A federal judge in San Diego has ordered the U.S. government to bring back a 57-year-old Oceanside man who was deported to Mexico within 24 hours of a later arrest at a federal building, after initially being detained at a Camp Pendleton security gate, ruling that federal immigration officials stripped him of his legal status without ever giving him notice or a hearing. Esteban Ríos, the father of a former U.S. Marine, had lived in the country since 1988 before his October 2025 removal upended his family.
U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino granted Ríos's habeas corpus petition in a habeas order filed Tuesday, ruling that the government's summary revocation of his deferred action status violated his constitutional due process rights, according to Law&Crime. Ríos and his wife had both held deferred action status tied to her pending U visa petition, a protection granted to victims of certain crimes, and both carried work permits when they were detained; they were given ankle monitors after being transferred to a downtown federal building, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sammartino wrote that the couple had been reassured they would not be detained or deported at what was supposed to be a routine appointment, the paper reported.
A Gate Stop Turns Into a Removal
Ríos was detained in September 2025 while visiting his pregnant daughter, who lived at Camp Pendleton with her active-duty Marine husband, according to the Union-Tribune's reporting. He and his wife were stopped at the base gate despite carrying Real ID-compliant identification, then transferred to a federal building in downtown San Diego and told to report back for an ICE check-in appointment two weeks later, the paper reported. Court records show that after his subsequent arrest at that federal building, officers moved Ríos to a basement, instructed him to wear a mask to avoid news cameras, and put him on a transport across the border within 24 hours, per Law&Crime.
The Marine Corps has a security initiative at Camp Pendleton involving ICE and Customs and Border Protection personnel, according to Task & Purpose. Camp Pendleton itself announced a security initiative coordinated with ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Union-Tribune reported, with ICE agents assisting in identity verification and screening at certain points of entry. Because the base sits under exclusive federal jurisdiction, California's SB 54 sanctuary protections do not apply there, a distinction Hoodline has previously reported has turned the gate into a high-volume detention point in North County San Diego.
DOJ's Jurisdiction Argument Rejected
The Department of Justice tried to block Ríos's habeas petition by arguing federal courts had no jurisdiction because he was already in Mexico and not in physical U.S. custody. Sammartino rejected that argument, ruling that an unlawful deportation carried out without due process constitutes extreme circumstances requiring court intervention, per Law&Crime. Ríos had alleged in his petition, filed in July, that his deportation lacked justification and consideration of his individualized circumstances, and that it violated his due process rights, the Union-Tribune reported.
Sammartino ordered that Ríos be restored to his previous immigration status and receive the rights and benefits of his deferred action as if the October 2025 removal never happened. Monika Langarica, deputy legal director at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told the Union-Tribune that Ríos is eager to reunite with his family and meet his youngest grandson, whose birth he missed because of the deportation. She called the conditions surrounding his removal completely unacceptable and said the habeas petition should never have been necessary.
A Fight Over His Record
DHS publicly stated that Ríos was removed from the United States in 2005 and had been ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2020, and claimed he had been charged with domestic violence and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2020, according to the department's own post cited by the Union-Tribune. Ríos, in an interview, denied the aggravated assault charges and said his domestic violence charges from around 1994 were eventually dropped, telling the paper he had witnessed the attack on his wife rather than committed it. Langarica claimed the federal government fabricated criminal history that her client does not have, the Union-Tribune reported. DHS had initially provided no details before accusing media of hiding his background, according to AP News' reporting from October 2025.
The dispute traces back to a February 2025 memorandum from the Trump administration rescinding earlier federal guidance that had directed ICE to weigh military service by noncitizens or their family members as a significant mitigating factor against removal, according to Newsday. That guidance, under prior policy, had instructed immigration officials to give heavy weight to military family ties in deportation decisions. A separate legal pathway, Military Parole in Place under Section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allows undocumented spouses, parents, and children of service members to seek temporary legal stay and work authorization without leaving the country.
Part of a Wider Pattern at the Gate
Ríos's case is not isolated. The article's broader discussion includes immigration enforcement involving military families and questions about checkpoint detentions.
Hoodline has documented other disputed immigration-enforcement cases in the region, including an Oceanside man's detention. Neither DHS nor ICE nor the U.S. Department of Justice responded to requests for comment Wednesday, the Union-Tribune reported. It remains an open question how quickly federal agencies will comply with Sammartino's order to facilitate Ríos's physical return from Mexico, and whether the Department of Justice will appeal.
Ríos's wife, who was detained alongside him at Camp Pendleton and later released from the Otay Mesa Detention Center, still has her own U visa petition pending, filed based on an attack she suffered years earlier, according to the Union-Tribune. Ríos told the paper he is happy there is justice in his case and hopes other families avoid similar suffering.
