


The Trump administration has brought back to the United States a Guatemalan man who was wrongfully deported to Mexico, albeit to an uncertain future, his lawyers said on Wednesday.
Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the man, known only by his initials, O.C.G., said that she expected him to remain in federal custody as the administration determined how to handle his case.
Last week, the Justice Department said it would comply with a federal judge’s order to “facilitate” the return of O.C.G., a gay man who was sent to Mexico this year despite having told American authorities that he had experienced violence there and was afraid to go back.
That administration officials obeyed the instructions of the judge, Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, was a significant departure from the defiant stance that the White House has staked out in other immigration matters.
That includes the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland who remains in El Salvador after being deported in March, despite a previous court order forbidding him from being sent there.
When Judge Murphy ordered the government last month to bring O.C.G. back to the United States, he criticized officials for having claimed that the man was not afraid of being sent to Mexico, before they admitted that they were “unable to identify” any officials to whom he had supposedly made that statement.
Judge Murphy also found that the administration had violated an order he issued in April that barred officials from deporting immigrants to countries not their own without first giving them a “meaningful opportunity” to contest their removal.
In a sworn statement filed to Judge Murphy by his lawyers while he was in hiding, O.C.G. said that he was in Guatemala after being sent there from Mexico, living “in constant panic and constant fear.”
“I can’t be gay here," he wrote, “which means I cannot be myself.”
The case of O.C.G. was a rare victory on the part of immigration lawyers who have been contesting the Trump administration’s effort to aggressively ramp up deportations.
Still, Ms. Realmuto, his lawyer, said she was unsure what would ultimately happen to O.C.G.
She said she expected that he would be taken back into federal custody, adding that he was “nervous and afraid.”
“But he’s thankful that he’s returning to the United States,” she said.
Ms. Realmuto added that O.C.G. would now have the chance to claim he was at risk of being persecuted or tortured if he were deported to a third country.