He helped the U.S. fight drug cartels — then Trump deported him

A federal judge ordered the return of a father of two who’s now hiding for his life in Mexico.

Donald Trump in April 2025 (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

A father of two living in the United States did the right thing by agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors against drug cartels.

The Trump administration repaid him by trying to deport him three times, finally succeeding on the last attempt and dumping him in an area of Mexico with known cartel activity.

Anonymized in court papers as John Doe, the man is now hiding for his life, and a federal judge has ordered the government to facilitate his return.

“There is an immense public interest in ensuring that persons who risk their personal safety to assist the government in prosecuting wrongdoing are not placed in harm’s way by the very entity they assisted,” U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, wrote in a 16-page opinion.

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‘More likely than not to be tortured’

The Trump administration’s quest to deport the cooperator has been relentless, despite clear warnings about the fate that likely awaited him in Mexico.

In June 2024, Doe’s case went before an immigration judge who found that he was “more likely than not to be tortured” upon his return.

Doe’s protections under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) held firm without incident until a Trump-era Immigration and Customs Enforcement took him into custody during a check-in last January.

After a six-month stint in immigration detention, the Trump administration spirited him to Guatemala, which turned him over to Mexico. The Mexican Consulate, who spoke to the man’s attorneys, learned about his CAT protection and returned him to the United States.

The Trump administration wasn’t deterred: According to court papers, the man’s lawyers sought a temporary restraining order in federal court to prevent his deportation, but the government deported him again before it could be adjudicated. The Mexican government, once again, returned the man to the United States.

On the third attempt, the Trump administration terminated Doe’s deferral of removal and claimed that the Mexican government provided assurances that he wouldn’t be harmed back home. A federal judge in Louisiana denied a request for a restraining order, and the government successfully deported him to Mexico without his phone, money or personal belongings.

“He has been in hiding since that date, fearing that the cartels that he provided information against will find him and torture or kill him before he can return to the United States,” Judge Gallagher noted.

‘Would logically choose not to testify’

This cooperator’s case, astonishing though it may be, hardly stands alone.

In May, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) published a report titled “Acquittal by Removal,” showing how the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has compromised criminal cases and degraded federal law enforcement’s ability to pursue certain crimes.

By the numbers, Raskin found that the Trump administration diverted more than 28,000 officers from prior positions to meet its anti-immigration goals, including a quarter of its FBI agents, half of its Drug Enforcement Agency officers, and 90 percent of its Homeland Security Investigations agents.

“The reallocation of personnel has led to non-immigration related criminal prosecutions falling to their lowest point in decades,” the report found, citing a 10 percent drop in federal gun prosecutions and an 11 percent drop in narcotics arrests.

“Child exploitation investigations have been cancelled or postponed, fentanyl trafficking checkpoints are unstaffed, and Border Patrol agents are stretched thin, as many of the people who previously worked at ports of entry are being sent throughout the country to do interior enforcement,” the report continues.

The report also spotlights the case of another cooperating witness against suspected cartel members deported before trial, leading to the collapse of the case.

“Javier Hernandez received death threats because of his willingness to testify against two alleged cartel drug smugglers in Los Angeles,” Raskin’s report states. “Despite the threats, he remained a cooperating witness until ICE deported him to Mexico without consulting the federal prosecutors handling the criminal case. Without Mr. Hernandez available to testify, the alleged smugglers were acquitted of all charges.”

Judge Gallagher noted that a system that allows witnesses to be summarily deported without due process protections would face a problem because cooperators “would logically choose not to testify or assist law enforcement.”

That would ultimately harm the government, other cooperating witnesses, and “the American people at large,” the judge noted.

The Trump Justice Department and attorneys for the cooperator did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.

Read the ruling in full here.