A Guatemalan man, who said he was deported to Mexico by US President Donald Trump’s administration and feared that he would be persecuted there, returned to America on Wednesday after a judge ordered the federal government to facilitate his return, his lawyer said.
US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston had ordered on May 23 that the Guatemalan man be returned after the Justice Department notified him and that the man’s statement that he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.
The ruling is the latest verdict by a judge ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a migrant as the Republican president has carried out his hardline agenda of mass deportations, following a mistake in an individual’s case.
The administration also made an error while deporting Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March despite a federal judge ordering protection against his removal. Garcia still remains in a notorious prison in El Salvador despite an order by a judge to facilitate his return.
The Guatemalan man was identified as O.C.G in the court papers and he was able to return via a commercial flight on Wednesday, Trina Realmuto, a lawyer at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance said.
“We can now confirm that he is in ICE custody after arriving in California on a commercial flight and is being transported to a detention facility in Arizona,” said Realmuto while referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Judge Murphy noted in his ruling that an immigration judge in February found O.C.G. deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, but the Trump administration wrongly deported him to Mexico two days later. US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who also oversees ICE, called the judge an “activist”.
(with inputs from Reuters)
