A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to immediately bring back a Mexican man who was deported this month despite proving to an immigration court that he would likely face torture in Mexico.
The man, who is in his late 40s and was referred to in court documents only as John Doe, helped U.S. authorities by testifying against Mexican drug cartels.
The man provided information to U.S. law enforcement that put his and his family members’ lives at “significant risk,” according to the order, which was issued by Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland on Friday. The court found that the administration’s revocation of protections barring his removal “likely violated his procedural due process rights,” exceeding the government’s lawful authority.
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to reverse his protections after the State Department received diplomatic assurances from the Mexican government that the man would not be harmed, according to background information on the case included in the judge’s order.
The ruling was the latest legal blow to President Trump’s mass deportation campaign at a time when administration officials are facing pressure from his base to accelerate removals.
The New York Times reported this month that the department used a rare authority this summer to deport a group of Mexican nationals whose removal had been blocked over concerns they would be tortured if returned to their home country, citing diplomatic assurances from the Mexican government that the deportees would not be harmed if returned.
But in her ruling, Judge Gallagher said there was an “immense public interest in ensuring that persons who risk their personal safety to assist the government in prosecuting wrongdoing are not placed in harm’s way by the very entity they assisted.”
The Department of Homeland Security and the Mexican government did not respond to requests for comment.
Anna Tijerina, an immigration attorney representing the man, said on Monday that he had not yet been returned to the United States, and the process could take several weeks.
“His life is at risk in Mexico, and deporting somebody without a meaningful opportunity to learn about those diplomatic assurances or challenge the termination goes against his rights,” Ms. Tijerina said.
The judge’s order detailed the repeated efforts administration officials took to try to deport the man, who they tried to remove several times over the span of a month.
An immigration judge had granted the man a “deferral of removal” under the Convention Against Torture two years ago. He was living in Maryland until he was detained at a routine check-in with ICE in January.
He spent six months in a detention facility in Louisiana before federal authorities sent him to Guatemala on July 10, according to the order. But Guatemalan officials rejected him and took him to a Mexican consular officer in Guatemala to return him to his home country.
But after learning about his protection, the consular officer informed the man that he would be returned to the United States instead.
About five days later, the U.S. government allegedly removed him directly to Mexico but officials there refused to accept him. He was then returned to the United States, the order said.
Then, on July 21, the Trump administration “purportedly” served him with a termination notice of his deferral of removal after the State Department received diplomatic assurances from the Mexican government that he would not be tortured if returned to the country, according to the order. Ms. Tijerina, his attorney, said he does not have any recollection of receiving the termination notice.
The acting head of ICE, David Venturella, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had “consulted and determined that these assurances were reliable,” the order said.
It was an unusual move by the federal government. Typically, officials seeking to strip someone of their deportation protections ask an immigration judge, which allows the immigrant to argue in favor of staying.
On Aug. 1, the federal government deported the man to Mexico, where he has remained in hiding out of fear that the “cartels that he provided information against will find him and torture or kill him before he can return to the United States,” according to the order. The man was sent to a region of Mexico where there is “active cartel activity” without his money or belongings. He has been relying on the help of strangers while attempting to stay in hiding, the order said.
The judge also said that if the man is detained, he must remain within 200 miles of the court in Baltimore and have reasonable access to his attorneys.
The decision followed a string of cases in which federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to return people who were wrongly deported.
Last year, the Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was wrongfully expelled from Maryland, despite an immigration judge’s earlier ruling that he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced a credible fear of persecution. Although he has since been returned to the United States, the administration has said it wants to send him to Liberia. His attorneys are fighting that effort in court.
In March, a federal judge ordered the U.S. government to bring back a California woman who had been living in the country for more than 27 years and had been deported to Mexico, despite having protections through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
And about two months later, another federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had most likely violated the law by deporting a Colombian woman to the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite that country’s refusal to take her.
