US Judge Orders Return of Deported Egyptian Man

A US federal judge has ordered the Donald Trump administration to return a gay Egyptian man who was deported to Equatorial Guinea to the United States.

District Court Judge John Hinderaker ordered the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate the return of Ahmed Soliman, 31, who has lived in the United States since he was four years old.

Soliman is among about 25,000 migrants who have been deported by the Trump administration to countries other than their countries of origin.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Hinderaker said Soliman, a lawful permanent US resident since 2021, had been denied due process and an opportunity to present a claim that he could face abuse and torture in Equatorial Guinea.

The judge said Soliman had allegedly been “held under armed guard; threatened at gunpoint; and arrested, beaten, and held incommunicado by Equatorial Guinean authorities” since his deportation.

Soliman deported despite persecution concerns

Soliman, who is from Arizona, was convicted in October 2023 of aggravated assault and drug possession and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

The Department of Homeland Security placed him in removal proceedings in January 2024.

However, a judge subsequently barred his deportation to Egypt over concerns that he could face persecution because of his sexual orientation.

Soliman was instead deported to Equatorial Guinea in April 2026.

His lawyers welcomed Hinderaker’s ruling, describing it as a strong affirmation of the right to due process.

They said the decision showed that due process did not end at the US border or disappear when the government decided to deport someone to a third country, regardless of the potential harm they could face there.

Trump administration defends third-country deportations

The US Supreme Court last month lifted restrictions on the administration’s deportation of undocumented migrants to countries other than their own.

Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of migrants and has introduced measures aimed at accelerating removals since returning to the White House in 2025.

The administration has defended third-country deportations as necessary because some migrants’ countries of origin sometimes refuse to accept them.

US law, however, prohibits the deportation of people to countries where they face a danger to their lives or a risk of torture.

Hinderaker’s order now requires the Department of Homeland Security to take steps to facilitate Soliman’s return to the United States.