U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government to return three migrant families deported after being affected by the 2018 family separation policy, ruling the removals unlawful. Sabraw found the deportations violated a 2023 settlement meant to provide benefits and support reunification and said the removals involved lies, deception and coercion. He ordered the government to pay for the families' return; the ACLU called the decision a necessary correction of repeated harm.
Judge Orders U.S. To Return Three Families Deported After Trump-Era Separation Policy
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to return three migrant families who were affected by the Trump-era family separation policy and later deported, calling those removals unlawful and a violation of a 2023 court settlement aimed at supporting reunification.
Judge Dana Sabraw, a U.S. District Court judge appointed by former President George W. Bush, found that the deportations undermined a settlement intended to provide specific benefits and protections for families separated under the 2018 policy.
Ruling Finds Lies, Deception and Coercion
Sabraw wrote that although the settlement does not bar the government from enforcing immigration law, the removals "clearly violated the spirit of the Agreement, which was to effect and support reunification in the United States of families that had been separated pursuant to the family separation policy." He added that the deportations rendered the settlement's benefits "illusory" for these families and that the manner of removal involved "lies, deception, and coercion."
"Defendants' decision to remove these families rendered the benefits of the Settlement Agreement illusory for these families, and the manner in which each of these removals was affected, in addition to being unlawful, involved lies, deception, and coercion." — Judge Dana Sabraw
Details Of The Cases
Sabraw identified three families he concluded were wrongfully deported. In one case, a mother who had been forcibly separated from her daughter in 2018 — the girl was 5 years old at the time — was pressured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers last year to leave the country voluntarily. Court records cited by the judge include the mother's declaration that an ICE officer suggested the children could be placed in "foster care or adoption" if she did not self-deport, and that officers visited her home to press the matter.
The judge found the mother and her three children did not voluntarily depart the United States; they were removed despite having temporary permission to remain through immigration parole. Sabraw also noted the family was deported weeks after he ordered a pause in removals for families eligible for settlement benefits in June 2025.
Sabraw described the other two cases as following "strikingly similar" patterns of pressure and coercion. He ordered the government to pay the costs to return the families to the United States.
Reactions
Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, who represents thousands of families separated under the first Trump administration, praised the ruling and called it a corrective to repeated harm. The Department of Homeland Security was contacted for comment but had not provided one at the time of the ruling.
This decision underscores continuing legal scrutiny of the long-lasting effects of the 2018 family separation policy and the obligations created by the 2023 settlement to aid reunified families.
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