Eddie Ramirez Perez had a work permit, a pending appeal, and a judge's word that he wasn't a flight risk. None of that stopped federal agents from putting him on a plane to Guatemala within three days of arresting him at his job.

Eddie was one of dozens of workers detained last September when immigration agents raided the Nutrition Bar Confections plant in Cato, New York. He had lived in the U.S. since 2005, held valid work authorization on the day of the raid, and was fighting his case before the Board of Immigration Appeals, hoping to earn a green card. A judge had already released him on bond, finding he posed no flight risk.

According to a new lawsuit, none of that mattered. Lawyers say Eddie was never allowed to speak with an attorney, never given a bond hearing, and never granted a final removal order or the chance to consent to leaving. Instead, he was moved from Oswego to a detention facility in Batavia, then flown to Texas, then to Guatemala, all in the span of two days.

Eddie's wife, a U.S. citizen, and their two sons are still waiting for him in Martville. His lawyers argue that a man with an active federal court case and a judge's bond order cannot simply be disappeared from the country without his consent or the court's.

This isn't about immigration policy in the abstract. It's about whether the government has to follow its own rules before tearing a father away from his kids. Eddie deserves the hearing he was owed before he was ever put on that plane.

Sign the petition demanding the federal government return Eddie Ramirez Perez to his family and give him the day in court he never got.