Latest news with #NationalImmigrationLitigationAlliance
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
In a first, Trump administration returns deported individual following judge's order to bring him back
The Trump administration brought back a man from Guatemala, called O.C.G. in court, after a judge said sending him out of the U.S. was a mistake. Trina Realmuto, his lawyer and executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance , said O.C.G. landed in the U.S. today and contacted his lawyers, as per reports. This was the first major case where the Trump administration flew someone back after a judge ordered it. Realmuto said O.C.G. will likely be taken into government custody while he goes through legal protection proceedings, according to the CBS News report. O.C.G. came to the U.S. to escape violence in Guatemala and asked for asylum. In March 2024, O.C.G. entered the U.S. illegally and was deported, court papers said. He came back again in 2024, and this time he asked the Border Patrol for asylum. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Device Made My Power Bill Drop Overnight elecTrick - Save upto 80% on Power Bill Pre-Order Undo In February 2025, a judge ruled that O.C.G. would face serious danger if sent back to Guatemala, and ordered a "withholding of removal", which means no deportation. But just 2 days later, O.C.G. was put on a bus and sent to Mexico without proper legal process, as stated in the reports. He said that during his second attempt to reach the U.S., he was kidnapped in Mexico and harmed badly. He gave evidence of this at his hearing, and the judge ruled he can't be sent to any country besides Guatemala unless more steps were followed. After the U.S. sent him to Mexico, officials there sent him back to Guatemala, where he had to hide to stay safe, according to CBS News. Live Events Judge Brian Murphy said the immigration judge had told O.C.G. that he could not be removed to another country without extra legal steps. But the U.S. ignored these steps and ignored O.C.G.'s pleas for help, the judge wrote. Earlier, the Trump administration told the court, under oath, that O.C.G. said he wasn't afraid to go to Mexico. But O.C.G. said he was told at the last minute he was being deported and was not allowed to call his lawyers. The Justice Department later admitted that no one could confirm their earlier sworn statement, and that it was a mistake. So the only valid evidence was O.C.G.'s statement that he wasn't told or warned about being sent to Mexico. The judge said O.C.G. was sent away without fair legal steps and ordered that he must be brought back to the U.S., as reported by CBS News. FAQs Q1. Why was the Guatemalan man brought back to the U.S.? Because a judge said he was deported unfairly without a proper legal process. Q2. What makes this case important? This was the first time the Trump administration brought someone back because a judge told them to.
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Trump administration returns migrant hastily deported to Mexico back to the US
WASHINGTON — A Guatemalan national who says he was wrongfully deported to Mexico is back in the United States, his legal team told CNN, in what appears to mark the first time the Trump administration has brought back a migrant after a judge ordered the administration to facilitate their return. O.C.G., a pseudonym the migrant is using in the case, landed in the United States on Wednesday and made contact with a member of the litigation team challenging the Trump administration's moves to send migrants to countries where they have no ties, according to Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. He is now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's custody, Realmuto told CNN. The Trump administration said in court filings last week that it was 'working' on flying back O.C.G. after resisting similar orders to facilitate deported migrants' returns in other cases. 'The person in question was an illegally present alien who was granted withholding of removal to Guatemala. He was instead removed to Mexico, a safe third option for him,' DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday. 'Yet, this federal activist judge ordered us to bring him back, so he can have an opportunity to prove why he should be granted asylum to a country that he has had no past connection to.' 'The Trump administration is committed to returning our asylum system to its original intent,' she District Judge Brian Murphy – who is overseeing a case concerning migrants being deported to countries that are not their home country – ordered O.C.G's return last month, ruling that his removal to Mexico, and subsequently Guatemala, likely 'lacked due process.'After entering the US and being deported a first time, O.C.G. reentered the US again in 2024, at which point he sought asylum, having suffered 'multiple violent attacks' in Guatemala, according to court his way to the US during the second trip, O.C.G. said, he was raped and held for ransom in Mexico –– a detail he made known to an immigration judge during 2025, a judge ruled he should not be sent back to his native country, the documents say. And just two days after, the government deported him to Mexico, according to Murphy's order.O.C.G. was later removed to Guatemala, where he filed a declaration last month that he was 'living in hiding, in constant panic and constant fear.'He has claimed that he had not been given the opportunity before his deportation to communicate his fear of being sent to Mexico and that his pleas before his removal to speak to an attorney were government had initially argued that O.C.G. had communicated to officials before his removal that he had no fear about being deported to Mexico, but it recently backed down from that claim after it could not identify an immigration official who could substantiate to Murphy's ruling, O.C.G. said during his immigration proceedings that he feared being sent to Mexico, but the judge told him that since Mexico isn't his native country, he can't be sent there without additional steps in the ruling came days after an appeals court denied the Trump administration's request to put on hold an order requiring it to facilitate the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this a hearing last month, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said officials had done virtually nothing to comply with her directive that they 'facilitate' that migrant's return to the US from the mega-prison in El Salvador where he was sent so he can have his asylum application a similar case, the Trump administration has been in a standoff with another federal judge in Maryland over her order that it facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported in District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the case, has faced repeated stonewalling from the Justice Department and members of the Trump administration, who have continued to thwart an 'expedited fact-finding' search for answers on what officials are doing to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return from El Salvador. — CNN
Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Guatemalan deportee arrives in US after judge orders Trump to facilitate return
A Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico despite stating he feared being persecuted there was flown back to the United States on Wednesday after a judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. Judges have directed U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to help return several migrants to the country because they were wrongly deported, and the man's arrival appeared to mark the first time one of those migrants has been able to come back. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston on May 23 ordered the Guatemalan man's return after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information. That ruling was the latest instance of a judge ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a migrant swept up in the Republican president's efforts to carry out mass deportations as part of his hardline immigration agenda, following a mistake in an individual's case. The government likewise made an error with Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador in March despite an order protecting him from removal. He remains there despite a judge ordering the administration to facilitate his return. By contrast, the Guatemalan man, identified in court papers only as O.C.G., was able to return on Wednesday on a commercial flight, said Trina Realmuto, a lawyer at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance who represents him. Unlike Garcia and another man deported to El Salvador who a judge ruled should be returned to the United States, O.C.G. was not being detained abroad. In court papers last week, the administration indicated it was working to place O.C.G. onto a charter flight back to the United States. 'We can now confirm that he is in ICE custody after arriving in California on a commercial flight and is being transported to a detention facility in Arizona,' Realmuto said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, in a statement called the judge an 'activist' whose ruling gave O.C.G. 'an opportunity to prove why he should be granted asylum to a country that he has had no past connection to.' He returned to the United States as the administration awaits word on whether the U.S. Supreme Court will lift an injunction Murphy issued in a class action lawsuit by O.C.G. and other migrants designed to protect their due process rights. That order bars the administration from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first hearing their concerns about their safety. Murphy recently concluded the administration violated his order by seeking to deport a group of migrants to South Sudan. They are currently being held in Djibouti while they undergo screening for any fears of being sent to conflict-ridden South Sudan. According to his lawyers, O.C.G. is a gay man who fled Guatemala in 2024 after facing death threats based on his sexuality. He entered the United States through Mexico in May 2024. Murphy in his ruling said that while an immigration judge in February found O.C.G. deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, authorities two days later wrongly placed him on a bus to Mexico, where he had previously been raped and kidnapped. After arriving in Mexico, O.C.G. had to choose between waiting months in detention to apply for asylum in Mexico or return to Guatemala. He chose the latter and went into hiding, his lawyers say.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Deported Guatemalan man, flown back to US from Mexico, after judge's order
A Guatemalan man, who said he was deported to Mexico by US President Donald Trump's administration and feared that he would be persecuted there, returned to America on Wednesday after a judge ordered the federal government to facilitate his return, his lawyer said. US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston had ordered on May 23 that the Guatemalan man be returned after the Justice Department notified him and that the man's statement that he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information. The ruling is the latest verdict by a judge ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a migrant as the Republican president has carried out his hardline agenda of mass deportations, following a mistake in an individual's case. The administration also made an error while deporting Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March despite a federal judge ordering protection against his removal. Garcia still remains in a notorious prison in El Salvador despite an order by a judge to facilitate his return. The Guatemalan man was identified as O.C.G in the court papers and he was able to return via a commercial flight on Wednesday, Trina Realmuto, a lawyer at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance said. 'We can now confirm that he is in ICE custody after arriving in California on a commercial flight and is being transported to a detention facility in Arizona,' said Realmuto while referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Judge Murphy noted in his ruling that an immigration judge in February found O.C.G. deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, but the Trump administration wrongly deported him to Mexico two days later. US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who also oversees ICE, called the judge an 'activist'. (with inputs from Reuters)
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Deported Guatemalan man back in U.S. after judge orders Trump administration to return him
A Guatemalan man who was deported by the Trump administration and then was ordered to be returned by a judge because of due process concerns is back in the United States, his attorney said Wednesday. The man, identified in court documents only as O.C.G., landed in the U.S. 'a few hours ago' and contacted his legal team upon arrival, Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said Wednesday evening. O.C.G. was expected to be taken into federal custody, Realmuto said. The Trump administration deported O.C.G. to Mexico, where he had previously been held for ransom and raped as he traveled north to the U.S., in February, according to court documents. O.C.G. was put on a bus and sent to Mexico despite a federal judge granting O.C.G. a withholding of removal just two days earlier, court documents show. A withholding of removal is an order that prevents the United States from deporting someone to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened, based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group 'The Court has already found it likely that O.C.G.'s removal lacked due process,' U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy wrote in May, when he ordered the Trump administration to return him. Murphy, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, also wrote in that order that the government didn't put forth any evidence that due process was followed. 'The likelihood that O.C.G. is correct in asserting that his due-process rights were violated, in this Court's view, has long hovered near certainty,' Murphy wrote. O.C.G. is not the only person who has been deported from the United States only to have federal judges then order that the Trump administration return them. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in March to a notorious prison in El Salvador, and the Trump administration has not yet facilitated his return to the U.S. as ordered by a federal judge. Politico reported in May that another man, Venezuelan national Daniel Lozano-Camargo, was deported to the same prison, and a judge has ordered the U.S. to return him as well. O.C.G. fled Guatemala, where he said he endured persecution and torture, and came to the U.S. to claim asylum in March 2024, but was denied and deported, according to court records. He then tried again and, while in Mexico traveling north to the U.S., he was held for ransom, raped and targeted for being gay, he said in a court declaration. In May 2024, a U.S. asylum officer determined O.C.G. 'had a reasonable fear' to return to Guatemala and was taken into immigration custody to see his case through. In February, an immigration judge determined that O.C.G. would most likely be persecuted if deported to his native Guatemala, and granted him a withholding of removal, court records show. Instead, he was placed on a bus to Mexico a few days later, without notice. Mexico then sent him to Guatemala, where he went into hiding, according to court records, before he was returned to the U.S. on Wednesday. This article was originally published on
