Transgender asylum seeker released from ICE custody following order from federal judge in Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A transgender asylum seeker from Mexico has been released from an immigration detention facility in Washington state, where she was held for over a month after her arrest at an Oregon immigration court, attorneys said Tuesday.

The release of the transgender woman, identified in court filings as O-J-M, came after a federal judge in Oregon ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday to free her. In her order, U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio wrote that O-J-M had been deprived of her liberty by the government without procedural due process.

The nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, whose attorneys represent O-J-M, said in an email Tuesday that she was “now home with her family.”

“We are grateful the court recognized that OJM deserves to be free while her case proceeds,” the group said in an emailed statement. “No one should be punished for seeking safety.”

O-J-M said in court filings that she crossed the border in September 2023, two years after being raped by cartel members because of her gender, and had regularly checked in at ICE offices as instructed.

O-J-M was arrested in Portland’s immigration court in early June after a judge granted the government’s request to dismiss her case. She was then transferred to an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, where she was held for over 40 days.