By Reuters
BOSTON — A Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico despite stating that he feared being persecuted there was flown back to the United States on Wednesday after a judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
Judges have directed President Trump’s administration to help return several migrants to the country because they were wrongly deported, and the man’s arrival appeared to mark the first time one of those migrants has been able to come back.
US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston on May 23 ordered the Guatemalan man’s return after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.
That ruling was the latest instance of a judge ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a migrant swept up in the Republican president’s efforts to carry out mass deportations as part of his hardline immigration agenda, following a mistake in an individual’s case.
The government likewise made an error with Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador in March despite an order protecting him from removal. He remains there despite a judge ordering the administration to facilitate his return.
By contrast, the Guatemalan man, identified in court papers only as O.C.G., was able to return on Wednesday on a commercial flight, said Trina Realmuto, a lawyer at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance who represents him.