran prison.
Now, over a month after the highest court's decision, the Trump administration has yet to facilitate his return.
The administration has also begun targeting college students involved in pro-Palestinian activism.
Georgetown postdoctoral scholar Badar Khan Suri sued the Trump administration after he was arrested on March 17. Officials said they were revoking his visa because of his social media activity and accused him of supporting Hamas, the Associated Press reports.
Columbia University scholar Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was also detained around the same time over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
Khalil's wife gave birth a month after his arrest. He held his newborn son for the first time from ICE detention this week.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
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