A Mexican national living in Maryland, whose testimony for the Justice Department against drug cartels led an immigration judge to bar his deportation to Mexico under the Convention Against Torture in July 2024, was released from custody that November but re-detained during a routine ICE check-in in January 2026 and held for six months in a Louisiana detention facility. In July 2026 he was deported three times in two weeks: first to Guatemala, which refused him and handed him to Mexican consular officials who also declined to take him; then directly to Mexico twice more after officials there initially refused him, and again after the administration terminated his CAT protection based on diplomatic assurances it said were provided by the Mexican government and deemed reliable by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and acting ICE Director David Venturella. He has been in hiding in Mexico since Aug. 1 fearing retaliation from the cartels he testified against, and U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher found the government likely violated his due process rights, ordering it to take immediate steps to facilitate his return within 200 miles of Baltimore.