Latest news with #dueprocess
CBS News
2 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Trump administration says it will fly migrant back to U.S. after judge rules his deportation "ignored" due process
The federal government is working to secure a charter flight to return a man who was removed from the U.S. back to America so he can have proper due process proceedings, the Justice Department said in court documents filed Wednesday. Last week, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the man, only known by the initials O.C.G., to be returned to the United States after he found that necessary due process steps in his removal proceedings were "ignored" by the Trump administration. 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. 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 random 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 remains in hiding, 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 his order last week. "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. The Trump administration's push to ramp up deportations has drawn other scrutiny from other federal judges who argue deportees aren't being given enough due process. Another judge ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the government admitted was sent to El Salvador in error. The Supreme Court affirmed that ruling, but Abrego Garcia remains in a Salvadoran prison, and the Trump administration says it's up to that country's government to return him.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
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.'
New York Times
2 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Trump Administration Agrees to Return Guatemalan Man to U.S.
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.
CBS News
2 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Protests held over ICE arrests at San Francisco, Sacramento immigration courthouses
Immigrant rights advocates rallied at immigration courthouses in San Francisco and Sacramento on Wednesday morning to show their outrage over the Trump administration's arrests of people seeking asylum. The organizations said at the dual protests that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' arrests at immigration courts are an attempt to bypass the legal system and an attack on due process rights. Last week, rights groups were at immigration courts on Montgomery Street in San Francisco's downtown, at the Capitol Mall in Sacramento, and in Concord, warning immigrants that authorities were dismissing their cases to have ICE agents arrest them outside the courthouses. Immigration rights advocates rally at San Francisco Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street, May 28, 2025. KPIX The operation by ICE to place certain immigrants into an expedited removal process after their arrest began last week at immigration courthouses across the country. The process fast-tracks their deportation without a court hearing, bypassing the huge backlog of pending cases. Rights advocates said multiple people at the San Francisco and Concord immigration courts as recently as Tuesday. In addition, posters have been placed at courthouses encouraging people to "self-deport" with misleading information that can jeopardize people's legal situation. "I've been an immigration attorney for 10 years, and I have never seen an ICE arrest in immigration court," said Luis Angel Reyes Savalza from the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. "It is seen as something that is looked down upon by immigration judges who know that this chills the attendance of clients in court, witnesses who are then afraid to come to court. These are rights that people have under the law, under the constitution that this administration and ICE agents are trying to trample upon." Last week, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said in a statement that the Trump administration was acting because of Biden administration policies to release migrants with notices to appear in immigration court, instead of trying to deport them quickly through expedited removal.
CBS News
2 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Video shows immigration agents arrest five people near Baltimore Home Depot
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted a social media video that shows agents in Baltimore arrest several people outside of a Home Depot. ICE said a tip led them to the shopping center on Eastern Avenue, where five were arrested for allegedly being in the United States illegally. The video, posted on Tuesday, May 27, shows ICE agents jumping out of a pick-up truck at the "big-box home improvement store" before detaining several people. The agents were heard telling them to stay down, show their hands, and be quiet. CASA of Maryland considers legal action CASA of Maryland, an immigration advocacy group, said they were likely outside the Home Depot seeking work. CASA said that if there was any wrongdoing by the officers, the organization would consider legal action. "The law is clear that they must have probable cause to arrest someone," said Ama Frimpong, the legal director at Casa of Maryland. "Here in this case, we have no idea whether or not they do. My understanding is that what they claimed is that someone sent a tip. We don't know what this tip is. We don't know what exactly they are claiming happened." Challenge for due process Since the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who worked in Baltimore and lived in Prince George's County, there has been a growing debate about who is entitled to due process and what violates a person's constitutional rights. "The constitution is clear," Frimpong said. "The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution is clear. Due process is something we are all guaranteed under the Constitution." Abrego Garcia was arrested after leaving his sheet metal apprenticeship job in Baltimore in March, before he was deported and confined in El Salvador. Immigration advocates and Maryland lawmakers have been calling on the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia. A federal judge and the Supreme Court have ordered the facilitation of Abrego Garcia's return. Community reacts to video A community member told WJZ off-camera that he didn't know the five people arrested near the Baltimore Home Depot, but said that it's a difficult situation. Another man, who owns a business nearby, said these videos create uncertainty in the community, where people are afraid to leave home. Now, he says he is losing customers. WJZ reached out to ICE Baltimore for additional comment but has not yet heard back.
