Guatemalan Deportee Arrives in US After Judge Orders Trump Admin to Facilitate Return

A Guatemalan man was flown back to the United States after a judge earlier ruled his deportation to Mexico violated a court order and due process rights.

Detainees board a plane chartered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at King County International Airport in Seattle, Wash., on April 15, 2025. David Ryder/Getty Images

A Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico after entering the United States last year was flown back to the country on June 4, following a federal judge’s order that found the deportation violated his rights.

The man, identified in court documents as O.C.G., had told immigration authorities he feared persecution in Mexico, where he had allegedly previously been raped and kidnapped, according to filings by his legal team.

On May 23, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return O.C.G. after the Justice Department acknowledged its prior claim—that he had not expressed fear of being sent to Mexico—was incorrect.

Murphy’s ruling is part of a broader class action lawsuit filed by O.C.G. and others challenging the U.S. government’s policy of removing non-citizens to countries other than their own without first considering their safety concerns. The injunction currently blocks such deportations without hearings.

Trina Realmuto, an attorney with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance representing O.C.G., said her client arrived in California on a commercial flight and is now in ICE custody, and that he was being transferred to a detention center in Arizona.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin, in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, said that “the Trump administration is committed to returning our asylum system to its original intent.”

“America’s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catch-all, get-out-of-deportation-free card,” she said.

“The person in question was an illegally present alien who was granted withholding of removal to Guatemala. He was instead removed to Mexico, a safe third option for him, pending his asylum claim. Yet, this federal activist judge ordered us to bring him back, so he can have an opportunity to prove why he should be granted asylum to a country that he has had no past connection to.”

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, the White House echoed the DHS’s concerns.

“The American people elected President Trump—not random local judges with their own liberal agenda—to run the country,“ WH spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. ”These unelected judges have no right to stop the Trump administration from exercising their rightful control over immigration policy and national security policy.”

O.C.G. fled Guatemala in 2024, according to his legal team, after receiving death threats due to his sexual orientation. He entered the United States through Mexico in May of that year.

In February, an immigration judge determined he should not be returned to Guatemala. Two days later, authorities placed him on a bus to Mexico, court filings say. Once there, he was told he could either wait in detention to apply for asylum in Mexico or return to Guatemala. He chose the latter and has been in hiding since, his lawyers said.

O.C.G. is the first known plaintiff in the case to be returned to the United States after being deported.

In a separate incident cited by advocates, an illegal immigrant and accused gang member residing in Maryland, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was deported to El Salvador in March despite a court order blocking his removal. He has not been returned.

The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift Judge Murphy’s nationwide injunction, arguing that it interferes with the Department of Homeland Security’s statutory authority to deport individuals to third countries. In a May 27 court filing, the Justice Department said the court had imposed “onerous” procedures that go beyond what the law requires, and that the rules were “wreaking havoc” on the removal process.

The administration said many of the individuals affected, including some slated for removal to South Sudan, had final orders of removal and criminal convictions. It argued that the Constitution does not require DHS to provide additional process beyond what has already been granted in immigration and criminal proceedings.

Murphy has stated that the injunction would ensure that illegal immigrants are given a fair chance to raise fears of persecution, torture, or death before being sent to countries where they may face danger.

Sam Dorman, Aldgra Fredly, Melanie Sun, and Reuters contributed to this report.