U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali found that an immigrant could face torture after President Donald Trump’s administration deported him despite an ongoing court case.
“Victor Omar Bonilla Alvarez escaped years of torture and abuse at the hands of MS-13 and law enforcement in El Salvador,” Ali explained in his ruling on Sunday. “Just in March, an immigration judge in this country found Bonilla Alvarez will likely face torture again if returned to El Salvador.”
“That should have mattered to us,” the judge continued. “It did not matter. We sent Bonilla Alvarez to Guantanamo Bay—for reasons unexplained, beyond a press release pronouncing him the ‘worst of the worst.’ When his lawyer argued that was illegal, we moved Bonilla Alvarez to Mexico, where he now may apparently—and imminently—be given to El Salvador.”
Ali determined that the Trump administration’s move was “by design.” Attorneys for Bonilla Alvarez requested a temporary restraining order, but the judge stated that he did not have jurisdiction over individuals in other countries.
“The Court cannot conclude on this record that it has jurisdiction to order relief as to someone who is no longer within the United States. And that is so even if the consequences of the government’s actions appear dangerous and inhumane, and may lead to something it could not do directly,” he wrote. “For these reasons, Bonilla Alvarez’s motion for a temporary restraining order and order to show cause, ECF No. 7, is denied.”
