This was a classic clash of boxing styles, with Font working behind his smooth jab and trying to pressure, while Martinez was constantly launching heaters, whether he was throwing punches or kicks. In all three rounds, the UFC sophomore landed at a much better clip, and towards the end of the fight, “Doctor” sat Font down, sending the crowd into a raucous ovation that made it impossible to hear the final horn.

When the scores were collected and read, it was Martinez that came out on top, earning the biggest win of his career, and giving native-born Mexican athletes a perfect 5-0 record on the evening. This was a massive win for the first-year bantamweight, who stepped in on short notice after originally being scheduled to open the main card, and instantly stamps him as person of interest in the 135-pound weight class.

A federal judge on Saturday accused the Trump administration of trying to do an “end-run” around legal obligations that the U.S. has to protect people fleeing persecution and torture following the deportation of a group of African migrants to Ghana, some of whom are now slated to be returned to their home countries.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the U.S. government to explain, by 9 p.m. EST on Saturday, what steps it was taking to prevent the deportees “from being removed to their countries of origin or other countries where they fear persecution or torture.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. deported more than a dozen non-Ghanaian nationals to Ghana, including deportees from Gambia and Nigeria, making Ghana the latest country to accept these so-called third country deportations at the request of the Trump administration. Ghana’s government confirmed the deportations.

Attorneys have alleged in a lawsuit that the deportees have been held in “squalid conditions and surrounded by armed military guards in an open-air detention facility” in Ghana. 

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, told Chutkan during a hearing Saturday that four of the deportees have been told that Ghana will return them to their native nations as early as Monday, despite the fact that they have orders from U.S. immigration judges that bar their deportation to their home countries due to concerns they could be persecuted or tortured there. One man from Gambia, who attorneys say is bisexual, has already been returned to Gambia, according to the lawsuit.

The deportees’ legal protections — which are rooted in the United Nations Convention Against Torture and a provision of U.S. immigration law known as withholding of removal — prohibit the U.S. from sending foreigners to countries where they would face persecution or torture. But unlike asylum, they still allow the U.S. to send them to other, third-party countries.

The Justice Department lawyer representing the U.S. government during the hearing did not dispute that Ghana plans to return the deportees to their native countries and conceded that the Ghanaian government appears to be violating diplomatic assurances that it allegedly made vowing not to send these migrants to places where they could be harmed. 

But the Justice Department attorney said the U.S. could not tell Ghana what to do at this point.

Chutkan appeared frustrated by that position, suggesting it was “disingenuous.” She grilled the Justice Department attorney about whether the U.S. knew this could happen and suggested the deportations seemed to be an “end-run” to bypass the legal protections the deportees have. She suggested the U.S. can retrieve the deportees and return them to the U.S. or transfer them to another country where they would be safe. Or, she added, it could tell Ghana it is violating its agreement with the U.S.

“How’s this not a violation of your obligation?” she asked the Justice Department attorney.

But Chutkan acknowledged her “hands may be tied” since the deportees are not on American soil nor in U.S. custody. She also implied that the Supreme Court would almost certainly pause any order that required the American government to act to stop the returns.

Representatives for the Departments of State and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the deportations to Ghana and Chutkan’s order.

Gelernt, the ACLU attorney representing the African deportees, hailed Chutkan’s mandate.

“The Court properly recognized that the United States government, with full knowledge that these individuals are going to be sent to danger, cannot simply wash their hands of the matter,” Gelernt told CBS News.

As part of its mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration has sought to convince countries around the globe to receive deportees who are not their citizens, brokering agreements with nations including El Salvador, Kosovo, Panama and South Sudan.

AP
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A federal judge on Saturday said it appeared the Trump administration was making “an end run around” US court orders prohibiting five African immigrants to be deported to their home countries by sending them first to Ghana, which was poised to then relocate them to countries where they could face torture or death.

US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the government to detail Saturday night how it was trying to ensure Ghana would not send the immigrants elsewhere in violation of domestic court orders. One of the plaintiffs has already been shipped from Ghana to his native Gambia, where a US court found he could not be sent, Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union told Chutkan.

The case is the latest legal challenge to the Trump administration’s practice of sending people to countries other than their own, including El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and several African nations, as President Donald Trump has been aggressively cracking down on undocumented immigrants.

Elianis Perez of the Department of Justice acknowledged that she told Chutkan in court on Friday that Ghana had pledged that wouldn’t happen. But she argued that Chutkan had no power to control how another country treats deportees. She noted the US Supreme Court this summer ruled the administration could continue sending immigrants to countries they are not from, even if they hadn’t had a chance to raise fears of torture.

Gelernt, however, compared the case to that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador despite a court order prohibiting it, then argued it couldn’t get him back. After multiple courts directed the administration to “facilitate” his return, Abrego Garcia eventually came back to the US, where he is now fighting human trafficking charges and another Trump push to deport him.

“This appears to be a specific plan to make an end run around these obligations,” Chutkan said of the administration shipping the immigrants to Ghana. “What does the government intend to do? And please don’t tell me you don’t have any control over Ghana because I know that.”

Chutkan later issued an order giving the administration until 9 p.m. ET to file a declaration detailing how it was trying to ensure the other immigrants weren’t improperly sent to their home countries from Ghana.