Jorge Felix Ibarra-Perez was granted withholding of removal to Cuba by an immigration judge. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed him instead to Mexico, a country that had never been designated in his removal proceedings. He objected repeatedly. After two days in Mexico he returned to the United States and sued the federal government for damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, for false imprisonment, negligence, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The district court held that 8 U.S.C. 1252(g), which bars review of decisions to commence proceedings, adjudicate cases or execute removal orders, stripped it of jurisdiction, and dismissed. The Court of Appeals reversed and sent the case back. It read 1252(g) narrowly, as the Supreme Court has directed, and held that removing a person to a country his removal order does not name is not the execution of that order. The panel wrote that the government’s reading would "entirely insulate from judicial review any post-hearing decision by ICE to remove noncitizens to third countries where they would be in danger of persecution, torture, and even death." The panel also recorded that withholding of removal is country specific, so that ICE retained authority to remove him to another country authorised by statute. The decision opens the courthouse door. It does not decide whether what was done to him was lawful.
Caution This is a decision about jurisdiction, not about the merits. The court held only that the case may be heard, and returned it to the district court. Nothing here holds that the removal was unlawful. It is also a damages suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than a habeas petition or a petition for review, so the route it opens is a claim for compensation after the event, not a way of stopping a removal before it happens. The panel divided two to one, Judge R. Nelson dissenting. Rehearing before the full court was refused on 25 June 2026, but thirteen judges recorded their disagreement: Judge Bea, joined by Judges O’Scannlain, Callahan, Bennett, R. Nelson, Bade, Collins, Lee, Bress, Bumatay, VanDyke and Tung, wrote that the panel had nullified the statute. A decision carried by one vote and opposed by thirteen judges of the same court is not settled ground. It binds the Ninth Circuit and nowhere else.
Third-country removal Withholding of removal Country-specific nature of withholding Jurisdiction Judicial review Federal Tort Claims Act Damages ICE policy of 9 July 2025
The court's own text
Read from the panel opinion of 27 August 2025 and from the order denying rehearing en banc of 25 June 2026, both obtained free from CourtListener. A secondary research memorandum attributed to this case a holding on the duty to notify a person of the right to apply for asylum and withholding as to the country of removal. That language does not appear in the opinion and belongs to Andriasian v. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The misattribution is recorded here rather than repeated.
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