A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday to return a gay Guatemalan man to the US after immigration authorities unlawfully deported him to Mexico, despite a court order granting him protection from removal to Guatemala. US District Judge Brian E. Murphy found that the man, identified as OCG, had been wrongfully deported without notice or the opportunity to object, even after an immigration judge determined he would likely face persecution if returned to Guatemala.
Friday’s ruling followed the government’s admission that it had relied on incorrect information when it previously told the court that OCG had expressed no fear of going to Mexico. In a May 16 filing, government attorneys conceded they could not identify any officer who asked OCG whether he feared being sent to Mexico, as had been claimed in an earlier sworn declaration. That declaration, which had formed a key part of the government’s opposition to earlier legal action, was signed by a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official and was based solely on entries in an internal database, unsupported by any direct testimony.
Judge Murphy described the deportation as “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.” He found that the expulsion “lacked any semblance of due process” and ordered the government to take all necessary steps to bring O.C.G. back to the US.
According to the complaint, OCG had fled Guatemala in 2024 after receiving death threats related to his sexual orientation. During his journey to the US, he was assaulted and held for ransom in Mexico. Upon his second arrival at the US border, he was detained and later granted “withholding of removal” by an immigration judge, a legal form of protection that prohibits deportation to a country where a person is likely to face persecution or torture. Despite that order, he was removed to Mexico two days later without advance notice or the opportunity to contact his attorney. Mexican authorities then gave him what the court described as a “Hobson’s choice”—either remain in detention in a country where he had just been victimized, or return to Guatemala. He chose the latter and has been living in hiding ever since.
The government argued that Mexico was a safe third country where OCG could seek asylum and claimed the court lacked jurisdiction to reverse the deportation. But Judge Murphy rejected those arguments and found that the government’s handling of the case violated constitutional due process. He also noted that the government’s conduct had deprived the court of accurate information on which to base its earlier rulings. As a result, the court previously declined to grant emergency relief, based on what turned out to be false or unsupported representations.
The judge has now ordered DHS to coordinate with OCG’s attorneys and facilitate his return, adding that the government must file a status report within five days. He waived the bond typically required for injunctions and emphasized that the public interest weighs heavily in favor of following the law and honoring judicial protections. “Rules are tedious and frustrating,” he wrote, “but they also keep us fair and honest.”
President Donald Trump, in response to the ruling, posted a message on his Truth Social platform accusing Judge Murphy of overstepping his authority, writing, “The Judges are absolutely out of control, they’re hurting our Country, and they know nothing about particular situations, or what they are doing — And this must change, IMMEDIATELY!”
Trump has previously criticized federal judges who ruled against some of his administration’s immigration policies. His past remarks, including calls to remove certain judges from the bench and demands for impeachment, prompted a rare response from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who defended the judiciary’s independence and reminded the public that “impeachment is not how you register disagreement with a decision.”
