Federal law enforcement officers wait in a parking garage to detain people outside immigration court on May 21, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File).
The Trump administration must take steps to bring back a man deported to Equatorial Guinea, a country with which he has no connection, after he allegedly endured “abuse, beatings, and recurring threats,” a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker found that the Department of Homeland Security violated the Constitution’s due process protections by sending the man, identified in court documents as A.M.A.S., to the central African nation “without notice or any opportunity to raise a fear-based claim.” The judge issued his decision in a 22-page order.
Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva identified A.M.A.S. as Ahmed Soliman, a 30-year-old Arizona resident who had lived in the United States since he was 4.
After arriving in Equatorial Guinea, Soliman and other detainees were subjected to “verbal abuse, beatings, and recurring threats that they could be killed and buried where nobody would ever find them,” Hinderaker wrote. The judge said the Trump administration has not challenged that account. The detainees were also repeatedly instructed 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,” Hinderaker wrote. “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.
Witnesses cited in the ruling said Soliman was “bound with rope, hooded, and beaten.” He has since reportedly been held incommunicado at an undisclosed location, allegedly without food or water. His lawyers have not known his whereabouts or condition since Sept. 15.
Soliman’s attorneys filed a complaint that day seeking a temporary injunction ordering DHS “to facilitate his return.” They argued that the administration violated the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause by denying him an opportunity to challenge his removal to Equatorial Guinea.
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Hinderaker, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump during his first term, emphasized that Soliman “does not challenge his removal order” to Egypt, which had been deferred, “or the decision to execute it.” Instead, Soliman is challenging the government’s “selection of a different, undesignated country without providing Plaintiff notice or an opportunity to be heard.”
The judge said the administration did not dispute that Soliman “requested a fear interview and was refused before being carried onto an airplane” bound for Equatorial Guinea.
The Trump administration has argued that Soliman’s situation is beyond its control because he “is in the custody of Equatorial Guinea rather than the United States.” It also contended that an order would interfere with the executive branch’s foreign-affairs authority and that the court should not question diplomatic assurances provided by Equatorial Guinea.
Hinderaker, however, cited recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia. In that case, the high court ruled that the administration had to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from detention in El Salvador and ensure his case was handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent there.
Hinderaker clarified that he was not ordering the administration to “effectuate” Soliman’s removal from Equatorial Guinea. Instead, officials must “facilitate” his return by taking “all available steps to facilitate Plaintiff’s release from custody,” including obtaining or arranging necessary travel documents and managing his admission into the United States.
On Tuesday, Hinderaker ordered the administration to submit a status report within three days and provide additional reports every seven days thereafter until Soliman returns to the United States or the court issues another order.
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