Maryland judge orders return of second man deported to El Salvador in violation of court order
A federal judge in Maryland ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration wrongly deported a 20-year-old man to El Salvador.
The ruling comes amid ongoing legal battles over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.
Judge orders government to return another Maryland man
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ordered the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and several agency officials to "facilitate" the return of the asylum seeker, identified only as "Cristian" in court documents.
Cristian, a Venezuelan native, was deported to El Salvador after being designated as a member of a Venezuelan gang under the Alien Enemies Act.
According to court documents, Cristian, along with several other young asylum seekers, arrived in the U.S. in December 2022 as unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. His asylum status was pending until his deportation last month.
Gallagher said Cristian's deportation was a "breach of contract" because it violated a settlement agreement that required the applications of Cristian and the other asylum seekers to be decided on by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) before any removal from the country.
Maryland Congressman Glen Ivey posted about the ruling on social media, saying, "A Trump-appointed federal judge has ruled that the Trump Administration has yet again wrongfully deported another man. The United States judicial system allows immigrants the right to due process...He and Kilmar Abrego Garcia must be returned to the U.S. immediately."
Why did the government remove Cristian?
The government argued that Cristian was no longer covered by the settlement agreement after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act on March 14, targeting Venezuelan members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
In court, government attorneys argued that removal under the Alien Enemies Act differed from standard immigration procedures and therefore wasn't covered by the settlement agreement's protections against removal, according to the court documents.
How does this case differ from Abrego Garcia's case?
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported despite having a withholding of removal order issued by a judge in 2019. The order declared that Abrego Garcia should not be sent back to his birth country of El Salvador due to concerns of being targeted by Salvadorian gangs due to his family's business.
While both cases involve the issue of due process, the order for Cristian's return stems from the fact that he was removed to El Salvador, despite having a pending asylum application that hadn't been adjudicated by USCIS.
In the court documents for Cristian's case, Judge Gallagher cited Judge Paula Xinis's definition of "facilitate" from the Abrego Garcia case, which requires the government to "take the steps available to them toward aiding, assisting, or making easier" the return of wrongfully removed individuals.
Gallagher noted that simply "standing by and taking no action is not facilitation," and ordered government officials to make active efforts to secure Cristian's return to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS.
