This spring, Marvin Mata Cruz pulled out his phone, clicked on his brother's name and hit FaceTime. Then he waited. Mata Cruz didn't know if he would pick up. Mata Cruz lived down the hall from him at the home they shared on Long Island, but at that point, this was the only way he could see Mario since October. Mario Mata Cruz is more than 2,000 miles away, at their grandmother's house in El Salvador. It's where both brothers are from. Neither had been in the country for a long time. Mario Mata Cruz was deported, but immigration lawyers and even a former chief immigration judge at the Department of Justice insisted what happened to him was clearly illegal. Mario Mata Cruz came to the United States in 2018 when he was 17 years old, crossing the southern border alone. The next year, he obtained Special Immigrant Juvenile status, which is approved by both a family court judge and the Department of Homeland Security for people who apply before they're 21 years old and prove it is not in the best interest of the person to return to their home country because of abuse, abandonment or neglect. Obtaining SIJ status puts recipients on the path to apply for a green card. Mario Mata Cruz's application was pending when he was picked up by federal immigration authorities on his way to work in October 2025. Anyone arrested by immigration authorities and placed in deportation proceedings is entitled to a trial, where an immigration judge determines whether to issue a final removal order. Without that or the noncitizen signing voluntary departure paperwork, the person is not eligible for deportation, according to several immigration law experts NY1 has consulted . Mario Mata Cruz did not have a final removal order and said he never signed any paperwork to be removed. "He was taken in the middle of the night and told, 'You're leaving,'" said Carmelia Taylor, one of Mario Mata Cruz's immigration lawyers. "And he said, 'No, I have a hearing.' He actually indicated to them that he had a right to see the immigration judge and the officers who took him from that facility." Taylor said that the deportation officers did not listen. Court records indicate Mario Mata Cruz had a court appearance for his arrests scheduled weeks later. Neither ICE nor the Department of Justice responded to questions NY1 asked about Mario Mata Cruz's case. Days after NY1 originally reported on Mario Mata Cruz's deportation in April, his lawyers filed a document with a federal judge in their lawsuit against the Trump administration: the U.S. government intended to bring Mario back. "[Mario] will return to the United States from El Salvador on a flight to Louisiana that ICE will facilitate," the document from April 24 said. And this summer, the U.S. government quietly, albeit slowly, returned Mario Mata Cruz to the United States. However, he did not go back to New York. Mario Mata Cruz was sent to a detention facility in Louisiana. He was then shipped to New Jersey and then to another location in Virginia. Mario Mata Cruz had no ties in any of these states, where he has been held. An immigration judge in New Jersey declined to give him bond, claiming it lacked the jurisdiction to do so. DHS did not grant Mario Mata Cruz release either. The two possible reasons: a danger to the community and a flight risk. Mario Mata Cruz's lawyers said he has no criminal record, and that he never wanted to leave the United States. “There seems to be no remorse regarding what happened to him," he said. While he is in detention, an immigration judge could decide whether to approve or deny Mario Mata Cruz's green card application. The hearing will be held on Thursday.