A federal judge ordered the Trump administration late Friday to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man it deported to Mexico in spite of his fears of being harmed there.
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. An earlier court proceeding 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. He presented evidence of being raped and held for ransom there while seeking asylum in the U.S.
Court documents stated the Guatemalan man said he was only told about his deportation to Mexico, essentially as it was happening and that he begged to speak to his attorney but was denied.
“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat,” Murphy wrote. “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.”
O.C.G. entered the U.S. in March 2024, without prior authorization, according to court documents. The man said he had asked for asylum, was denied an interview and was deported shortly thereafter to Guatemala. In April 2024, O.C.G. decided to try again and crossed Mexico where, he said, he was raped and held hostage until a family member paid ransom.
In May 2024, he arrived in the U.S. and was referred to an asylum officer after expressing fear of return to Guatemala. The officer determined he had had a credible fear of persecution or torture and initiated withholding-only proceedings. Two days later, he was sent to Mexico, court documents show.
A message seeking comment was left with the Department of Homeland Security.
Murphy’s order 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. The Trump administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege, arguing that releasing details in open court – or even to the judge in private – about returning Abrego Garcia to the United States would jeopardize national security.
In his Friday ruling, Murphy nodded to the dispute over the verb “facilitate” in that case and others, saying that returning O.C.G. to the U.S. is not that complicated.
“The Court notes that ‘facilitate’ in this context should carry less baggage than in several other notable cases,” he wrote. “O.C.G. is not held by any foreign government. Defendants have declined to make any argument that facilitating his return would be costly, burdensome, or otherwise impede the government’s objectives.”
