Judge demands Trump admin return Guatemalan man to US after deportation to Mexico where he was previously targeted for being gay

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan national who was deported to Mexico after he expressed fear of persecution there over his sexuality. 

US District Judge Brian Murphy issued the ruling Friday. The Department of Justice had informed the court that the man, identified only as “OCG,” initially told authorities he had no fear of being returned to Mexico, but later retracted that statement, calling it an “error.” The DOJ said it was unable to identify any Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who had asked OCG about his safety concerns before he was deported.

Judge Murphy condemned the handling of the case, writing, "While mistakes obviously happen, the events leading up to this decision are troubling."

According to his lawyers, OCG fled Guatemala in 2024 after he got receiving death threats over his sexuality. He entered the US through Mexico in May 2024. According to court documents, he was deported to Guatemala on his first attempt and on his second attempt was raped and held hostage in Mexico until a family member paid a ransom.

The ruling from Murphy follows a broader class action lawsuit filed by OCG and other foreign nationals challenging the administration’s practices with deportations and sending people to countries other than their own.

"Due process is, in some sense, a binary - one either receives what the Constitution requires, or one does not," Murphy wrote. "It has been clear that O.C.G. did not receive what the Constitution requires,” went on to write in the decision.

Murphy said that earlier this year, an immigration judge determined that OCG qualified for protection from being returned to Guatemala. However, authorities instead placed him on a bus to Mexico.

“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 continued.

According to the New York Post, OCG’s attorneys said that after being sent to Mexico, he opted to return to Guatemala and went into hiding rather than face months of detention to seek asylum in Mexico.