Efforts are reportedly underway between the U.S. State Department and the Salvadoran government to repatriate several immigrants who were deported without due legal process — among them, Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia, a father of three, was removed from the country more than a month ago after being accused by the Trump administration of ties to the criminal gang MS-13. However, no supporting evidence has been made public to substantiate the allegation.
In an interview with ABC News, President Donald Trump suggested the deported man may be allowed to return to the United States. “If he is truly the honorable man you say he is, I’ll do it,” the president said in response to a journalist who questioned why he had not called his Salvadoran counterpart to facilitate Garcia’s return.
Multiple federal judges have since issued injunctions requiring the administration to take action to bring Abrego Garcia back. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in favor of his return, though he remains incarcerated in El Salvador.
Meanwhile, according to CBS News, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed in court documents filed Wednesday that the federal government is preparing a charter flight to return another migrant — identified only by the initials O.C.G. — who was also deported without due process.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered O.C.G.’s return after finding that his removal had disregarded procedural safeguards. “Those necessary steps, and O.C.G.’s pleas for help, were ignored,” Murphy wrote in the decision, as reported by CBS News journalist Jacob Rosen.
O.C.G., a native of Guatemala, had fled his home country after facing repeated acts of violence. After being deported once in March 2024, he reentered the United States and presented himself to Border Patrol officers to seek asylum. In February 2025, an immigration judge concluded that returning him to Guatemala would pose a serious threat to his safety and issued a “withholding of removal” order, legally barring his deportation.
Despite that ruling, O.C.G. was placed on a bus and sent to Mexico just two days later. His attorneys noted that he had previously been kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Mexico during an earlier attempt to reach the U.S. At his asylum hearing, O.C.G. presented detailed evidence of those attacks. The immigration judge had clearly stated that deportation to a third country — in this case, Mexico — could not proceed without additional legal steps.
After being expelled to Mexico, O.C.G. was subsequently deported by Mexican authorities to Guatemala, where he remains in hiding, according to court filings, reports CBC News.
The Trump administration later admitted that its sworn statement claiming O.C.G. had expressed no fear of removal to Mexico was submitted in error. No credible witness could verify the government’s version of events.
“The only evidence before the Court is O.C.G.’s unchallenged claim that he received no notice of his transfer to Mexico and was given no opportunity to explain the dangers he faced,” Judge Murphy wrote in his repatriation order, according to CBS News.
Murphy concluded that “O.C.G. is likely to succeed in showing that his removal was conducted in clear violation of the principles of due process.”
The cases of Abrego Garcia and O.C.G. have reignited concerns about the Trump administration’s fast-track deportation practices, which multiple federal judges have warned may undermine the constitutional protections guaranteed to all individuals under U.S. law.
