Dead but deportable: US immigration judge signed order to eject teen murder victim | US immigration

An immigration judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently ordered the deportation of a young man who was killed in 2024, citing his failure to appear in court.

Judge Amy Lee ordered the removal of Levi Mendez-Maldonado in absentia on 21 May. Mendez-Maldonado, originally from Honduras, came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor at age 17 and was murdered in a shooting in November 2024.

Becca O’Neill, a lawyer with the Carolina Migrant Network, was preparing to represent Mendez-Maldonado, a young father and mechanic, in his asylum case and deportation defense before his death.

In December 2024, she received notice of a preliminary hearing for Mendez-Maldonado scheduled on 21 May 2026. Like all immigrants detained and processed at the border, he was immediately put into deportation proceedings upon arrival. This court date would have been an initial step in a process that takes years.

O’Neill attended the 21 May meeting on his behalf. At the beginning of the hearing, she notified Lee of her client’s death. O’Neill presented the court with Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department (CMPD) records of Mendez-Maldonado’s death. According to O’Neill, Lee found the CMPD records to be insufficient proof of death, even though a death certificate was filed in late 2024. The Guardian has requested, but not received, a copy of the court recording. Lee’s office could not be reached for comment.

The judge and the federal prosecutor continued with the hearing as planned without acknowledging the reason for Mendez-Maldonado’s absence, said O’Neill.

“The whole thing probably took maybe five minutes. The attorney acted like we were talking about the weather. The judge didn’t take a moment to reorient herself after hearing he was dead.”

The court order states: “Despite the written notification provided, Respondent failed to appear at the hearing, and no exceptional circumstances were shown for the failure to appear. Therefore, the immigration court conducted the hearing in absentia.” There is no mention of his death in the judge’s order, obtained by the Guardian.

Flabbergasted, O’Neill did not contest the final order.

“This is the banality of evil. All of this is so normalized and bizarre. Just a boilerplate order: he didn’t come to court, he didn’t demonstrate good cause. Well, he’s dead. And you know that because you saw a government website saying that he’s dead.”

Stefanía Arteaga, the founder and executive director of Carolina Migrant Network, said: “It shows that even after death, you can’t escape deportation.”

Advocates say the judge’s decision and the omission of Mendez-Maldonado’s death in official court records further strip dignity from immigrant communities terrorized during federal authorities’ recent Operation Charlotte’s Web.

“The system is designed to dehumanize noncitizens, especially if the noncitizens are Black or not white. You can see what happened in Charlotte last year, the violence and active targeting of these communities,” said O’Neill. “The thing is: the entire system is like that. It doesn’t have to just be [Customs and Border Protection] in tactical gear outside of somebody’s home. It’s happening in the courts. These judges and attorneys don’t care.”

The Charlotte immigration court handles cases from North and South Carolina. In 2025, it granted legal relief in roughly 1% of cases. The court currently has a backlog of about 129,000 pending cases, the ninth-largest in the country.

“I just believe this is a numbers game,” Arteaga said. “There’s an emphasis on results rather than fully understanding the scope of the situation.”

From 2020 to 2025, Lee denied nearly 90% of her 550 asylum cases in Charlotte. Her statistics locate her somewhere in the middle of her peers in the same court, according to Trac Immigration.

O’Neill describes Lee as tough. Earlier this year, Lee ordered one of her clients removed to Ecuador, Guatemala or Honduras. “My client is Mexican,” she said. The government currently permits third-country asylum agreements, deporting people to foreign countries with which they have few or no ties. O’Neill filed a motion to reconsider, arguing that her client had never been to any of those countries. She claimed Lee told her to “stop talking” and wouldn’t budge on her decision. “She does not indulge” any differing feedback.

Paul Hunker, a Dallas-based former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) counsel turned immigration lawyer, said that the judge could have delayed her decision. Federal regulation 239.2 permits the cancellation of a notice to appear in immigration court for several reasons, including death.

Hunker, who was chief counsel for ICE in Texas from 2003 to 2024, noted that the Biden administration saw record numbers of immigrants processed at the border. But he believes that the second Trump administration gives the agencies “marching orders” to deny as many immigrants relief as possible.

“The administration is putting pressure on ICE attorneys to achieve outcomes [and] never agree to a bond,” he said. “If a person is not a danger to the community, they should be released on a bond. Under the first Trump administration, we would reopen and desist a case. And then an immigrant can go on their merry way, and that’s great. But now ICE won’t do that.”

Both O’Neill and Arteaga say they never encountered a deportation order for a deceased immigrant in more than 20 years working in North Carolina. One such case occurred in 2024 in California, when 88-year-old Jose Mario Rodriguez Grimaldi faced deportation proceedings three years after he died. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security sent multiple notices to the residence he shared with his daughter. The publication also confirmed several similar cases with at least three more immigration lawyers.

Mendez-Maldonado had gone through the appropriate channels to apply for legal status. Since he entered the country alone as a 17-year-old, he needed a US sponsor in order to be released and given a chance to apply for asylum. His older brother sponsored him and acted as his legal guardian for a year. Mendez-Maldonado entered through Texas, where his first attorney helped him apply for asylum in May 2024, after he turned 18.

Then he moved to North Carolina, where O’Neill took over his case. At the time of his death, his asylum case was still pending. O’Neill said his goals were to remain in the US and obtain a green card.

The lengthy process in navigating the immigration system is even more challenging in cases with children.

“Levi’s rare in that he had legal representation and free representation,” said O’Neill.

Most young people do not. “I’ve had clients who enter as unaccompanied minors as young as four years old who end up with removal orders because they don’t go to court. How is a four-year-old going to know when their hearing date is? It’s up to their sponsors, who are often undocumented themselves.”

O’Neill had lost contact with Mendez-Maldonado and called him for months in 2025 to share good news: his work permit had been approved. Finally, a colleague told her that he had died in a shooting.

The May hearing would have been Mendez-Maldonado’s first appearance at the Charlotte immigration court, a chance to convince the US government that he deserved to stay. CMPD’s homicide unit confirmed to the Guardian that the investigation into his death is still open, but did not provide further details.