A Guatemalan migrant, identified by the pseudonym O.C.G., has returned to the United States after being wrongfully deported to Mexico, according to his legal team.
This case appears to mark the first instance in which the President Donald Trump administration has complied with a judge’s order to facilitate the return of a deported migrant.
O.C.G. arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday and reestablished contact with his legal representatives, who are challenging the administration’s practice of deporting migrants to countries where they have no connections, Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, told CNN.
He is currently in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Realmuto added.
In court filings last week, the Trump administration acknowledged that it was “working” on returning O.C.G., despite previously resisting similar judicial orders in other cases.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin explained, “The person in question was an illegally present alien who was granted withholding of removal to Guatemala. He was instead removed to Mexico, a safe third option for him.” She continued, “Yet, this federal activist judge ordered us to bring him back, so he can have an opportunity to prove why he should be granted asylum to a country that he has had no past connection to.”
McLaughlin also said, “The Trump administration is committed to returning our asylum system to its original intent.”
US District Judge Brian Murphy, who presides over a case regarding the deportation of migrants to countries other than their home nations, ordered O.C.G.’s return last month.
The judge ruled that O.C.G.’s removal to Mexico, and then to Guatemala, likely “lacked due process.”
O.C.G. first entered the U.S. but was deported. He reentered in 2024 and sought asylum, citing “multiple violent attacks” he endured in Guatemala, according to court documents.
On his second journey to the U.S., he reported being raped and held for ransom in Mexico, information he disclosed to an immigration judge.
In 2025, a judge ruled that O.C.G. should not be returned to Guatemala. However, just two days later, he was deported to Mexico, per Judge Murphy’s order.
Subsequently, O.C.G. was removed to Guatemala, where he later declared that he was “living in hiding, in constant panic and constant fear.”
He contended that prior to his deportation, he was not given a chance to express his fear of being sent to Mexico, and that his requests to speak with an attorney were denied.
Initially, the government argued that O.C.G. had told officials he was not afraid of deportation to Mexico, but later withdrew that claim after failing to identify an official who could confirm it.
According to Judge Murphy’s ruling, O.C.G. had told immigration officials during his proceedings that he feared being sent to Mexico.
However, the judge informed him that, since Mexico is not his native country, he could not be sent there without further procedural steps.
Judge Murphy’s decision came shortly after an appeals court denied the Trump administration’s attempt to pause an order requiring it to facilitate the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
During a hearing in May, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher criticized officials for having done “virtually nothing” to comply with her order to “facilitate” the migrant’s return to the U.S. from a large prison in El Salvador, so the asylum application could be processed.
Similarly, the Trump administration remains at odds with another federal judge in Maryland, US District Judge Paula Xinis, over her order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man wrongfully deported in March.
The Justice Department and administration officials have repeatedly obstructed efforts to conduct an “expedited fact-finding” to determine steps taken to facilitate Garcia’s return from El Salvador.
