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Demonstrators hold signs from a bridge over a freeway during a protest organized by FIEL in response to the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis, in Houston, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Trump administration deported a Houston woman to Nicaragua while she was trying to reopen her immigration case<\/a> as a survivor of domestic abuse. In a rare move, a federal judge in Houston has ordered the government to return her to the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marcela Linda Arias, who had lived in Houston for nearly 15 years, had been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Houston and was deported in late June. Before her removal, Arias had filed a motion to reopen her case in immigration court, which was supposed to trigger an automatic pause on her removal from the U.S., said her attorney, Javier Rivera.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n READ MORE: What are Houston leaders saying about Trump’s mass deportation plans?<\/a><\/p>\n At a court hearing this week about the case, a lawyer for the government denied that Arias was\u00a0 unlawfully removed from the country. But U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled Arias would suffer irreparable harm if she wasn\u2019t returned to the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rivera said ICE was aware of the pending motion in Arias\u2019 immigration case and that she shouldn\u2019t have been deported, but the agency ignored the statute<\/p>\n \u201cThey knew and they chose to remove her anyway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how many deported immigrants have been ordered returned to the U.S. ICE does not keep statistics on returns and only a handful of cases have garnered national attention. Arias’ case is now one of the few that have surfaced publicly during the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n Others include the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,<\/a> a Salvadoran who was deported despite having active protection against his removal. Abrego Garcia was jailed at El Salvador\u2019s notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT. He was later returned after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n Another Salvadoran man, Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron, was ordered returned after a panel of 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled his deportation was “improper,\u201d ABC News reported<\/a> in 2025. Abrego Garcia and Melgar-Salmeron were part of a group of four that had been ordered to return, the outlet reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rivera said Arias\u2019 case is just as egregious because ICE officials ignored provisions that should have barred his client\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s somebody who was covered under a protection of a statutory protection, and they were sent back in violation of the law,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The motion to reopen Arias\u2019 case was granted a day after she was deported; her case is now pending in immigration court.<\/p>\n