Former Trump Employee Mistakenly Deported After ICE Put Him On Wrong Plane
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A man who worked for over a decade at a prominent Trump golf club was accidentally deported to Mexico by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Alejandro Juarez, 39, was a server and food‑runner at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester for more than 10 years, but was terminated in 2019 for being an undocumented immigrant.
Highlights
- Alejandro Juarez, former Trump golf club employee, was mistakenly deported to Mexico by ICE without a hearing, potentially violating federal law.
- ICE intended to transfer Juarez to Arizona but put him on the wrong plane from Newark Liberty Airport, leading to his premature removal.
- Juarez's deportation left ICE, the court, and DHS confused; his lawyer called it unprecedented in 20 years of practice.
On September 15, Juarez attended a scheduled check‑in at ICE’s Manhattan office, but he was detained and sent to a detention facility in Newark.
Alejandro Juarez was detained and mistakenly deported by ICE
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
As reported by the New York Times, around four days later, ICE had intended to send Juarez to a detention center in Arizona and had taken him to Newark Liberty International Airport.
There, Juarez, who entered the U.S. illegally around 22 years ago, was mistakenly put on a plane for Mexico, where he was handed his belongings and sent back to his homeland.
Juarez did not have the opportunity to contest his deportation at a hearing in front of an immigration judge, which likely violated federal law.
By the time his hearing came around on September 25, Juarez was no longer in ICE custody and his lawyer, Anibal Romero, had to inform the judge that his client had been sent to Mexico.
Image credits: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
“This is unprecedented in my 20 years of practice — an individual being removed without any hearing, leaving even the court and DHS confused,” Romero told NYT.
The Department of Homeland Security initially told NYT that Juarez had not been deported, citing a 2022 conviction for driving under the influence with a child in the car for his detainment.
However, it later acknowledged that a mistake had been made, and Juarez was “removed to Mexico early because he was put on the incorrect transport.”
As per NYT, officials said they planned to trace Juarez and bring him back to ICE custody in the U.S., where DHS would move forward with his deportation.
“It was very hard, deported without giving me an opportunity to defend my case,” Juarez, who has a wife and four children in the U.S., told NYT.
Congresswoman Yassamin Ansar said in a video on X that it was "not an isolated case" and that it was not how the U.S. was supposed to operate.
"These mistakes only happen in a system that is designed to dehumanize people," Ansar said. "A system that Trump is actively trying to expand. He just handed the Department of Homeland Security $170 billion to expand this terror.
"All of this is while he continues to distract the country this chaos, including the shutdown, hoping that we stop paying attention to this, but we're not going to."
It comes after Kilmar Ábrego García was mistakenly deported by ICE in March, despite a 2019 immigration‑court ruling that he could not be removed to his native El Salvador because he faced gang‑related persecution there.
García had been living in the U.S. for over a decade and was detained in Baltimore before being transferred to a Texas facility.
Within days, he was flown to El Salvador and placed in the notorious CECOT prison while his loved ones and elected officials fought to have him returned to the U.S.
Image credits: Stacey Wescott/Getty Images
The U.S. government formally acknowledged in a court filing that the deportation was due to an “administrative error,” but later maintained they had not done anything wrong.
Authorities initially resisted calls for him to be brought back, despite a court order, claiming he was a member of the M-13 gang.
After widespread legal pressure, he was returned to the U.S. in June to face federal smuggling charges.
