Trump administration ‘inadvertently’ deported transgender woman to Mexico despite judge’s concern she may face torture there

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration admitted it “inadvertently” deported a transgender woman to Mexico this month after a judge ordered she not be removed to the country over fears she may be tortured or violently persecuted.

The government has said it will allow Britania Uriostegui Rios, a Mexican national, to return to the US if she is able to make it to the border. Once she has returned, she will be placed back in ICE custody while the administration tries to deport her to a different country, court documents show.

The case marks the latest example of the Trump administration wrongfully removing someone protected by court orders or special status as it works to carry out the president’s goal of a history-making mass deportation program. Uriostegui Rios is at least the fifth such case this year, including the administration’s dramatic legal showdown over the removal – and eventual return – of Salvadoran man Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Uriostegui Rios’s attorneys are suing the administration and demanding that she not be required to return to federal custody once she is back in the US – “if she happens to make it to a port of entry without dying.”

Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the world for transgender people, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project. Though the full scope of risk to transgender people in Mexico is unclear, journalists and advocacy groups have documented pervasive – and often fatal – violence.

Since entering the US in 2003, Uriostegui Rios has racked up a lengthy criminal history that includes convictions for disorderly conduct, sexual solicitation and DUI, according to court filings from a Department of Homeland Security official.

An immigration judge ordered her deportation in March after she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in Las Vegas.

But the judge simultaneously blocked the government from removing Uriostegui Rios to her native Mexico, finding there was a likelihood she could face “torture” there.

Even so, Uriostegui Rios was flown from a detention center in Louisiana to Texas on November 11, where her attorneys say she was taken across the border to Mexico without money, her daily medications or a cell phone. She was able to borrow a phone and call her attorneys, who say they were not notified Uriostegui Rios had been deported.

“ICE confirmed that your client was removed to Mexico inadvertently,” Department of Justice attorney Shannon Smitherman wrote in an email filed in court. The next day, she wrote, “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.”

CNN has sought comment from DHS and the White House.

Uriostegui Rios was being detained in a men’s facility in Louisiana while the US government unsuccessfully tried to deport her to Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua, according to court filings. In August, the government began an effort to remove her to El Salvador, but the petition is still pending with Salvadoran officials.

It is unclear what fears Uriostegui Rios expressed to the judge, but the legal definition of torture is vast and includes state-sanctioned violence, “cruel and inhumane treatment,” and prolonged mental suffering out of fear for one’s life.

When asked what threats Uriostegui Rios faces in Mexico, her attorney Bridget Pranzatelli told CNN she “is a trans woman who has been through extreme trauma, including being sexually trafficked by cartels [at] as young as 12 years old.”

“As a result of these experiences, she has significant mental health issues,” Pranzatelli said. “There are many actors in Mexico who want to hurt her, which is why an immigration judge found it more likely than not that she would be tortured or killed if forced to return.”

Since being sent to Mexico, Uriostegui Rios has been shielding her identity while sheltering with family out of fear they will discover she is trans and kick her out, one of her attorneys, Talia Lepson, wrote in a court filing.

If Uriostegui Rios is able to return to the US, her legal team is asking that she be released from ICE custody and be allowed to go home under a supervision order, saying “the government cannot be trusted to follow the law” or court orders.

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