A deported immigrant and Guatemalan man who was mistakenly deported to Mexico despite expressing fear of persecution had been flown back to the United States (US) on Wednesday, following a federal judge’s order directing the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
The man’s return marks a significant development in a series of judicial rulings requiring the U.S. government to bring back migrants who were unlawfully deported. It appears to be the first successful reentry among those cases.
Recall that on May 23, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston ordered the man’s return after the Department of Justice admitted its previous claim that the man had stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was incorrect.
Immigrant: broader legal pushback against the Trump administration
The case is part of the broader legal pushback against the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies.
Judges have increasingly intervened when deportations were carried out without properly considering migrants’ safety concerns or legal protections.
Another deportee, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, remains in El Salvador despite a judge’s order for his return. He was mistakenly removed from the U.S. in March, in violation of an order shielding him from deportation.
Unlike Garcia and others, the Guatemalan man identified in court documents only as O.C.G. was not being held in detention abroad, which may have enabled his faster return. Trina Realmuto, an attorney with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, confirmed that he arrived in California on a commercial flight and is now in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, en route to a detention facility in Arizona.
