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A Guatemalan national who says he was wrongfully deported to Mexico is back in the United States, his legal team told CNN, in what appears to mark the first time the Trump administration has brought back a migrant after a judge ordered the administration to facilitate their return.
O.C.G., a pseudonym the migrant is using in the case, landed in the United States on Wednesday and made contact with a member of the litigation team challenging the Trump administration’s moves to send migrants to countries where they have no ties, according to Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.
The team expects he will be taken into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, though it’s unclear where he’ll be detained, Realmuto told CNN.
CNN has reached out to DHS for comment.
Related article ICE targets migrants for arrest at courthouses as Trump administration intensifies deportation push
US District Judge Brian Murphy – who is overseeing a case concerning migrants being deported to countries that are not their home country – ordered O.C.G’s return last month, ruling that his removal to Mexico, and subsequently Guatemala, likely “lacked due process.”
After entering the US and being deported a first time, O.C.G. reentered the US again in 2024, at which point he sought asylum, having suffered “multiple violent attacks” in Guatemala, according to court documents.
On his way to the US during the second trip, O.C.G. said, he was raped and held for ransom in Mexico –– a detail he made known to an immigration judge during proceedings.
In 2025, a judge ruled he should not be sent back to his native country, the documents say. And just two days after, the government deported him to Mexico, according to Murphy’s order.
O.C.G. has claimed that he had not been given the opportunity before his deportation to communicate his fear of being sent to Mexico and that his pleas before his removal to speak to an attorney were rejected.
The government had initially argued that O.C.G. had communicated to officials before his removal that he had no fear about being deported to Mexico, but it recently backed down from that claim after it could not identify an immigration official who could substantiate it.
According to Murphy’s ruling, O.C.G. said during his immigration proceedings that he feared being sent to Mexico, but the judge told him that since Mexico isn’t his native country, he can’t be sent there without additional steps in the process.
Murphy’s ruling came days after an appeals court denied the Trump administration’s request to put on hold an order requiring it to facilitate the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
During a hearing last month, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said officials had done virtually nothing to comply with her directive that they “facilitate” that migrant’s return to the US from the mega-prison in El Salvador where he was sent so he can have his asylum application resolved.
In a similar case, the Trump administration has been in a standoff with another federal judge in Maryland over her order that it facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported in March.
US District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the case, has faced repeated stonewalling from the Justice Department and members of the Trump administration, who have continued to thwart an “expedited fact-finding” search for answers on what officials are doing to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report
A Guatemalan national who says he was wrongfully deported to Mexico is back in the United States, his legal team told CNN, in what appears to mark the first time the Trump administration has brought back a migrant after a judge ordered the administration to facilitate their return.
O.C.G., a pseudonym the migrant is using in the case, landed in the United States on Wednesday and made contact with a member of the litigation team challenging the Trump administration’s moves to send migrants to countries where they have no ties, according to Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.
The team expects he will be taken into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, though it’s unclear where he’ll be detained, Realmuto told CNN.
CNN has reached out to DHS for comment.
Related article ICE targets migrants for arrest at courthouses as Trump administration intensifies deportation push
US District Judge Brian Murphy – who is overseeing a case concerning migrants being deported to countries that are not their home country – ordered O.C.G’s return last month, ruling that his removal to Mexico, and subsequently Guatemala, likely “lacked due process.”
After entering the US and being deported a first time, O.C.G. reentered the US again in 2024, at which point he sought asylum, having suffered “multiple violent attacks” in Guatemala, according to court documents.
On his way to the US during the second trip, O.C.G. said, he was raped and held for ransom in Mexico –– a detail he made known to an immigration judge during proceedings.
In 2025, a judge ruled he should not be sent back to his native country, the documents say. And just two days after, the government deported him to Mexico, according to Murphy’s order.
O.C.G. has claimed that he had not been given the opportunity before his deportation to communicate his fear of being sent to Mexico and that his pleas before his removal to speak to an attorney were rejected.
The government had initially argued that O.C.G. had communicated to officials before his removal that he had no fear about being deported to Mexico, but it recently backed down from that claim after it could not identify an immigration official who could substantiate it.
According to Murphy’s ruling, O.C.G. said during his immigration proceedings that he feared being sent to Mexico, but the judge told him that since Mexico isn’t his native country, he can’t be sent there without additional steps in the process.
Murphy’s ruling came days after an appeals court denied the Trump administration’s request to put on hold an order requiring it to facilitate the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
During a hearing last month, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said officials had done virtually nothing to comply with her directive that they “facilitate” that migrant’s return to the US from the mega-prison in El Salvador where he was sent so he can have his asylum application resolved.
In a similar case, the Trump administration has been in a standoff with another federal judge in Maryland over her order that it facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported in March.
US District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the case, has faced repeated stonewalling from the Justice Department and members of the Trump administration, who have continued to thwart an “expedited fact-finding” search for answers on what officials are doing to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately halt deportation proceedings against the family of a man charged in the firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, to ensure the protection of the family's constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. U.S. immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday.
Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday's attack in downtown Boulder. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and authorities say he confessed to the attack in custody.
His family members have not been charged.
Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the U.S. illegally, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It’s rare that a criminal suspect's family members are detained and threatened with deportation.
“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives," attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit.
Eric Lee, one of the attorney's representing the family, said efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy.
“The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” he said.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the plaintiff’s claims as “absurd” and “an attempt to delay justice.”
“Just like her criminal husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result,” she said in a statement.
Witnesses describe attack at vigil
Around 200 people squeezed into the local Jewish Community Center on Wednesday evening for a vigil that featured prayer, songs, a short speech by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses to the attack.
Rachelle Halpern, who has been walking with the group since 2023, said she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet.
“A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband," she said. "People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.”
This image provided by the Boulder Police Dept. shows Mohamed Sabry Soliman. (Boulder Police Dept. via AP)© The Associated Press
Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman’s head dropped into her hands.
“I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don’t remember those next few moments,” said a victim, who didn't want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event's speakers. “Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn’t seem real.”
Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, according to El Gamal's lawsuit. They were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, Lee said.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement.
Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, following the Boulder attack.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit.
Victims increase to 15 people and a dog
Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack to 15 from 12, plus a dog.
Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, according to Boulder County District Attorney's office spokesperson Shannon Carbone.
Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.
The family's immigration status
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
Soliman arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.
Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.
Soliman's wife was born in Saudi Arabia and is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman's asylum application.
The case against Soliman
Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year, the affidavit said.
Soliman is being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday. His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders’ policy prohibits speaking to the media.
The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. It happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
___
This story has been corrected to show the defendant's oldest daughter is 17, not 18, according to attorneys for the family.
A US judge halts the deportation of the Egyptian family of the Boulder firebombing suspect
U.S. District Judge Gordon P. Gallagher granted a request from the wife and five children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who are Egyptian, to block their deportation. U.S. immigration officials took the family into custody Tuesday.
Soliman, 45, has been charged with a federal hate crime and state counts of attempted murder in Sunday's attack in downtown Boulder. Witnesses say he threw two Molotov cocktails at a group demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and authorities say he confessed to the attack in custody.
His family members have not been charged.
Federal authorities have said Soliman has been living in the U.S. illegally, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said earlier Wednesday that the family was being processed for removal. It’s rare that a criminal suspect's family members are detained and threatened with deportation.
“It is patently unlawful to punish individuals for the crimes of their relatives," attorneys for the family wrote in the lawsuit.
Eric Lee, one of the attorney's representing the family, said efforts to deport them should not happen in a democracy.
“The punishment of a four-year-old child for something their parent allegedly did, who also has a presumption of innocence, is something that should outrage Americans regardless of their citizenship status,” he said.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the plaintiff’s claims as “absurd” and “an attempt to delay justice.”
“Just like her criminal husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result,” she said in a statement.
Witnesses describe attack at vigil
Around 200 people squeezed into the local Jewish Community Center on Wednesday evening for a vigil that featured prayer, songs, a short speech by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and emotional testimony from a victim and witnesses to the attack.
Rachelle Halpern, who has been walking with the group since 2023, said she remembers thinking it was strange to see a man with a canister looking like he was going to spray pesticide on the grass. Then she heard a crash and screams and saw flames around her feet.
“A woman stood one foot behind me, engulfed in flames from head to toe, lying on the ground with her husband," she said. "People immediately, three or four men immediately rushed to her to smother the flames.”
This image provided by the Boulder Police Dept. shows Mohamed Sabry Soliman. (Boulder Police Dept. via AP)© The Associated Press
Her description prompted murmurs from the audience members. One woman’s head dropped into her hands.
“I heard a loud noise, and the back of my legs burning, and don’t remember those next few moments,” said a victim, who didn't want to be identified and spoke off camera, over the event's speakers. “Even as I was watching it unfold before my eyes, even then, it didn’t seem real.”
Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, a 17-year-old daughter, two minor sons and two minor daughters all are Egyptian citizens, according to El Gamal's lawsuit. They were being held at an immigration detention center in Texas, Lee said.
“We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” Noem said in a statement.
Noem also said federal authorities would immediately crack down on people who overstay their visas, following the Boulder attack.
Soliman told authorities that no one, including his family, knew about his planned attack, according to court documents. El Gamal said she was “shocked” to learn her husband had been arrested in the attack, according to her lawsuit.
Victims increase to 15 people and a dog
Earlier Wednesday, authorities raised the number of people injured in the attack to 15 from 12, plus a dog.
Boulder County officials said in a news release that the victims include eight women and seven men ranging in age from 25 to 88. Details about how the victims were impacted would be explained in criminal charges set to be filed Thursday, according to Boulder County District Attorney's office spokesperson Shannon Carbone.
Soliman had planned to kill all of the roughly 20 participants in Sunday’s demonstration at the popular Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but he threw just two of his 18 Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine,” police said. Soliman didn’t carry out his full plan “because he got scared and had never hurt anyone before,” police wrote in an affidavit.
According to an FBI affidavit, Soliman told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people” — a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel. Authorities said he expressed no remorse about the attack.
The family's immigration status
Before moving to Colorado Springs three years ago, Soliman spent 17 years in Kuwait, according to court documents.
Soliman arrived in the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023, McLaughlin said in a post on X. She said Soliman filed for asylum in September 2022 and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that has also expired.
Hundreds of thousands of people overstay their visas each year in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.
Soliman's wife was born in Saudi Arabia and is an Egyptian national, according to her lawsuit. She is a network engineer and has a pending EB-2 visa, which is available to professionals with advanced degrees, the suit said. She and her children all are listed as dependents on Soliman's asylum application.
The case against Soliman
Soliman told authorities that he had been planning the attack for a year, the affidavit said.
Soliman is being held in a county jail on a $10 million cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in state court on Thursday. His attorney, Kathryn Herold, declined to comment after a state court hearing Monday. Public defenders’ policy prohibits speaking to the media.
The attack unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which has contributed to a spike in antisemitic violence in the United States. It happened at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot and barely a week after a man who also yelled “Free Palestine” was charged with fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
___
This story has been corrected to show the defendant's oldest daughter is 17, not 18, according to attorneys for the family.
A US judge halts the deportation of the Egyptian family of the Boulder firebombing suspect
'We've been watching this case': Supreme Court issues ruling in reverse bias row
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with a straight woman who filed a “reverse discrimination” lawsuit against her employer after her gay boss passed over her for a promotion that went to a gay colleague.
The unanimous decision issued Thursday would make it easier to file such challenges in some parts of the country, and CNN's Paula Reid explained the implications of the case as president Donald Trump has made it a priority to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
"This is a unanimous opinion that will make it easier to file so-called reverse discrimination claims here in the U.S.," Reid said. "Now here, the Supreme Court sided with a straight woman in Ohio. She filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against her employer when her gay boss declined to promote her and instead promoted another gay individual. Now, this is mostly about the bar that members of majority groups, so in this case, a straight white woman need to meet in order to file these kinds of claims and here, in a unanimous opinion, they have sided with this woman."
Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.
"So she will, it appears, be allowed to continue to proceed with this, and as you know, diversity, equity and inclusion, this is something that has been a really politicized during the Trump administration, which is one of the many reasons that we have been watching this particular case so closely," Reid added.
Watch below or click the link.
- YouTube youtu.be
Watch the video at this link.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with a straight woman who filed a “reverse discrimination” lawsuit against her employer after her gay boss passed over her for a promotion that went to a gay colleague.
The unanimous decision issued Thursday would make it easier to file such challenges in some parts of the country, and CNN's Paula Reid explained the implications of the case as president Donald Trump has made it a priority to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
"This is a unanimous opinion that will make it easier to file so-called reverse discrimination claims here in the U.S.," Reid said. "Now here, the Supreme Court sided with a straight woman in Ohio. She filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against her employer when her gay boss declined to promote her and instead promoted another gay individual. Now, this is mostly about the bar that members of majority groups, so in this case, a straight white woman need to meet in order to file these kinds of claims and here, in a unanimous opinion, they have sided with this woman."
Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.
"So she will, it appears, be allowed to continue to proceed with this, and as you know, diversity, equity and inclusion, this is something that has been a really politicized during the Trump administration, which is one of the many reasons that we have been watching this particular case so closely," Reid added.
Watch below or click the link.
- YouTube youtu.be
Watch the video at this link.
About 70 law professors, attorneys and former Florida Supreme Court justices filed an ethics complaint Thursday, June 5, 2025, with the Florida Bar against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. They accuse Bondi of violating her ethical duties as U.S. Attorney General, saying she has committed “serious professional misconduct.” Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
During her Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi tip-toed around whether she would stand up to President Donald Trump’s pressure on the Justice Department, promising only in a broad sense that “politics has to be taken out of this system.”
Since her confirmation in February, Bondi has earned the praise of conservative Republicans for loyally following Trump’s agenda while drawing the wrath of critics on the Democratic spectrum who say she has politicized the Justice Department on issues ranging from illegal immigration to public corruption.
Now, a liberal- and moderate-leaning coalition of about 70 law professors, attorneys and former Florida Supreme Court justices is attacking Bondi’s record in an ethics complaint filed on Thursday with the Florida Bar. They accuse Bondi of violating her ethical duties as U.S. Attorney General, saying she has committed “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice.”
