Latest news with #TrinaRealmuto
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration returns Guatemalan man wrongly deported to Mexico
The Trump administration has returned a Guatemalan man wrongly deported to Mexico, the first instance of compliance with a judge's order to facilitate the return of a migrant challenging their removal. The man, known in court documents at O.C.G., made contact with his attorneys after landing in the U.S., Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, confirmed to The Hill. Realmuto said they expect O.C.G. will be detained. Justice Department lawyers told the court last week that they were working to secure a spot for O.C.G. on the return leg of a deportation flight. Lawyers for the man contested his removal as part of a broader case before Massachusetts-based U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy. O.C.G.'s attorneys have said their client is gay and was already protected from being returned to his native Guatemala. But they argued the Trump administration failed to account for his fear of being deported to Mexico, where he was previously raped and extorted. The government previously indicated Trump officials planned to give the man 'Significant Public Benefit Parole,' a form of humanitarian parole that would allow him to enter the country. Other cases in which migrants have been ordered returned to the country have faced significant pushback from the Trump administration. It has been ordered by the Supreme Court to 'facilitate' the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who an immigration judge protected from removal to his native El Salvador but who was nonetheless sent to a notorious megaprison in the country. The administration has similarly failed to return a man known only as Cristian in court documents, a Venezuelan man likewise sent to the Salvadoran prison despite being protected from deportation under a class action suit. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Migrant deported to Mexico is returned to US by Trump administration after order by judge
A Guatemalan man who says he was wrongfully deported to Mexico has been returned to the U.S., according to his legal team. The man's return marks the first known instances of the Trump administration complying with judicial orders to return a deported migrant, according to CNN. 'O.C.G', as the man is identified in court documents, says he survived sexual violence and kidnapping in Mexico on his way to the southern border last year. But federal immigration authorities failed to screen him for a credible fear assessment before deporting him back to the same country where he was raped and held for ransom. He landed in the U.S. on Wednesday and was put in contact with a member of the legal team challenging the Trump administration's deportations to countries where they have no ties, according to Trina Realmuto, the National Immigration Litigation Alliance executive director. She told CNN that she expects O.C.G. to be taken into Department of Homeland Security custody now that he's back in the U.S. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy is overseeing litigation challenging the Trump administration's deportations that send migrants to countries where they have no connections. He ordered O.C.G.'s return to the U.S. last month, ruling that his expulsion "lacked due process." When the Trump administration deported O.C.G. to Mexico, they sent him back to the nation where he was assaulted, raped, and held for ransom. According to Murphy's ruling, O.C.G. expressed his fears about being sent to Mexico during his immigration hearings, but a judge told him that he could would not be sent there as it is not his native country. '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 his ruling. Murphy, who was appointed by Joe Biden, has faced a barrage of attacks from the White House, which labeled him a 'far-left activist' who is trying to 'protect the violent criminal illegal immigrants.' Trump called him 'absolutely out of control' and accused him of 'hurting our country.' This week, the judge accused government attorneys of 'manufacturing chaos' surrounding the case. Just days before Murphy's ruling, the Trump administration was denied its request to hold an order forcing it to return a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador. The Trump administration has, thus far, been slow to comply with judicial orders regarding immigration cases. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said that Trump officials had taken no steps to comply with her ruling to return the Venezuelan migrant from El Salvador. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing that case, said she is also facing inaction from the Trump Justice Department and members of his administration.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
U.S. Brings Back Guatemalan Wrongly Deported to Mexico
The Trump administration has brought back to the United States a Guatemalan man who was wrongfully deported to Mexico, albeit to an uncertain future, his lawyers said on Wednesday. Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the man, known only by his initials, O.C.G., said that she expected him to remain in federal custody as the administration determined how to handle his case. Last week, the Justice Department said it would comply with a federal judge's order to 'facilitate' the return of O.C.G., a gay man who was sent to Mexico this year despite having told American authorities that he had experienced violence there and was afraid to go back. That administration officials obeyed the instructions of the judge, Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, was a significant departure from the defiant stance that the White House has staked out in other immigration matters. That includes the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland who remains in El Salvador after being deported in March, despite a previous court order forbidding him from being sent there. When Judge Murphy ordered the government last month to bring O.C.G. back to the United States, he criticized officials for having claimed that the man was not afraid of being sent to Mexico, before they admitted that they were 'unable to identify' any officials to whom he had supposedly made that statement. Judge Murphy also found that the administration had violated an order he issued in April that barred officials from deporting immigrants to countries not their own without first giving them a 'meaningful opportunity' to contest their removal. In a sworn statement filed to Judge Murphy by his lawyers while he was in hiding, O.C.G. said that he was in Guatemala after being sent there from Mexico, living 'in constant panic and constant fear.' 'I can't be gay here," he wrote, 'which means I cannot be myself.' The case of O.C.G. was a rare victory on the part of immigration lawyers who have been contesting the Trump administration's effort to aggressively ramp up deportations. Still, Ms. Realmuto, his lawyer, said she was unsure what would ultimately happen to O.C.G. She said she expected that he would be taken back into federal custody, adding that he was 'nervous and afraid.' 'But he's thankful that he's returning to the United States,' she said. Ms. Realmuto added that O.C.G. would now have the chance to claim he was at risk of being persecuted or tortured if he were deported to a third country.
CBS News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Trump administration returns Guatemalan man to U.S. after judge says he was wrongly deported
The Trump administration has returned a Guatemalan man to the United States after a judge determined he was wrongly deported without due process, his legal team told CBS News. The man, who has gone by O.C.G. in court proceedings, landed in the United States today and made contact with lawyers representing him after he landed, said Trina Realmuto, one of his attorneys and the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance. Last month, the Trump administration said in court filings it was working to secure a charter flight to return him, after U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Boston said he must be returned. This was the first high-profile case in which the Trump administration has brought back someone who was removed from the country after a judge ordered their return. Realmuto said that she expects the man will be taken into government custody as he seeks protection from persecution via due process proceedings. She said the man is "nervous, scared and thankful to be returned to the United States." O.C.G.'s attorneys argued that he has no criminal history and sought asylum in the United States after multiple violent attacks against him in his native country of Guatemala. In March 2024, O.C.G. entered the United States illegally and was deported, according to court filings. After making it back to the United States again last year, he presented himself to Border Patrol for asylum proceedings. An immigration judge found in February 2025 that O.C.G. would face serious harm if he were sent back to Guatemala and ordered a "withholding of removal" that barred deportation back to his home country. Two days after the immigration judge's February decision, O.C.G. says he was placed on a bus and removed without due process to Mexico, where his attorneys said he was previously held for ransom and raped during his second attempt to get to the United States. He submitted evidence at his immigration hearing of his experiences in Mexico, and as a result the immigration judge said that O.C.G. could not be removed to a country other than Guatemala without additional due process. After O.C.G. was sent to Mexico by the United States, Mexican authorities removed him to Guatemala, where he had to remain in hiding until his return, according to court documents. "[The] immigration judge told O.C.G.— consistent with this Court's understanding of the law—that he could not be removed to a country other than his native Guatemala, at least not without some additional steps in the process," Murphy wrote in an order requiring his return. "Those necessary steps, and O.C.G.'s pleas for help, were ignored." Murphy had previously ordered additional fact-finding in the case, after the Trump administration submitted a declaration under oath that O.C.G. told government officials that he had no fear of being sent to Mexico. O.C.G had previously submitted a declaration to the court stating that he was told at the last minute before his removal that he was being sent to Mexico, and that he was denied a request to speak to his attorneys beforehand. The Justice Department admitted to Murphy that there was no witness who could verify the government's account of O.C.G.'s removal under oath and the declaration was made in error. "The only evidence before the Court therefore is O.C.G.'s uncontroverted assertion that he was given no notice of his transfer to Mexico and no opportunity to explain why it would be dangerous to send him there," Murphy wrote in his order mandating the man's return. "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," the judge added. Realmuto said that her legal team was still working to get in touch with eight defendants in the same case who were allegedly flown without due process to East Africa, with a final destination of South Sudan. They are still currently being held in Djibouti after Murphy ordered the government to "maintain custody and control" of the migrants as they are given "reasonable fear" interviews to screen them for concerns about being harmed in a third country. If they do not satisfy the reasonable fear standard, the government must give them at least 15 days to challenge their removal. Murphy says the men can be held either in the U.S. or abroad, as long as the government maintains custody over them.
The Hill
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump administration returns Guatemalan man wrongly deported to Mexico
The Trump administration has returned a Guatemalan man wrongly deported to Mexico, the first instance of compliance with a judge's order to facilitate the return of a migrant challenging their removal. The man, known in court documents at O.C.G., made contact with his attorneys after landing in the U.S., Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, confirmed to The Hill. Realmuto said they expect O.C.G. will be detained. Justice Department lawyers told the court last week that they were working to secure a spot for O.C.G. on the return leg of a deportation flight. Lawyers for the man contested his removal as part of a broader case before Massachusetts-based U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy. O.C.G.'s attorneys have said their client is gay and was already protected from being returned to his native Guatemala. But they argued the Trump administration failed to account for his fear of being deported to Mexico, where he was previously raped and extorted. The government previously indicated Trump officials planned to give the man 'Significant Public Benefit Parole,' a form of humanitarian parole that would allow him to enter the country. Other cases where migrants have been ordered returned to the country have faced significant pushback from the Trump administration. It has been ordered by the Supreme Court to 'facilitate' the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who an immigration judge protected from removal to his native El Salvador but who was nonetheless sent to a notorious megaprison in the country. The administration has similarly failed to return a man known only as Cristian in court documents, a Venezuelan man likewise sent to the Salvadoran prison despite being protected from deportation under a class action suit.
