A Guatemalan migrant who was deported to Mexico was returned to the United States after a court order.
The man identified as O.C.G. was deported to Mexico after expressing fear of being sent back to his home country, though he also claimed he was in danger if sent to the U.S.’s southern neighbor. The Mexican government offered to deport him to Guatemala, which he accepted before being returned to the U.S. He said he was in danger because he is gay.
Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled last week that the Department of Justice must “facilitate” O.C.G.’s return to the U.S. to argue his case, a ruling the Trump administration is following.
O.C.G.’s attorney, Trina Realmuto, confirmed to Politico that he will be sent to an Arizona immigration facility while he awaits trial.
Last week, Murphy urged O.C.G.’s return as he was likely to “succeed in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process.”
The DOJ admitted fault in the man’s deportation, saying it was mistaken in an earlier assertion that he previously expressed no fear in being sent back to Mexico. His return to the U.S. was less difficult to arrange than in other cases, as he wasn’t imprisoned in Mexico or Guatemala.
O.C.G. said he was kidnapped and raped by a group of men while traveling through Mexico in 2024, leading to his fear of returning.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized Murphy in a statement, portraying the case as one in which the U.S. asylum system was being abused.
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“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,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
After describing Mexico as a “safe third option” for O.C.G., she lamented that “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. The Trump administration is committed to returning our asylum system to its original intent.”
