US to facilitate return of Guatemalan

Man deported despite already telling authorities he had experienced violence in Mexico, write Mattathias Schwartz and Hamed Aleaziz

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Justice Department lawyers said Wednesday that the government was taking steps to comply with a court order to facilitate the return of a man who had been deported to Mexico and was then sent to Guatemala.

The Guatemalan man, known by the initials O.C.G., had been deported this year despite having told US authorities that he had experienced violence in Mexico and was afraid to go back.

Immigration authorities made contact with O.C.G’s legal team over the weekend and were working to bring him back to the United States on a charter flight, according to the two-page filing in the case before Judge Brian E Murphy of US District Court in Massachusetts.

Late last week, Murphy ordered the government to “facilitate” O.C.G’s return to the United States, finding that he was likely to “succeed in showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process.”