Trump Administration Agrees to Return Guatemalan Man to U.S.

New York Times

4 days ago

Justice Department lawyers said on Wednesday that the government was taking steps to comply with a court order to facilitate the return of a man who had been deported to Mexico and was then sent to Guatemala.
The Guatemalan man, known by the initials O.C.G., had been deported this year despite having told U.S. authorities that he had experienced violence in Mexico and was afraid to go back.
Immigration authorities made contact with O.C.G.'s legal team over the weekend and were working to bring him back to the United States on a charter flight, according to the two-page filing in the case before Judge Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts.
Late last week, Judge Murphy ordered the government to 'facilitate' O.C.G.'s return to the United States, finding that he was likely to 'succeed in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process.'
The government's agreement to return O.C.G. represents a substantial de-escalation in a case that is shaping up to be one of the key courtroom battles over President Trump's attempts to conduct mass deportations.
It also marks a departure from the more defiant stance that the administration has taken in other immigration matters, including the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Mr. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador despite an order from an immigration court that he not be sent there, a mistake the government has called an 'administrative error.'
In response to an order upheld by the Supreme Court requiring the government to 'facilitate' Mr. Abrego Garcia's return, the Trump administration has said that it cannot bring him back because he is now imprisoned in El Salvador.
In 2024, when passing through Mexico on his way to the U.S. border, O.C.G. was kidnapped and raped by a group of men who released him only after his sister sent them money, he has said.
An immigration judge who barred authorities from deporting O.C.G. to Guatemala also assured him that he would not be deported to Mexico without further due process. U.S. authorities sent him there anyway. In Mexico, the authorities gave him a choice to be detained for months or return to Guatemala. He chose to return to his home country.
He lives alone there, in a house owned by his sister. He avoids going outside and rarely sees his family members. 'Anything could happen to me in the street,' he told the court. 'I am constantly afraid.'
He said he lives 'in constant panic and constant fear' of persecution for being gay. 'I can't be gay here, which means I cannot be myself,' he said.
'We are happy to see that D.H.S. is making the necessary arrangements to comply with the court's order,' said Matt Adams, legal director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, an immigrant advocacy group that represents O.C.G. 'Time is of the essence as O.C.G. remains in hiding until he can be flown out.'
O.C.G.'s case is being considered as part of a larger lawsuit that deals with so-called third-country deportations, in which migrants are sent to places other than their home countries, where they do not have legal status.
The Trump administration has been negotiating with foreign governments over accepting U.S. deportees, including war-torn nations like Libya and South Sudan, as well as El Salvador, where more than 200 migrants were deported and then detained in a maximum-security prison.
Experts say third-country deportations to such countries are part of a larger strategy to scare other immigrants into self-deporting or avoiding the United States altogether.
As part of the same case, Judge Murphy is also grappling with the status of six detainees who have been held at an American military base in Djibouti. The men were given less than 24 hours' notice that they were being deported to South Sudan, after an order from Judge Murphy that they be given at least 15 days. All have been convicted by U.S. courts of violent crimes.
Last week, Judge Murphy ordered the government to maintain custody of the men so they could have a 'meaningful opportunity' to object to their deportation to the country, which is on the brink of civil war.
The conditions of their detention remain unclear. As of Wednesday afternoon, the deportees had not been given the chance to contact their lawyers by phone, as ordered by Judge Murphy last week, according to Trina Realmuto, one of their attorneys.
On Tuesday, the government asked the Supreme Court to intervene and pause Judge Murphy's order, which would allow them to send the deportees on to South Sudan. The Supreme Court did not act immediately, and instead gave the deportees' legal team until June 4 to reply.