Federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of more than 170 people who were deported in violation of court orders, due-process protections or safeguards against torture and persecution, according to court rulings issued since last year. The cases reflect the human and legal consequences of the administration’s drive to expand deportations. Lawyers representing people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody say the pace has overwhelmed government systems and increased the risk that protected people will be removed before courts can intervene. “ The machine is running at 110 percent,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a Maryland immigration attorney. He said that before 2025, he handled roughly three improper-deportation cases during 17 years of practice. His firm now handles about three each month and has created a practice focused on helping people return to the United States. In one case, Jose Ojeda Duarte was deported to Venezuela after spending seven months in four detention facilities. He had a pending asylum application and no final removal order. Immigration officers woke him at about 3 a.m. and told him they were taking him to court, he recalled. Instead, he was sent to Venezuela, a country he had fled after serving in the military under the government of Nicolás Maduro. The Justice Department later acknowledged that Ojeda’s deportation resulted from a data-quality problem. A federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return on April 15, and Ojeda came back to the United States on June 1. He was released on bond less than two weeks later and reunited with his family after about nine months apart. Ojeda’s return did not end his legal uncertainty. He remains in deportation proceedings and is seeking lawful status while facing the possibility of being detained or deported again. Other cases have involved people with longstanding ties to the United States or explicit legal protections. Esteban Rios Sosa, who had lived in Oceanside, California, since 1988, was deported to Mexico while visiting his pregnant daughter at Camp Pendleton. He has two U.S.-citizen children, including one who served in the Marine Corps, three U.S.-citizen grandchildren and an active grant of deferred action, which protected him from deportation. A federal judge ordered his return. A woman who was a victim of domestic violence was deported to Nicaragua despite protections that barred her removal. Her attorney, Javier Rivera, said the administration’s focus on speed had eclipsed basic legal review. A judge also ordered her return. Court records describe additional cases involving a man with profound mental disabilities who was sent to Mexico without notice to his caregivers, a longtime DACA recipient deported to Mexico after a decades-old removal order was uncovered, and 12-year-old U.S.-citizen twins sent to Guatemala after accompanying their mother to an ICE check-in. The twins were returned within roughly 24 hours after a judge intervened. In Minnesota, ICE arrested a Mexican man with no criminal record after he had lived in the United States for 26 years. Although a federal judge ordered him returned from El Paso, ICE moved him to the border and deported him to Mexico. The judge ruled that an alleged voluntary-departure agreement could not override the court’s order. The Justice Department and ICE have frequently attributed improper deportations to administrative mistakes. Court filings have cited incorrect notations in immigration records, failures to share court orders across offices and oversights that left protections out of removal files. In the case of Any Lopez Belloza, a college student deported to Honduras, an ICE officer said he mistakenly believed a court order did not need to be communicated to officials in another state. Judges appointed by presidents of both parties, including at least three Trump appointees, have ordered the administration to bring wrongly deported people back. The government has complied in some cases but resisted in others, arguing that certain disputes became moot after deportation or that returning people could interfere with diplomatic relations. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency takes every reasonable step to return people when courts order it to do so and “follow[s] the law.” The department has also blamed what it called activist judges and advocacy organizations for litigation over wrongful deportations, while declining to explain why such cases have increased. The consequences can continue even after a person is returned. Some deportees have been offered reentry but declined, fearing immediate detention and another removal. Others remain in custody abroad, beyond the effective reach of their lawyers and U.S. courts. For families, the legal process can mean months of separation, lost income and continuing fear. Ojeda said his wife worked to secure his return while caring for their children and managing the household without his income. Although he is glad to be home, he said deportation remains a constant threat as he tries to build a legal future in the United States.