Federal judge orders return of Nicaraguan woman deported mid-case

Court-ordered returns after deportation remain rare, with sparse ICE data

A federal judge in Houston has ordered the U.S. government to facilitate the return of a Nicaraguan woman it deported while her request to reopen her immigration case was pending, one of a rare set of cases in which federal courts have ordered the government to facilitate the return of individuals already removed from the country.

Marcela Linda Arias, who lived in Houston for nearly 15 years, was deported to Nicaragua in late June. One day after her removal, an immigration court granted her request to reopen her case, according to Nicaragua’s La Prensa, which reviewed the immigration court record. Arias had asked the court to reopen her case based on her claim that she is a survivor of domestic violence.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued a temporary restraining order Sept. 8 directing the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate Arias’s return and to report on the steps it had taken before her Sept. 15 immigration hearing. In granting the order, Hittner found preliminarily that Arias was likely to prevail on the merits of her claim and faced a substantial threat of irreparable harm if she remained outside the country while her case proceeded, according to the court record reviewed by 100% Noticias and the Houston Chronicle.

In a federal court filing reviewed by the Chronicle, ICE deportation officer Ryan Murray said the agency had submitted a parole request to facilitate Arias’s return to the United States. ICE said it is complying with the order. The request was pending at the time of the filing, and there was no public confirmation as of Tuesday that it had been approved or that a return date had been set. La Prensa reported Tuesday that the process to secure her return remained pending ahead of the scheduled hearing.

The Justice Department disputes the procedural interpretation that Arias’s attorney, Javier Rivera, said should have prevented her removal, and maintains that Arias was lawfully deported. Rivera told the Chronicle that the filing to reopen her case should have automatically paused her removal while the court considered the request. Government attorney Nicholas Sabin argued that Arias’s latest motion did not automatically prevent her removal because a separate motion she filed years earlier had been denied. Rivera disputed the government’s account, saying DHS did not respond to the latest motion within the 10-day period allowed and later failed to appeal the immigration court’s decision to reopen the case.

Arias filed suit against the federal government on July 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The case, Arias v. Mullin et al., is listed as No. 4:26-cv-05954, according to 100% Noticias’ review of the public court record.

The restraining order does not constitute a final ruling on whether Arias’s deportation was unlawful, nor does it grant her asylum, permanent residency or another immigration status. It requires the federal government to facilitate her return while her reopened immigration proceedings continue.

Court-ordered returns after deportation are rare, and ICE does not publish statistics showing how many deported immigrants have been returned to the United States as a result of judicial orders, 100% Noticias reported. One of the most prominent recent cases involved Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man deported to El Salvador despite a court order barring his removal to that country. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that the government must facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. He was returned in June 2025 to face federal criminal charges.