'Lacked any semblance of due process': Judge orders Trump administration to help return deported Guatemalan man

A federal judge has directed the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico despite raising fears of persecution there, a move the court said likely violated due process protections.

The man, identified in court filings as OCG, is gay and had been granted protection from removal to Guatemala under a US immigration judge's ruling. However, immigration authorities instead sent him to Mexico, where he previously said he was kidnapped and raped, before ultimately ending up back in Guatemala.

He is currently in hiding. US district judge Brian Murphy, in his order issued late Friday, described the deportation as having “lacked any semblance of due process,” as reported by the news agency AP.

Murphy noted that “no one has ever suggested that OCG poses any sort of security threat,” adding that the government’s action represented “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.”

According to The New York Times, the judge also criticised the government for its contradictory statements, first claiming OCG expressed no fear of Mexico, then later admitting it could not identify which official had received such a statement.

Judge Murphy has now ordered the government to further investigate how that information was recorded, including its reliance on a software system called the ENFORCE Alien Removal Module.

The ruling adds to a growing list of judicial rebukes against Trump-era deportations.

In a similar case, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran man, was deported in error despite 14 years of residence in Maryland. The Supreme Court ordered his return, though the administration claims it is unable to do so, citing state secrecy and foreign detention.

In OCG’s case, Judge Murphy noted that, unlike Abrego Garcia, the man is not held by any foreign government, making the task of returning him far simpler. “Facilitating his return would not be costly, burdensome, or impede the government’s objectives,” Murphy wrote.

Murphy also condemned a government filing that mistakenly revealed OCG’s full name, increasing the risk to his safety. “That’s a bell that perhaps cannot be unrung given the permanent nature of the internet,” the judge said.

In declarations submitted to the court, OCG said he lives alone in his sister’s home in Guatemala, rarely ventures outside, and is in “constant fear.” “I can’t be gay here, which means I cannot be myself,” he said.

OCG is one of several plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit challenging deportations without due opportunity to present claims of potential persecution, in violation of international obligations. Lawyers for the group are also trying to prevent the deportation of eight other men to South Sudan, where conditions remain volatile.

The Trump administration reportedly flew them to a US military base in Djibouti, where they are believed to be held.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio acknowledged the use of the US base in Djibouti and warned that court interference could strain diplomatic ties with Libya and Djibouti.

The White House has dismissed the plaintiffs as “monsters” and labelled Judge Murphy, a Biden appointee, a “far-left activist judge.”

However, Murphy has continued to assert judicial authority in protecting basic rights, ordering that detainees be allowed to speak with lawyers.

As of Friday evening, their legal counsel had still not been granted access.