U.S. District Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on October 30, 2026, to return Kenis Lopez Gonzalez to Minnesota “expeditiously” from the Central African Republic. Lopez had been held there since August.
The order followed an afternoon hearing. Once back, he must regain, “at least for now,” the immigration status he held before his January arrest.
Bryan set a nine-step process, with deadlines, for officials to arrange the return. The order addresses Lopez’s case.
“The threat of irreparable harm to Lopez of remaining in the Central African Republic while his claims are pending is self-evident and was known to Defendants well before they ever forced Lopez (with quickly developing bruises and welts) onto a flight to the Central African Republic,” Bryan wrote.
The order sets a nine-step return process for Lopez
Bryan’s process directs immigration officials to take steps to facilitate the return and sets deadlines for those actions. The available account does not detail each step, but the judge laid out a defined timetable rather than issuing only a general instruction.
The order comes against a record of missed judicial directives in another enforcement operation. During the two-and-a-half months of Operation Metro Surge, ICE violated 210 court orders, according to the research material. That history forms the backdrop to Bryan’s decision to specify a process for Lopez.
Bryan rejected the government’s claim that Lopez faced no danger
David Fuller, an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, argued that Lopez was not entitled to a hearing about fear of removal to the Central African Republic. Fuller said Nicaragua, where Lopez’s immigration case identified a risk of torture, was the country relevant to that claim.
Bryan found that Lopez faced a risk of irreparable harm if he remained in the African republic, that his case against the government was likely to succeed, and that the public interest favored ICE following its own policies. He described the government’s contention that Lopez faced no danger there as “plainly disingenuous.”
“ICE violated Mr. Lopez's constitutional rights, and hardly even denied it.”
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Lopez’s attorneys, made that statement after the ruling. Bryan’s written assessment also pointed to the physical condition Lopez developed before the flight, including bruises and welts.
A 2024 ruling barred deportation to Nicaragua, not the African republic
Lopez, 44, came to Minnesota from Nicaragua in 2022 and turned himself in to immigration authorities at the border. He has worked in construction since arriving and has no criminal record in the United States. He said an ICE agent told him his paperwork was fraudulent.
An immigration judge ruled in 2024 that Lopez could not be deported to Nicaragua because he faced a risk of torture there. That earlier protection addressed his home country. In August, officials sent him to the Central African Republic, a third country.
ICE arrested Lopez in January outside his home in Shakopee as he headed to work. Officials held him at detention centers in Texas and other states before the August removal.
Lopez said he told officials that he feared for his life and safety and that the country was not his. He was not given a hearing about that fear before the flight. According to accounts presented in the case, agents used projectiles, described as rubber bullets or pepper balls, to move him and others off a bus. They put him in a full-body restraint and carried him onto the plane.
The hearing focused on whether officials should have heard Lopez’s stated fear of being sent to the African republic. People who fear persecution in their home countries are entitled to hearings on whether those fears are justified and warrant cancellation of deportation. In Lopez’s earlier case, an immigration judge found his fear of return to Nicaragua justified.
Supporters rallied outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul as Bryan heard arguments. Lucho Gomez, a member of CTUL who knows Lopez, said before the decision: “We want to bring Kenis back home, and we want him home now.” CTUL is a Minneapolis workers center that has tried to help people detained by ICE.
Third-country removals face a Supreme Court hearing in December
Lopez is among more than 25,000 people deported to countries other than their home countries since President Donald Trump took office in 2025. More than 30 countries have agreed to accept third-country deportees from the United States, including the Central African Republic.
The State Department warns Americans against travel to the country, citing widespread insecurity. The administration sent a group of about 20 migrants there in June. Government documents also showed deportation flights to Africa in late August.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on third-country deportations in December. In September, it temporarily allowed the administration to resume the policy while it considers the case.
At the October 30 hearing, Justice Department attorneys indicated they would file a motion asking Bryan to extend the return timeline so they could appeal. That motion would ask the judge for more time.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney about your specific case.
