‘Banal Horror’: Asylum Case Deals Trump Yet Another Loss on Due Process
The Trump administration this week formally agreed to comply with a ruling that ordered it to facilitate the return of a migrant who was unlawfully deported—in what was another loss for the government as it attempts to subvert basic due process rights in immigration proceedings.
The migrant—named in court documents as O.C.G., who has no criminal history—arrived in the U.S. in May 2024 and sought asylum. An officer agreed he had a credible fear of persecution and torture if returned to Guatemala; a judge assented as well and granted him withholding of removal to that country.
During his proceedings, when he asked if he might be sent to Mexico, a judge replied: “We cannot send you back to Mexico, sir, because you’re a native of Guatemala.” Deportations to a nonnative country legally require, at a minimum, additional steps in the process.
That was particularly relevant to O.C.G.’s case, because, as he testified in court, he claims to have been held for ransom and raped while passing through Mexico, securing release only after a family member paid the sum. Yet two days after his withholding of removal was granted, the government unlawfully deported him—without giving him a chance to contest it—to Mexico, after which he returned to Guatemala, where his attorneys say he lives in hiding and in fear of serious harm.
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