Mistakenly deported man returned to the United States

Several weeks ago, the Trump administration admitted that a man identified as "OCG" was mistakenly deported due to erroneous information.  

ICE claimed there was no record of the man saying his life would be in danger if he had been deported back to Mexico, which the agency admitted was due to an error in the software the agency uses, and the man has now been returned to the United States.  

We Made a Mistake 

According to OCG’s attorneys, filings were made to correct the allegedly wrong information in his case.  

The initial report claimed that an ICE agent asked the man if he was afraid to return to Mexico, and the man responded that he was not.  

When ICE later investigated the matter, it admitted that it could not find any record of any agent presenting that question to OCG.  

Along with OCG fighting against deportation, human rights groups have taken up the fight. For example, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated, “The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for mass deportations shows that the act is incompatible with international human rights law … Congress should immediately repeal the dangerous and antiquated law.” 

Bring Him Back 

In May, a federal judge ordered the administration to bring the man back.  

Judge Brian E. Murphy, who was appointed by Joe Biden, agreed that OCG had been wrongly deported without proper notice and that the Trump administration needed to facilitate his return to the country. 

Murphy said the deportation was “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.”   

He further added that OCG was not given due process, which is at the center of most of these complaints.  

He’s Back 

While the Trump administration has been dragging its feet regarding following court orders on immigration, the administration did just bring OCG back to the country.  

Even though the administration had already admitted it made a mistake here, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated, “America’s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catch-all, get-out-of-deportation-free card. 

“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. The Trump administration is committed to returning our asylum system to its original intent.” 

To be clear, I have pointed to judges in the past who I thought were acting like activists, but that was not the case here. The administration admitted it messed up, and the judge’s order reflected that mistake. Not to mention, our Constitution gives everyone the right to due process, not just citizens, so why most of us agree that these people need to be deported, the order to do so without due process is unconstitutional, which is why I have openly advocated in the past for Congress to pass legislation to specifically address the deportation of people with gang affiliations and criminal histories.