In the latest in an ever-growing line of errors that have plagued the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, ICE officers have now admitted a software error may have resulted in a man being deported to Mexico, despite his legitimate fear of persecution.
The revelation emerged as the result of a class-action lawsuit filed by a Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico in March despite fears he would face persecution there on the basis of his sexuality.
Initially, the administration argued that the man himself had told them he wasn’t afraid to be sent to Mexico, but in a Friday court filing, they conceded that this argument was based on inaccurate information.
Retracting their previous assertions, ICE officials have now said they have no record of the man telling anyone that he was unafraid of being sent to Mexico. They attributed the error to software known as the “ENFORCE alien removal module,” which tracks deportations and allows ICE employees to add comments.
Assistant field office director for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Brian Ortega said in a sworn statement, “Upon further investigation… ICE was unable to identify an officer or officers who asked O.C.G. if he feared a return to Mexico.”
O.C.G., a Guatemalan citizen, was deported to Mexico under a provision that allowed the government to rely on “third countries” when an immigrant’s home country won’t accept them.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy blocked such deportations, arguing that people deported to third countries must also be given the opportunity to challenge their deportations in court.
However, Murphy declined to go so far as to order the Trump administration to facilitate the man’s immediate return from Mexico because of the ongoing dispute; as a result, he is still in a country where he has a genuine fear of persecution.
The error is the most recent in a growing number of mistakes the Trump administration has made since Trump returned to the Oval Office earlier this year, the best known being the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a maximum security facility in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia was accused of having ties to MS-13, a gang the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization, and deported, in what the Trump administration has since admitted was an “administrative error.” While his case continues to be litigated in court, Abrego Garcia is being held in a Salvadoran prison, having been transferred from the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT.
Other mistakes include further wrongful deportations, including that of a gay makeup artist and another man whose application for asylum was still pending, a college student who was wrongly pulled over by police and sent to an ICE facility, two American citizen children who were deported, and citizens being sent emails warning them to self-deport as part of a scheme offering immigrants money to leave the country voluntarily.
Many of the Trump administration’s deportations have been the result of President Donald Trump‘s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the president to expel foreigners from the country during wartime.
On Friday, the Supreme Court extended its block of said deportations, arguing that the administration was routinely failing to provide adequate notice before initiating deportations and failing to allow potential deportees to contest their removal in court.
This prompted Trump to have a meltdown on Truth Social, angrily posting, “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” and accusing the court of allowing criminals to “[do] great harm to our cherished American public.”
