Judge's ruling revealed ICE unlawfully re-deported 3 Ms. L-settlement-protected families to Honduras and elsewhere, defying a federal court order

On February 5, 2026, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had unlawfully re-deported at least three families who were protected from removal under the 2018 Ms. L v. ICE family-separation settlement, which bars such removals of its class members through 2031, and who were additionally covered by a June 27, 2025 stay of removal issued in the same case. The underlying removals took place in July 2025; no public reporting has narrowed the exact day, only the month, so this entry is dated to the ruling that first established the violation as fact rather than to an unpinned act date.

One woman and her three children, including a 6-year-old U.S. citizen, held humanitarian parole permitting them to remain in the United States until 2027. ICE required her to check in with the agency at least 11 times over two months, which she said caused her to lose her job. Officers then visited her home and asked her to sign a voluntary-departure document; when she refused, they removed her court-ordered ankle monitor, held the family in a motel for three days, and deported them to Honduras. Two other families, identified in court filings only by their initials, were removed in a similar pattern.

Sabraw rejected the government's argument that the families had left the country voluntarily, writing that "each of the removals was unlawful" and that the government had relied on "lies, deception and coercion" in carrying them out. He ordered the government to return all three families to the United States at its own expense and to disclose to plaintiffs' counsel the basis for detaining other Ms. L class members and their qualifying family. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, lead counsel in the underlying case, said the administration "has never acknowledged the illegality or gratuitous cruelty of the initial family separation policy and now has started re-deporting and re-separating these same families." The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment reported in the coverage of the ruling.