A Mexican national who lived in the United States for nearly two decades is asking a federal judge to facilitate his return. He says that immigration authorities deported him without a valid removal order and despite his repeated refusal to leave.
Ernesto Zuniga Hilario says that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him in Texas in September. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subsequently removed him to Mexico without giving him a meaningful opportunity to understand or challenge the government's legal basis for doing so. His attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Zuniga Hilario said he last entered the United States without inspection around 2008 and lived near Lometa, Texas, before his detention. He is married to Obdulia Cervantes Vega, whom the filing identifies as a lawful permanent resident, and has four U.S.-citizen children, according to the petition.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek: "Any allegation that Ernesto Zuniga Hilario didn’t receive due process is FALSE. Zuniga Hilario signed his voluntary departure form on September 6 in blue ink. He left the United States and returned to Mexico on September 16. Breaking our country’s laws is always a bad decision."
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The agency's account directly conflicts with the man's petition, which says he repeatedly declined voluntary departure because he wanted an opportunity to present his case and expected to appear before an immigration judge.
DHS said that Zuniga Hilario was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on September 6 following a traffic stop conducted by the Lampasas County Sheriff’s Office. The agency said he entered the United States illegally "at an unknown date and time by sneaking across our border on foot."
Newsweek has contacted the man's legal team for comment via email on Wednesday and is awaiting a response.
Under the Trump administration's mass deportation policy, there have been cases of wrongful deportations and removals carried out in defiance of court orders. Federal judges are squaring off and going toe to toe with the administration over wrongful removals and, in some cases, ordering DHS to facilitate the returns of individuals who were improperly deported.
The lawsuit says that immigration authorities lacked a legal basis to deport Zuniga Hilario because he was not subject to an expedited removal order or one issued by an immigration judge. Although he acknowledges previous encounters with immigration authorities, he says none resulted in a removal order.
Immigration officers apprehended Zuniga Hilario while he was traveling with his family in connection with a therapy appointment, according to court filings. He was subsequently held at the T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, Texas. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee-locator record submitted in court filings as an exhibit also identifies the facility as his detention location.
During his detention, Zuniga Hilario alleges officers repeatedly asked whether he wanted to depart voluntarily. He declined because he wanted to present his case and expected an opportunity to appear before an immigration judge, according to the petition.
Instead, the filing alleges, authorities placed him on a bus, transported him to an airport, and flew him to Mexico City without giving him a meaningful opportunity to challenge the legal basis for his removal. Zuniga Hilario maintains that his departure was involuntary.
The lawsuit also alleges Zuniga Hilario was denied due process. His attorneys say that, if officials were reinstating an earlier removal order, they were required to notify him and give him an opportunity to contest the decision, which he alleges did not happen.
The petition acknowledges that Zuniga Hilario faces a potential jurisdictional hurdle because he had already been removed when the case was filed. His attorneys argue his case is different because they allege the government removed him without an underlying removal order and without giving him a meaningful opportunity to challenge the action.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and James Debens