President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Monday, March 31, 2025 (Pool via AP).
Federal officials say they are taking concrete steps to bring back a Guatemalan man a judge ruled was “wrongfully” deported to Mexico, in what appears to be the administration’s most significant step to securing the return of a deportee deemed improperly removed.
According to a Justice Department status report filed Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Phoenix “made contact” with the attorneys of the man, referred to in court filings only as “O.C.G.,” last weekend. They had been ordered to facilitate his return on Friday by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who denounced the “banal horror” in the removal of the man.
In the filing, DOJ lawyers announced they were complying with that directive.
“[ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations] Phoenix 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,” they wrote, adding that a “Significant Public Benefit Parole packet” had been prepared and was sent to Homeland Security Investigations for further approval. That would allow O.C.G. to remain in the U.S. for a certain period of time based on “urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
On Friday, Murphy, a Joe Biden appointee based in Massachusetts, had demanded an update on the status of O.C.G.’s retrieval within five days — Wednesday. However, locating the man could prove difficult as he is in hiding in Guatemala, according to court documents, having chosen to return to his country instead of being detained indefinitely in Mexico.
O.C.G. has said that, while on his way north to the U.S. in 2024, he was kidnapped and raped in Mexico. Once he entered the U.S. and was detained, he told immigration officials he feared persecution in Guatemala because he is gay. A judge subsequently granted a withholding order in February barring him from being returned to his home country.
The Department of Homeland Security saw Mexico as a natural next option, but Murphy maintained that the only available evidence was that O.C.G. was not given enough of an opportunity to state why he was at risk of harm in Mexico.
“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat,” Murphy wrote in his order. “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.”
In his order, Murphy also confirmed that “it is ‘the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture.””
Murphy’s ruling was not the only time President Donald Trump and his Cabinet officials were ordered to take actions to return a man deemed improperly deported. The most notable case is that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man the Trump administration admitted was “wrongfully deported” to El Salvador and imprisoned over alleged MS-13 gang ties. His attorneys and advocates have denied such involvement.
Both President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have insisted it is the prerogative of the other to return him.
Another case is that of Daniel Lozano-Camargo, whom a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump ruled was “wrongfully” deported to El Salvador in violation of a legal settlement agreement. However, as in the case of Abrego Garcia, federal officials have not appeared to take any steps to facilitate his return.
O.C.G., if Wednesday’s filing is any indication, may have better luck.
