(WASHINGTON) — A wrongly deported Guatemalan man has been returned to the United States, marking the first time the Trump administration has brought back a deportee based on a judge’s order.
The man, who was wrongly deported to Mexico, was returned to the U.S. on Wednesday, according to his lawyer.
The return of the man, identified in court filings as O.C.G., is the first instance in which the Trump administration, in the midst of a sweeping immigration crackdown, has brought a deportee back to the U.S. after a judge ordered their return.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the Trump administration to “take all immediate steps” to return O.C.G. after he was “placed on a bus and sent to Mexico,” a country where he said he was previously held for ransom and raped, according to court filings.
O.C.G., according to court documents, illegally entered the U.S. in March 2024 and was deported. After he subsequently reentered the United States. O.C.G. attested during immigration proceedings that he was afraid of being sent to Mexico, leading a judge to grant him a withholding of removal to that country.
Judge Murphy found that O.C.G. was likely to succeed in showing that “his removal lacked any semblance of due process.”
“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat.” Murphy said in his order in May. “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.”
After O.C.G. was sent to Mexico, authorities removed him to Guatemala, where he said he had to remain in hiding until his return, according to court filings.
O.C.G. is one of the original plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed in Massachusetts that challenges removals to third countries.
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