A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to bring three immigrant families back to the United States, finding that immigration officials relied on “lies, deception, and coercion” to remove them from the country.

In an eight-page ruling, Dana M. Sabraw said the families were wrongfully deported last summer despite protections they were entitled to under a 2023 settlement. The families had previously been separated at the southern border under the first Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy and were granted temporary legal status along with a pathway to reunification.

“The manner in which each of these removals was affected, in addition to being unlawful, involved lies, deception, and coercion,” Sabraw wrote, concluding that the government’s actions rendered the settlement’s safeguards “illusory.”

Government attorneys had argued the court lacked jurisdiction to order the families’ return, while also maintaining that some of the families — including one with valid parole — left the U.S. voluntarily. Sabraw rejected those claims.

The ruling details the experience of one mother separated from her 5-year-old daughter in 2018. During a routine check-in last year, immigration officers allegedly told her that her legal status “did not matter” and instructed her to bring her children and their passports. She was warned that if she did not “self-deport,” her children could be placed in foster care or put up for adoption, according to the court.

The family — which included a 6-year-old U.S. citizen — was detained in a motel for three days before being flown to Honduras, the judge said.