Federal judge in Oregon: Homeland Security ‘tricked’ asylum seeker before arrest at immigration court

A federal judge Monday ordered the immediate release of a

24-year-old transgender woman

from Mexico —

the first person

known to be arrested by ICE officers in the hallway of Portland Immigration Court as the Trump administration carries out its nationwide anti-immigration crackdown.

U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio blasted what she called the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “series of procedural errors,” “oscillating legal positions” and clear violation of the woman’s due process rights.

Baggio ruled that the government deliberately duped the woman and that her arrest and 43-day detention were illegal.

“The problem here is despite the legal authority the government unquestionably has, the government here failed to follow its own rules,” she said, ruling from the bench in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The judge punctuated her point by holding up two bound legal volumes that she said held 3,386 pages of U.S. immigration law, noting that the government has a “gargantuan amount of power” in enforcing the codes.

But Baggio said Homeland Security abused its power.

“They arrested first. They sought to justify later and then they changed the alleged basis for the alleged detention,” she said.

Baggio detailed the woman’s case since she arrived in the United States from Mexico in 2023. The judge said the woman, identified only as O-J-M in court, had complied with all directives, including multiple U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins and court appearances.

O-J-M said she left Mexico because she was persecuted for her gender identity and kidnapped by members of a Mexican drug cartel who sexually assaulted her.

On June 2, she was summoned to appear in Immigration Court in Portland, where the government suddenly moved to dismiss her application for asylum.

Baggio unsealed a

rough transcript

of the woman’s appearance in Immigration Court and asked her courtroom deputy to put the transcript on a large video screen so all could read it.

It was clear, Baggio said, that the immigration judge had met with the Homeland Security lawyer before the hearing and that O-J-M appeared without a lawyer.

Immigration Judge Steven D. Caley told O-J-M that Homeland Security was moving to dismiss her case and told her, “My understanding from the department before we went on the record is that the department would like to move to dismiss this matter or terminate it.”

Caley continued, “If dismissed, you will not be in a removal … so the department would not be seeking your removal from the U.S.”

The woman initially said she didn’t want the case dismissed and wanted to continue through the asylum process, but the lawyer from Homeland Security objected.

The immigration judge then pressed O-J-M further, telling her that “most people don’t want to be in removal proceedings, but that’s up to you.”

Caley continued, “The department won’t be seeking to remove you back to your home country if you accept the dismissal.”

“OK,” O-J-M responded. “Then I want to.”

Baggio said O-J-M was “tricked into agreeing” to Homeland Security’s dismissal of her case, noting that the immigration judge’s line telling her that ICE wouldn’t seek to deport her “just wasn’t true.”

“O-J-M was affirmatively misinformed” and even “talked out of her concern” over the dismissal of her case, Baggio said, with ICE agents outside the courtroom planning to arrest her.

Baggio asked a government lawyer if Homeland Security had informed the immigration judge that federal agents were waiting to immediately detain O-J-M.

“I’m unaware of that,” said U.S. Department of Justice attorney Ariana M. Garousi.

Baggio then asked if the Homeland Security lawyer at the immigration hearing knew O-J-M was going to be arrested afterward.

Garousi paused, consulted with her co-counsel and said, “I believe so.” But Garousi added that she would need to get further clarification from Homeland Security officials.

Baggio also highlighted the changing justifications of Homeland Security officials for O-J-M’s arrest and detention after attorneys who took O-J-M’s case challenged the government’s actions in a habeas petition.

Chatham McCutcheon, supervisory detention and deportation officer for ICE in Portland, initially said in a sworn declaration on June 5 that O-J-M was arrested as part of an “expedited removal” proceeding.

But Baggio pointed out that the government had no authority to do that because O-J-M had a right to appeal the dismissal of her asylum application and that the immigration judge’s ruling wasn’t final for 30 days.

Then 23 days after O-J-M’s arrest, a different Homeland Security officer provided a different justification to the court, contending that O-J-M would be held until the government completed an evaluation of her fear of returning to Mexico, Baggio said.

The government “shifted the basis for authority to detain” O-J-M, leaving her in custody even longer, Baggio said.

Baggio then slammed the government for allowing ICE agents to present the woman with papers while she was in custody, seeking to have her waive her right for a bond hearing to challenge her continued detention.

Baggio said the government officials knew O-J-M had attorneys on her case but did this when she had no lawyer present and after the woman told them she couldn’t read.

“This, in the court’s assessment, smacks of more unfairness,” Baggio said.

Baggio said O-J-M’s case presented a “very concerning” violation of her constitutional due process rights. She cited an April 2025 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. J-G-G that found the Constitution guarantees due process to every person in the United States, regardless of citizenship.

“There’s a right way to do this and there’s a wrong way,” Baggio said. “The government unquestionably went about its arrest and detention of O-J-M in the wrong way.”

Jordan Cunnings, a lawyer with Innovation Law Lab in Portland representing O-J-M, barely needed to make any argument as Baggio relied mostly written filings in the case to make her decision.

Cunnings said she expected O-J-M to be released by Monday night.

She said she appreciated Baggio pointing out how the government’s changing justifications for O-J-M’s arrest prolonged her detention and that Baggio highlighted the unfair immigration proceeding.

O-J-M has been in solitary confinement at the government’s Tacoma detention center at her own request for her personal safety after she was taken to the men’s facility there, her lawyers said.

O-J-M is one of 11 people arrested by ICE agents in Oregon since June in the hallway of Immigration Court in Portland, leaving the court, at an ICE field office in Portland or Eugene or headed to a gym or home, according to court records.

O-J-M is the last of the five people represented by Innovation Law Lab who remained detained.

Two of the 11 cases have been transferred to federal court in the Western District of Washington.

Earlier this month, another federal judge in Oregon

ordered the release

of another asylum seeker from Mexico who also was detained after his arrest in the hallway of Portland’s Immigration Court.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X

@maxoregonian

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@maxbernstein.bsky.social

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