Judge Trump Called ‘Mexican’ to Preside Over DACA Deportation Case

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, whom Donald Trump accused of being biased during the presidential campaign, will hear the case of the first known Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient to be deported. Curiel previously presided over two lawsuits against Trump by former students of Trump University. In a June 2016 interview, Trump accused Curiel, who was born in the United States, of being biased against him because Curiel is of Mexican descent. “We’re building a wall. He’s a Mexican,” Trump said of Curiel. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico.” On Wednesday, Curiel was assigned to the case of Juan Manuel Montes, the first known DACA recipient to be deported. Montes, 23, arrived in the U.S. as a young child, and had received protections against deportation, his attorneys say. Curiel’s assignment to Montes’s case is coincidental, as judges in Curiel’s Southern California district are assigned on a rotating basis.