A San Diego federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return three families that he ruled were deported unlawfully.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw wrote in a Thursday ruling that the deportations “clearly violated the spirit” of a 2023 settlement agreement that he approved, which sought to reunite and provide services for families separated at the southern border.
“Each of the removals was unlawful, and absent the removals, these families would still be in the United States and have access to the benefits and resources they are entitled to under the Settlement Agreement,” the judge wrote.
Sabraw, who has in previous rulings found that the Trump administration has violated the terms of the settlement, wrote that the family members were removed despite legally being in the U.S. on parole.
One family self-deported voluntarily, according to government attorneys, but Sabraw wrote that ICE officers falsely told the mother of the family that they’d been ordered removed from the country and pressured her multiple times to leave.
She and her three children were deported last summer despite having valid parole until 2027, according to the ruling, which states that an officer told her that if she did not self-deport, her children would be sent to foster care or adopted.
The other two families were deported even though government officials did not dispute that they had been granted parole, the judge wrote.
“Defendants’ decision to remove these families rendered the benefits of the Settlement Agreement illusory for these families, and the manner in which each of these removals was affected, in addition to being unlawful, involved lies, deception and coercion,” Sabraw wrote.
Sabraw’s order holds that the government should arrange and pay for the return of those families to the United States.
