ICE Locked Up Trans Woman From Portland Immigration Court but Oregon Judge Calls It Abuse of Power

PORTLAND, Ore. — U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio has ordered the immediate release of a transgender Mexican woman who is in solitary confinement for her personal safety after she was admitted by ICE agents to a men’s detention center in Tacoma.

Judge Rules Her Detention Illegal

The Judge said the 24-year-old woman, identified only as O-J-M, had been misled by the government and ruled her 43-day detention illegal.

O-J-M was one of 11 people arrested by immigration officials in Oregon since June, and the first to be detained by ICE officers in the hallway of the Portland Immigration Court.

Baggio called the actions of Homeland Security an abuse of power, saying that O-J-M had complied with all directives, check-ins, and court appearances since her arrival in the U.S. from Mexico in 2023. The woman fled from a Mexican drug cartel that allegedly raped and persecuted her.

According to a transcript from the Immigration Court, when O-J-M appeared on June 2, the government sought to dismiss her application seeking asylum. Referring to the transcript, Baggio stated that Immigration Judge D. Caley had assured the woman she would not be removed from the country if she agreed to dismiss her asylum application.

Baggio said the woman was ‘tricked’ into agreeing to have the case against her by Homeland Security dismissed, and that being told she would not be deported was untrue. She expressed criticism that ICE agents sought to have the woman waive her right to dispute her continued detention.

The judge told the court that government officials presented O-J-M with documents to sign with no lawyer present, and after the woman said she could not read.

Baggio described the case as a violation of O-J-M’s constitutional rights and referred to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. J-G-G earlier this year, which found that the Constitution guarantees due process to every person in the country, irrespective of citizenship.