In what’s believed to be a first, the Trump administration is working on returning a gay migrant that a federal court ruled was unlawfully deported from the United States. But it’s not Andry Hernández Romero, the gay makeup artist from Venezuela who sought asylum in the U.S. but was extrajudicially removed to an infamous Salvadorian prison, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.
Rather, it’s a gay Guatemalan man identified only as O.C.G., who is a plaintiff in the case D.V.D. vs. the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Hernández Romero’s asylum case in San Diego was just dismissed, but he has an ongoing habeas case before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a separate lawsuit, J.G.G., et al. v. Trump. If he wins, he will be able to appeal the decision to close his asylum case, according to a spokesperson for his attorneys.
In the other case, O.C.G. sent a declaration to the court May 22, stating that since he was deported from the U.S., “I have been living in hiding, in constant panic and constant fear.”
“My experiences the last times that I was targeted and threatened demonstrate that the police here don’t do anything,” O.C.G. wrote. “They do not support our community – that is, people who are not heterosexual and who are gay like me. There is so much discrimination: the police whisper and joke behind our backs. They do not ever support us the way we need. I don’t want to be another number, another statistic.”
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Trump administration facilitating return of another gay migrant, court docs say
- by John Ferrannini, Assistant Editor
- Friday, May 30, 2025
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The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly preparing to return a gay Guatemalan man to the U.S.
Image: From DHS
O.C.G. had been seeking asylum. He stated he had survived sexual violence and kidnapping.
The federal government did not screen him for a credible fear assessment, and he was deported back to Guatemala, according to court documents.
Judge Brian E. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
“In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped,” Murphy ruled.
It’s not the first time the administration has been ordered to return a migrant, though it appears this is the first time the administration is doing so. As the B.A.R. previously reported, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an infamous Salvadorian megaprison after he was extrajudicially sent there by mistake. It has not done so, and Trump has publicly questioned his oath of office to defend the due process rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
But DHS is facilitating the return of O.C.G., according to a May 28 court filing.
“The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Phoenix Field Office made contact with O.C.G.’s attorneys over the May 24-25, 2025 weekend,” acting Assistant Attorney General Yaakov Roth stated.
“ERO Phoenix is currently working with ICE Air to bring O.C.G. back to the United States on an Air Charter Operations (ACO) flight return leg,” Roth stated.
O.C.G.’s attorneys didn't return a request for comment for this report. Neither has the U.S. Department of Justice.
