The Trump administration told a federal judge on Wednesday it is working to charter a plane to return to the U.S. an immigrant from Guatemala who was deported in March without due process and despite fears of persecution.
The Justice Department said in a court filing Wednesday that they are working to return to the U.S. the individual, identified only as O.C.G., to the U.S.
The update is significant, and marks the first known instance that the Trump administration appears to be complying with a federal court’s order to return to the U.S. a migrant who was deported in what administration officials have since acknowledged to be the result of erroneous information.
The news comes after U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts ruled last week that the man, identified only as O.C.G., was deported to Mexico without due process and ordered that the administration secure his return to the United States.
Lawyers for the Trump administration told the court late Wednesday that ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Phoenix Field Office made contact over the weekend with O.C.G.’s attorneys, and is “currently working with ICE Air to bring O.C.G. back to the United States on an Air Charter Operations (ACO) flight return leg.”
US JUDGE ACCUSES TRUMP ADMIN OF ‘MANUFACTURING CHAOS’ IN SOUTH SUDAN DEPORTATIONS, ESCALATING FEUD
The update comes after Judge Murphy rejected a request from the Department of Homeland Security on Friday to amend his earlier order requiring the Trump administration to “take all immediate steps” to return the individual to the U.S., citing a lack of due process.
Murphy also stressed that he had not been given a chance to contest his removal to a country where he could face threats of torture.
These “reasonable fear interviews” are are afforded to migrants under U.S. and international law, providing them a chance to formally seek protection from removal, should they have reasonable fears of persecution or torture in that country.
Murphy noted in his ruling that O.C.G. was previously held for ransom and raped in Mexico, but was not afforded the chance to assert those fears prior to his removal, according to his attorneys.
“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,” Murphy said Friday.
“The return of O.C.G. poses a vanishingly small cost to make sure we can still claim to live up to that ideal,” he added.
This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates.
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