Federal law enforcement wait in a parking garage to take people into custody outside immigration court, May 21, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File).
The Trump administration must work to return a man deported to Equatorial Guinea — despite his having no ties to the country — after he faced "abuse, beatings, and recurring threats," a federal judge ruled.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) violated the due process clause of the Constitution when it sent the man referred to as A.M.A.S. to the central African country "without notice or any opportunity to raise a fear-based claim," U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker wrote in a 22-page order.
A.M.A.S. was identified by Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva as 30-year-old Ahmed Soliman, an Arizona resident who had lived in the U.S. since he was 4 years old.
Soliman, an Egyptian native, arrived in the United States in 1998 and became a legal permanent resident in 2021. In the fall of 2023, he was convicted of assault and drug possession and sentenced to prison and probation.
By January 2024, DHS had started removal proceedings, and an immigration judge ordered him deported to Egypt in October 2025. However, that removal was stopped after courts determined he faced danger in Egypt due to his sexual orientation and family background.
Fearing a secret third-country deportation, Soliman took legal action, filing a habeas corpus petition in April seeking to verify the legality of his detention and prevent an unannounced transfer. But four days later, before the court could rule, immigration authorities forcibly deported him to Equatorial Guinea. Officials told Soliman where he was going only moments before boarding, carried him onto the aircraft and denied his request for a fear interview on the grounds that it was too late.
The Trump administration had reportedly come to an agreement with the government of Equatorial Guinea to place deportees in the central African country for $7.5 million. An acting unit chief for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within DHS, said the country "provided diplomatic assurances that the aliens removed" would "not be subjected to persecution or torture."
Soliman apparently dropped his habeas action on May 18, and the court dismissed it. That was before the case took a new turn.
After arriving in Equatorial Guinea, the detainees, including Soliman, "were subjected to verbal abuse, beatings, and recurring threats that they could be killed and buried where nobody would ever find them," Hinderaker wrote, noting that this account has not been contested by the Trump administration. Furthermore, "Detainees were repeatedly told to return to their countries of origin."
"On the night of July 31, 2026, after detainees began speaking with journalists, armed and masked officers dragged Plaintiff and four others from their rooms, handcuffed and assaulted them, and pointed guns at them," the judge went on. "On September 5, 2026, police aimed rifles at Plaintiff while he knelt with his hands raised, and a plainclothes officer shouted, 'shoot him!'"
Grijalva, the congresswoman, appeared to share video of this incident obtained by The American Prospect, which describes itself as an "independent voice for liberal thought," showing the chaotic scene.
According to witnesses cited by the judge, Soliman was "bound with rope, hooded, and beaten" and has "since been held incommunicado at an unknown location, reportedly without food or water." His counsel has not known his condition or location since Sept. 15.
That day, Soliman's attorneys filed a complaint seeking a temporary injunction requiring DHS "to facilitate his return." They alleged, among other things, that the administration violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment by not giving him an opportunity to challenge his removal to Equatorial Guinea.
Hinderaker, appointed by Trump during his first term, made clear that Soliman "does not challenge his removal order" to Egypt, though it was deferred, "or the decision to execute it." Rather, he contests the "selection of a different, undesignated country without providing Plaintiff notice or an opportunity to be heard."
The judge noted that the Trump administration did not dispute that Soliman "requested a fear interview and was refused before being carried onto an airplane" and sent to Equatorial Guinea.
The Trump administration has suggested the situation is out of its hands, given that Soliman "is in the custody of Equatorial Guinea rather than the United States" and "any order would intrude on the Executive's conduct of foreign affairs, and that the Court may not second-guess the diplomatic assurances Equatorial Guinea provided."
But Hinderaker pointed to recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which determined that the administration must "'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent" to the third country.
The judge noted that he was not ordering the Trump administration to "effectuate" Soliman's removal from Equatorial Guinea, but it must "facilitate" it. He reiterated that the administration needs to "tak[e] all available steps to facilitate Plaintiff's release from custody," such as "issuing or arranging any travel documentation necessary" and handling his admission into the U.S.
On Tuesday, Hinderaker ordered the administration to file a status report within three days, and then every seven days "thereafter" until Soliman's return to the U.S. "or further order of the court."