A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return a young Honduran man to the U.S. after being deported in April. José Eliezer Martinez-Andino, 20, who has no criminal history, was living with family in Raleigh and also possessed a legal status granted to young people who have been abused or neglected by a parent, called a Special Immigration Juvenile Status. Martinez-Andino, father of a three-year-old girl born in the U.S., moved to Raleigh last summer to be with his family. He previously lived in San Antonio, Texas, where he finished high school.
Martinez-Andino was detained by immigration enforcement officials in March while driving through Montana on a cross-country road trip for work as a car mechanic, he told WUNC in a May interview. He was taken to multiple detention facilities in Montana and Arizona, and at one location, he recalled being compelled by officials there to sign voluntary departure forms.
"I signed it out of fear because they told me I could spend a long time in prison and that I wouldn't be able to return for five years," Martinez-Andino told WUNC News in Spanish. "Then I wanted to cancel it because I was afraid to return to my country because of the crime and the lack of jobs, unemployment and all that."
Shortly after signing the forms, he was flown out of the country on April 10 to his hometown, Tela, in the coastal state of Atlantida in Honduras.
"It was a truly horrible experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone," Martinez-Andino said.
WUNC News corroborated details of Martinez-Andino’s experiences with family members.
In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell wrote that Martinez-Andino was removed from the U.S. "in a manner that boggles the mind." The judge noted how Martinez-Andino was denied his right to due process, having not been allowed to reach his attorney for more than 10 days, during which immigration enforcement also did not inform his lawyers where he was located, even when they made repeated requests to find him.
Martinez-Andino's lawyer, Allison Chan, an attorney at Margaret W. Wong & Associates law firm in Raleigh, expressed excitement about the judge's decision.
"The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process for all citizens and noncitizens regardless of your immigration status and here there were due process violations, and the judge got it right," Chan said. "It was a very fair decision and I'm very happy and excited about it."
"It felt very surreal," said Ayla Blumenthal, an immigration attorney who works with Chan. "It is a time when we're not seeing a lot of judges willing to stick their necks out, willing to draw attention. The decision doesn't just say, 'Bring him back.' It says, 'Bring him back,' and I want an update every 48 hours on how that's happening.'"
Chan relayed that she had spoken with Martinez-Andino about the judge's ruling and said that he was "speechless." However, she remains cautious about the decision and noted there is still an "uphill battle" in regards to exactly how he will return to the U.S.
"We're sort of in uncharted territory because there have been other decisions, like (with) Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, about facilitating the noncitizen's return to the United States — I've also had other cases like this where ICE advised that they will facilitate someone's return and ultimately it didn't happen, and the client ended up coming back on their own through the border in dangerous circumstances," she said.
Martinez-Andino entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2020 when he was 14 years old. He was immediately apprehended and placed in removal proceedings then. Eventually, a judge dismissed his removal order and he was granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) in 2023, which is given to young noncitizens under the age of 21 who've been abused and/or neglected by one or both parents.
Individuals with SIJS have a pathway to permanent residency, and Martinez-Andino's lawyers said that he was likely just months away from being eligible to apply for a green card. He also had deferred action, a decision by DHS to not pursue the removal of the individual for a set amount of time.
Chan said that when immigration enforcement detained Martinez-Andino, the officers should have acknowledged that he had SIJS and deferred action.
In an emailed statement, a DHS spokesperson wrote that Martinez-Andino "entered the country illegally on an unknown date through Mexico. In September 2020, Border Patrol encountered him, and he was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. … Any claims that he was not allowed access to an attorney are FALSE."
The DHS spokesperson also claimed that he departed the country on April 13, which does not align with the April 10 date in court documents. His lawyers and Martinez-Andino himself said he flew out of the U.S. on April 10.
Martinez-Andino is just one of many young people with SIJS who have been deported since President Trump's immigration crackdown began last year.
"We hope that José's return is the harbinger of more justice for SIJS youth, who are being increasingly and cruelly targeted by this administration," said Rachel Davidson, director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition at the National Immigration Project, in an email to WUNC. "The court's order of José's return should put the government on notice that their lawless deportation of SIJS youth will not go unchallenged."
According to a letter from the Department of Homeland Security to Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto's office earlier this year, ICE detained 265 and deported 132 young people with SIJS in 2025.
