A Mexican transgender asylum seeker was released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after an order from a district court judge.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2024, ordered the release of a 24-year-old Mexican male asylum seeker who claims to be female.
‘OJM was detained for over a month simply for legally seeking asylum.’
The migrant, known only as “O-J-M” according to Fox News, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom in June before being transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.
The migrant’s case for asylum came with shocking claims from his legal team about his origins in Mexico.
Judge Baggio ordered O-J-M’s release from the all-male detention facility because he was allegedly deprived of liberty without proper procedural safeguards.
A different judge had previously granted a government request to dismiss the migrant’s asylum case, which was based on alleged death threats and assaults while he was in Mexico.
OPB reported in June that when the migrant sought asylum at the port of entry on the California-Mexico border, it was claimed that Mexican drug cartels “threatened to kill her because O-J-M is a transgender woman.”
“Fearing for her life, she fled and sought asylum in the United States in September 2023,” a court filing reportedly read. Fox News also reported that the migrant claimed he was “abducted and raped by cartel members.”
Death threats were not the reason for the release, however.
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O-J-M’s attorneys from the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab claimed they were not granted access to their client and were not told of his whereabouts, violating due process standards. The Biden-appointed judge agreed and ordered O-J-M’s release.
“OJM was detained for over a month simply for legally seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is lawful, and a human right,” Innovation Law Lab wrote on Instagram. “This is a huge victory for our trans and immigrant communities in Oregon,” it added.
The organization then claimed, “President Trump’s anti-transgender executive order forced her into a men’s facility, and into solitary confinement for her own safety, adding layers of cruelty to an already unconstitutional detention.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told OPB in June that “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”
“If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation,” DHS noted.
Blaze News requested more details about O-J-M and his case, but DHS representatives were unable to provide further information.
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Northwest ICE Processing Center on May 2, 2025 in Tacoma, Washington. Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images
As for Judge Baggio, she has experience on the bench for the Multnomah County Circuit Court and even helped free a Guantanamo Bay detainee from Afghanistan when she was an assistant federal public defender.
Time reported in 2012 that Nazar Gul was swept up by U.S. forces during a nighttime raid in Afghanistan. Gul had worked as a security guard for the government and was allegedly staying with a man who had ties to the Taliban.
He was sent to Guantanamo Bay and subsequently released in 2007 without charges.
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