SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Diya TV) — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to return three immigrant families to the United States after finding that federal immigration agents used “lies, deception, and coercion” to deport them, despite legal protections that should have allowed them to stay. The ruling adds new scrutiny to immigration enforcement tied to family separation policies and raises questions about government compliance with court-approved settlements.
U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw issued the order after concluding that the families were unlawfully removed from the country last summer. Sabraw said the government must pay the cost of bringing the families back to the United States.
The families were originally separated at the southern border during the first Trump administration under the “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy. That policy led to thousands of parents and children being split apart after crossing the border. In 2023, a court settlement granted many of those families temporary legal status, along with protections against deportation and a path toward reunification. Sabraw found that the deportations violated those terms.
In his eight-page ruling, Sabraw wrote that the government’s actions stripped the settlement of any real meaning.
“The manner in which each of these removals was affected, in addition to being unlawful, involved lies, deception, and coercion,” Sabraw wrote.
He said that by deporting the families, the government made the promised protections “illusory.” Without the removals, he wrote, the families would still be living in the United States and receiving the benefits guaranteed under the agreement.
The case highlights ongoing legal battles over immigration enforcement and family separation, even years after the original policy ended.
In earlier court filings, government lawyers argued that the court lacked authority to order the families’ return. At the same time, they claimed the families left the country voluntarily. Sabraw rejected those arguments. He found that immigration officials pressured and misled the families into leaving, even when they had valid legal status. In one case, officials deported a family despite the mother having lawful parole to remain in the country.
One of the most troubling accounts involved a mother who was separated from her 5-year-old daughter in 2018. During a routine immigration check-in last year, officers told her that her legal status “did not matter,” according to the ruling. Officials instructed her to bring her children and their passports to the meeting. They then warned her that if she refused to “self-deport,” her children could be placed in foster care or put up for adoption.
The family included a 6-year-old child who is a U.S. citizen. Agents later detained the family in a motel for three days before flying them to Honduras. Sabraw said the circumstances showed clear coercion by immigration authorities.
Sabraw also described the emotional impact of the government’s actions. During a July 2025 check-in, the mother told officials that she “wanted to give up” because she felt she could not survive in the United States under the pressure she faced. The judge cited that statement as further evidence that the family did not leave by choice. He said fear and threats drove the decision, not free will.
In his order, Sabraw ruled that the government must “bear the cost of returning these family units to the United States.” He emphasized that the deportations directly violated the settlement agreement. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
