N.H. ACLU sues ICE on behalf of asylum seeker who was mistakenly deported in 2019

An asylum seeker from El Salvador who was held on the Strafford County Home of Corrections in 2018 is suing federal immigration officers, claiming he was unlawfully deported after which tortured.

In his new civil lawsuit, Jose Daniel Guerra-Castañeda alleges that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated a court docket order by sending him to El Salvador in September 2019 whereas he was nonetheless interesting his deportation. The first U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals had beforehand agreed to place his deportation on maintain whereas he challenged that call.

Guerra-Castañeda’s elimination to El Salvador, in response to a lawsuit filed on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, adopted a breakdown in communication between ICE officers in a number of states.

“This case is a unprecedented case the place the federal government made an enormous and grave mistake, and due to that mistake, Mr. Guerra-Castaneda needed to undergo detention and torture,” stated ACLU immigration legal professional SangYeob Kim.

After arriving in El Salvador, Guerra-Castañeda alleges that he was detained at a infamous jail, subjected to routine torture and beatings, denied fundamental hygiene and finally held for 297 days earlier than securing his launch. He’s in search of financial damages from the federal authorities over allegations of negligence and wrongful deportation.

In line with court docket paperwork, Guerra-Castañeda sought asylum in the USA at age 18 after dealing with violence inside his family. He was detained on the southern border in 2015 however was launched on bond, finally acquiring a piece allow and driver’s license in Massachusetts.

In 2018, in response to court docket paperwork, Guerra-Castañeda was knowledgeable that the Worldwide Felony Police Group, or Interpol, was in search of his arrest on now-dismissed homicide fees associated to alleged gang exercise in El Salvador. Guerra-Castañeda denies these allegations and, in response to his lawsuit, believes the claims originated with a member of the family.

Quickly after, Guerra-Castañeda was detained by ICE and held on the Strafford County Home of Corrections in Dover, which has lengthy housed immigrant detainees below a take care of the federal authorities. He filed an attraction difficult his deportation, which was granted by the first Circuit after a decrease court docket initially rejected the request.

As a part of its ruling, the first Circuit ordered immigration officers to carry off on deporting Guerra-Castañeda, who had been transferred to a facility in Louisiana. He was scheduled for a flight in another country in September 2019, however in response to court docket paperwork, officers with ICE’s Boston discipline workplace instructed their counterparts in Louisiana by way of e-mail to take away him from that manifest.

In line with his lawsuit, an ICE worker did not learn a notice within the company’s database and positioned Guerra-Castañeda on the flight regardless of these orders.