Trump Admin Acknowledges Another ‘inadvertent’ Deportation Despite Court Order

The Trump administration has acknowledged that officials improperly deported a transgender woman to Mexico last week in violation of an immigration judge’s order in March concluding she was likely to face torture in her home country.

Now, the administration is working to bring Britania Uriostegui Rios back to the U.S. from Tijuana — perhaps as soon as Tuesday afternoon — while it attempts to find an alternative country for her deportation. Uriostegui Rios is suing to force the administration to release her from custody when she returns to the U.S.

Uriostegui Rios, a Nevada resident with a long criminal rap sheet, lost her status as a lawful permanent resident in 2023, after pleading guilty to a felony assault with a deadly weapon. After she received a suspended criminal sentence, Uriostegui was quickly placed in deportation proceedings, and an immigration judge ordered her deported from the country earlier this year.

However, the judge also barred the administration from sending Uriostegui Rios to Mexico, finding a likelihood she would be tortured or killed as a result of her transgender status.

Despite that order, lawyers for Uriostegui Rios say that on Nov. 11, without warning, she was abruptly transported from Louisiana to Texas and placed on a bus that dropped her off in Mexico. After the attorneys inquired about the deportation, the Justice Department acknowledged the error.

“ICE confirmed that your client was removed to Mexico inadvertently,” a DOJ attorney wrote in a Nov. 12 email filed in federal court. The attorney added a day later: “ICE stands ready to remedy the inadvertent removal by allowing your client to voluntarily reenter the United States if your client wishes to do so.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s the latest in a string of errors that have at times marred the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.

The Trump administration sparked national headlines and an ongoing legal battle when it illegally deported a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to his home country despite an immigration judge’s ruling that not be sent there because he could be targeted for gang violence. The administration also worked to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico without being afforded a chance to lodge fear of persecution there.

Uriostegui Rios’ lawyers say the erroneous deportation was likely only discovered because she was one of the few deportees fortunate enough to have lawyers.

“The administration says that the immigration courts ultimately are the final arbiters on these issues and decisions. … Yet they still flagrantly violated it,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director for the ACLU of Louisiana, which is representing Uriostegui Rios. “There can be no excuse for that. It’s not an ‘oops.’ How can you ‘oops’ if someone dies?”

Uriostegui Rios’ lawyers say their client should be released in part to avoid leaving her in the hands of the same agency that erroneously deported her in the first place. They also say Uriostegui Rios has already spent months in detention without a successful effort to deport her to a safe foreign country, testing the constitutional limits for holding someone while they await deportation. Since March, the administration has attempted, so far without success, to send Uriostegui Rios to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.