DREAMer awaits ruling on arguing case in the USA

A federal judge said Wednesday he will rule as soon as next week whether to allow the first DREAMer deported under the Trump administration to return to the United States to make his case that border agents ousted him illegally.

U. S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in- dicated Tuesday that he would allow Juan Manuel Montes, 23, to return to Southern California to testify in a trial that will determine whether he voluntarily left the country or was improperly expelled in February.

On Wednesday, lawyers for Montes and the U. S. government told Curiel they couldn’t be ready for a trial until December.

Justice Department attorney Aaron Goldsmith suggested allowing Montes to return to the U. S. the day of the trial. Montes’ attorneys argued they needed more time to confer with Montes and prepare him for a federal trial, which they said is complicated because he suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child.

“I’m not aiming to deny either the plaintiff or the government their right to fully and fairly prepare for trial,” Curiel said. “Given FaceTime and Skype and different forms of videoconferencing, the plaintiffs would be able to prepare for the trial without Mr. Montes being present.”

The core dispute is what happened on the night of Feb. 19.

Montes, who entered illegally with his family at age 9, claims he was deported by overzealous Border Patrol agents who had detained him outside a restaurant in his hometown of Calexico, Calif. He contends they ignored the fact that he was enrolled in a government program that allows nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors — DREAMers — to avoid deportation.

The Trump administration says it has no record of Montes’ deportation on that date.