Latest news with #O.C.G.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'Banal Horror': Asylum Case Deals Trump Yet Another Loss on Due Process
The Trump administration this week formally agreed to comply with a ruling that ordered it to facilitate the return of a migrant who was unlawfully deported—in what was another loss for the government as it attempts to subvert basic due process rights in immigration proceedings. The migrant—named in court documents as O.C.G., who has no criminal history—arrived in the U.S. in May 2024 and sought asylum. An officer agreed he had a credible fear of persecution and torture if returned to Guatemala; a judge assented as well and granted him withholding of removal to that country. During his proceedings, when he asked if he might be sent to Mexico, a judge replied: "We cannot send you back to Mexico, sir, because you're a native of Guatemala." Deportations to a nonnative country legally require, at a minimum, additional steps in the process. That was particularly relevant to O.C.G.'s case, because, as he testified in court, he claims to have been held for ransom and raped while passing through Mexico, securing release only after a family member paid the sum. Yet two days after his withholding of removal was granted, the government unlawfully deported him—without giving him a chance to contest it—to Mexico, after which he returned to Guatemala, where his attorneys say he lives in hiding and in fear of serious harm. Particularly fraught is that the government had submitted in a declaration under oath that it could prove O.C.G. had no fear of returning to Mexico. Turns out that wasn't true. "The Court was given false information, upon which it relied, twice, to the detriment of a party at risk of serious and irreparable harm," Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts wrote. "Defendants admitted, hours before the scheduled deposition of the witness who could allegedly verify the facts included in the prior declaration made under oath, that, in fact, there was no such witness and therefore no reliable basis for the statements put forward by Defendants." "O.C.G. is likely to succeed," Murphy added, "in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process." The order—and the Trump administration's agreement to comply with it—is noteworthy for a few reasons. Foremost, it shows that the government can, in fact, facilitate the return of someone it unlawfully deported. It has contested its ability to do so in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national whom the administration says it wrongfully sent to El Salvador, where he had a withholding of removal, due to an "administrative error." The Supreme Court last month ordered that the administration facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Also in April, the Court ruled the government may not expel individuals under the Alien Enemies Act without due process, as the Trump administration had tried to do. This month, the justices extended an injunction prohibiting the government from using that law to remove Venezuelan immigrants, finding that detainees were entitled to a more robust process than the government had given them. But Murphy's ruling is also a reminder that the administration will continue losing on this front, so long as it continues flouting the law. There is an irony there: In trying to deport people as quickly as possible, the government finds itself constantly spending time and resources in court, having to justify and backtrack on cases it fumbles. President Donald Trump campaigned on hawkish immigration policy, and as chief executive he is entitled to try to execute that vision. He is not entitled, however, to violate the Constitution to do so. That isn't going to change. It's not a conspiracy against him. In this instance, O.C.G.'s case is fairly simple. "In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances," Murphy writes, "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." And now he will receive a taxpayer-funded plane ride back to the United States, so he can receive the due process he is promised by the Constitution. The post 'Banal Horror': Asylum Case Deals Trump Yet Another Loss on Due Process appeared first on
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump admin says it's working to return wrongly deported man (not Abrego Garcia)
The Trump administration did something interesting: It signaled it's going to comply with a court order to facilitate a wrongly deported man's return. While highlighting how low the bar is for this administration, the move is notable for standing in contrast to the government's resistance in other cases, including in the ongoing saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This latest case involves a gay Guatemalan man identified in court papers as O.C.G., who, his lawyers said, fled his country to avoid persecution due to his sexual orientation. An immigration judge barred his removal to Guatemala, after which agents sent him to Mexico, even though he had said that he was targeted and raped there. The government represented to the court that O.C.G. was asked whether he was afraid of being sent to Mexico and said no, but when it came time to prove that, the administration told the court that it actually didn't have a witness who could back it up. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the government to facilitate O.C.G.'s return to the U.S., writing that officials' '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.' The Biden appointee wrote that O.C.G. is currently in hiding in Guatemala after he was sent back there from Mexico. In a status report Wednesday, the government said that immigration officials made contact with O.C.G.'s lawyers over the weekend and are working to bring him back to the U.S. It should go without saying that it's a good thing for the government to comply with a court order, just as it should go without saying that no congratulations are due for obeying the law, especially when we're talking about the entity tasked with enforcing the law. Still, the government's relatively normal behavior in its latest filing raises the question: Why not return Abrego Garcia (who was illegally deported to El Salvador) or yet another man held in that country (identified in court papers as 'Cristian') whose return another judge ordered the government to facilitate? These other cases are the subject of separate ongoing litigation. There's no good justification for failing to right a wrong in any case. But a key difference between O.C.G.'s situation and the others is that the latter are being detained by a foreign government (to be sure, only after the U.S. sent them there in cooperation with that foreign government). Murphy noted the distinction in his opinion ordering the facilitation of O.C.G.'s return. He wrote, 'The Court notes that 'facilitate' in this context should carry less baggage than in several other notable cases. O.C.G. is not held by any foreign government.' Likewise, O.C.G.'s lawyers wrote in support of their facilitation motion, 'Notably, ordering DHS to facilitate return in this case does not include the alleged complications involved in Abrego Garcia, where the plaintiff remains detained by a foreign government at the behest of the United States.' While it's worth highlighting that Trump administration officials even claim to be working to remedy a wrongful deportation, this latest news seems to stand as more of an aberration than a change in the administration's legal policy. In fact, the administration this week launched an emergency Supreme Court appeal in the broader case that Judge Murphy is overseeing, which involves the issue of removing people to so-called third countries where they aren't from (O.C.G. is a plaintiff in that case). Murphy had intervened in the government's bid to send migrants to war-torn South Sudan, finding that officials sought to carry out the removals without providing sufficient notice and opportunity to challenge them. Seeking to upend Murphy's injunction while those migrants are held at a U.S. military base in Djibouti, the administration wrote to the high court that the judge 'usurp[ed] the Executive's authority over immigration policy' and that his injunction 'disrupts sensitive diplomatic, foreign-policy, and national-security efforts.' The plaintiffs' Supreme Court response is due June 4. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration's legal cases. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Admin Signals It Will Return One Wrongfully Deported Man
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM's Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. In what could be a major breakthrough, the Trump administration told a federal court Wednesday that it has taken affirmative steps to retrieve an unlawfully deported Guatemalan man and return him to the United States so that he can receive the due process he was initially denied. It was the first concession of its kind that the Trump administration has made in the handful of cases where courts have ordered it to facilitate the return of wrongfully deported foreign nationals and which have become the focal point of a constitutional clash between President Trump and the judiciary. The concession comes in the case of O.C.G., a gay man who had succeeded in U.S. immigration court at not being deported to his home country but whom the Trump administration them immediately deported to Mexico., which in turn sent him to Guatemala. In his immigration court hearing, the man claimed to have been previously kidnapped and raped in Mexico, but the immigration judge (probably correctly, under current law) said the case at hand was limited to Guatemala. O.C.G.'s situation emerged in a larger case in federal court in Massachusetts challenging third country deportations without notice and hearing. It's the same case where the Trump administration tried to get around a court order with last week's deportation flight to South Sudan. The government alerted the court of its efforts to return O.C.G. in a filing that said certain paperwork had already been completed and that the administration 'is currently working with ICE Air to bring O.C.G. back to the United States on an Air Charter Operations (ACO) flight return leg.' A few words of caution about what this means for O.C.G. and the other 'facilitate' cases: O.C.G. is not back yet. Throughout his business and political life President Trump has dragged his feet at every step of litigation, including later stages after concessions have been made or a settlement reached. While this is a significant step compared to the previous defiance, it's not a done deal yet. Unlike Kilmar Abrego Garcia and 'Cristian,' the other two major 'facilitate' cases, O.C.G. was not incarcerated after his deportation. He has remained in hiding in Guatemala, not in prison. That distinction is one that the administration may use to justify not similarly returning other wrongfully deported migrants. Unlike Cristian and the dozens of others incarcerated at CECOT in El Salvador, O.C.G. wasn't deported under the Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration has sought to use as an entirely separate legal basis for removals and will likely use to distinguish O.C.G.'s case. All of which is to say that while the administration's signal that it will abide by the court order to facilitate O.C.G.'s return is a potential breakthrough that undermines its legal position in other cases, I'd caution against leaping to the conclusion that it is the beginning of a wholesale walk-back of the administration's outrageous conduct in these key anti-immigration cases. In one of the most obtuse judicial opinions you'll ever encounter, U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz of New Jersey ruled that the Trump administration's attempt to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist, was likely unconstitutional, but stopped short of ordering Khalil's release until both parties can file further briefs. Education Secretary Linda McMahon provided valuable evidence on national TV that the Trump administration is targeting universities for illegitimate political reasons: President Trump announced his plan to nominate his former criminal defense attorney, now serving as the No. 3 at the Justice Department to a coveted seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit (which covers PA, NJ, DE, and the USVI). Bove has been a leading figure in rapidly bringing the Justice Department firmly under Trump White House control, erasing its storied independence and eroding its professional reputation. Trump's social media post announcing Bove's nomination to the lifetime seat on the appeals court described the job in startling political terms: 'He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.' Following on remarks from U.S. pardon attorney Ed Martin, President Trump confirmed he is considering pardoning the violent extremists convicted in the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), falsely claiming that they 'got railroaded.' President Trump pardoned former Rep. Michael Grimm, the Staten Island Republican who resigned from Congress in 2015 and did prison time for tax fraud. Grimm was paralyzed last year in a horseback riding accident. Trump has now pardoned a total of nine members of Congress convicted of corruption and/or tax crimes. Grimm wasn't the only corrupt politician among the more than two dozen people Trump pardoned yesterday, a list that included political allies of his. The kicker to Trump's pardonpalooza: Trump is exacting retribution against more than three dozen former death row inmates whose sentences President Biden commuted by sending them to the nation's only 'supermax' prison. A judge has cleared the way for those transfers, saying the inmates had not yet exhausted their administrative remedies with the Bureau of Prisons, a necessary predicate to filing their federal lawsuits. Nancy Marks, one-time campaign manager to ousted Rep. George Santos (R-NY), avoided jail time for her role in his campaign finance schemes. The ousted fabulist congressman was sentenced last month to seven years in prison. Her possible cooperation with investigators against Santos has never been confirmed. 'I'm going to leave that an enigma,' her lawyer said. CBS News parent Paramount has offered $15 million to settle Donald Trump's bogus lawsuit against it for how it edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign. Trump is holding out for $25 million and an apology, but Paramount executive are leery of paying more than the going rate for these corrupt settlements of spurious Trump lawsuits because it might expose them to legal liability, the WSJ reports: During the Trump-suit negotiations, one sticking point for Paramount executives has been whether a settlement could expose directors and officers to liability in potential future shareholder litigation or criminal charges for bribing a public official, according to people familiar with the conversations. By settling within the range of what other companies have paid to end litigation with Trump, some Paramount executives hope to minimize such liability, some of the people said. Paramount is eager to settle for its own corrupt purpose: winning government approval for a planned merger. The Court of International Trade blocked major elements of President Trump's regimen of massive tariffs, ruling that he had exceeded his statutory authority and usurped Congress' role. HHS has undermined the county's capacity to fight future influenza pandemics by cancelling a $600 million contract with Moderna to develop flu vaccines. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blindsided CDC officials with his surprise announcement on social media that he was unilaterally changing the government's guidance on who should get COVID vaccines and when. A massive chunk of Switzerland's Birch Glacier – destabilized by climate change – came loose, unleashing a debris flow that almost completely wiped out an already-evacuated Alpine village. The BBC has video of the shock wave advancing across the valley floor.
2 days ago
- Politics
Trump administration says it's working to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico
The Trump administration said in court filings Wednesday that it was working to bring back a Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico in spite of his fears of being harmed there, days after a federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return. The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge's order at the time. But the U.S. put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead, a removal that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found likely 'lacked any semblance of due process.' Mexico has since returned him to Guatemala, where he is in hiding, according to court documents. In a court filing Wednesday, government lawyers said that a so-called significant public benefit parole packet had been approved and was awaiting additional approval from Homeland Security Investigations. The designation allows people who aren't eligible to enter the U.S. to do so temporarily, often for reasons related to law enforcement or legal proceedings. Officials in the Phoenix field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, spoke with the man's lawyers over the weekend and are working to bring him back to the U.S. on a plane chartered by ICE, the court filing said. An earlier court proceeding had determined that the man, identified by the initials O.C.G., risked persecution or torture if returned to Guatemala. But he also feared returning to Mexico, where he says he was raped and extorted while seeking asylum in the U.S., according to court documents. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who called Murphy a 'federal activist judge,' said O.C.G. was in the country illegally, was 'granted withholding of removal to Guatemala' and was instead sent to Mexico, which she said was 'a safe third option for him, pending his asylum claim.' Murphy's order last Friday adds to a string of findings by federal courts against recent Trump administration deportations. Those have included other deportations to third countries and the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran who had lived in Maryland for roughly 14 years, working and raising a family. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. from a notorious Salvadoran prison, rejecting the White House's claim that it couldn't retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. Both the White House and the El Salvadoran president have said they are powerless to return him.
Axios
2 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
DOJ: Trump officials working to return deported Guatemalan man to U.S.
The Trump administration is working to fly a deported immigrant from Guatemala back to the U.S. in compliance with a judge's order, per a Department of Justice court filing on Wednesday evening. Why it matters: The action contrasts with the administration's defiance of other immigration -related court orders — including ones made by the same federal judge overseeing the Guatemalan man's case and the erroneous deportation of Maryland man Kilmar Armando Ábrego García. State of play: U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy last week ordered the return of the gay Guatemalan man, publicly identified only as O.C.G., so he can undergo proper due process. His attorneys said he was deported to Mexico, where he had previously been raped, before going into hiding in Guatemala after being sent there. The government previously said O.C.G. stated he wasn't afraid to return to Mexico, despite the violence he'd experienced, but later admitted an "error" had been made in the matter. Attorneys for the DOJ said in the filing to the Massachusetts-based federal judge that officials were "working with ICE Air to bring O.C.G. back" to the U.S. on a charter flight. Zoom out: Murphy has ruled against the Trump administration in other immigration cases, with the judge finding that the deportation of immigrants to South Sudan violated his earlier order on sending people to third countries they're not citizens of. The administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Murphy's order that blocks the government from sending undocumented immigrants to third countries. What they're saying: The Department of Homeland Security Secretary on X called Murphy an "activist judge" over the weekend in response to his ruling on O.C.G.
