A federal judge has ordered Donald Trump’s administration to “facilitate” the return of a Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to El Salvador, marking the second time the government has been directed to secure the release of an immigrant imprisoned in that country’s jails.
Maryland District Judge Stephanie Gallagher — who was appointed by Trump in 2019 — found that the government’s removal of a 20-year-old Venezuelan man named in court documents as “Cristian” violated a court settlement intended to protect young immigrants who have pending asylum claims.
Another court order striking at the president's deportation agenda underscores the growing tension between the judiciary and the administration, accused of defying court orders and teeing up a constitutional showdown.
In her order on Wednesday, Gallagher directed the administration to “facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to” under that settlement.
She further ordered the administration to make a “good faith request to the government of El Salvador to release Cristian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application.”
Her order references the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant living in Maryland who was deported to a brutal prison in his home country despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order preventing removal from the United States for humanitarian reasons.
Like Abrego Garcia, Cristian was among dozens of immigrants who were put on three flights to El Salvador on March 15 after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly remove alleged Tren de Aragua gang members. Abrego Garcia was not removed from the country under that wartime law.
According to a sworn statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Robert Cerna, Cristian was arrested in Texas for cocaine possession in January.
The Trump administration has argued that Cristian’s removal did not violate the settlement because his “designation as an an alien enemy” under the Alien Enemies Act “results in him ceasing to be a member” of the protected class in the settlement.
The administration argues that anyone alleged to be a member of the gang is “no longer eligible for asylum.”
Government lawyers admitted in court documents that Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador due to an “administrative error.” On April 10, a unanimous Supreme Court wrote that “the United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal.”
The justices, appeals court judges and a district judge presiding over his case ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. The Supreme Court said an order from Maryland District Judge Paula Xinis “properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
Judge Xinis has reprimanded administration officials for doing “nothing” since then and has ordered attorneys to report what steps, if any, they are taking to secure his release.
After he was sent to El Salvador, administration officials sought to justify his detention by publicly raising allegations of criminality, including membership in MS-13 and involvement in human trafficking. Critics have argued that the administration should return him to the United States and raise those claims in court to support his removal rather than deny him due process by summarily deporting him.
On Tuesday, Judge Xinis said the government cannot simply accuse him of being a member of the international gang without providing evidence to the court. “Defendants cannot invoke the moniker of MS-13 as responsive to the Court’s previous order … then object to follow-up interrogatories seeking the factual bases for the same,” she wrote.
At some point after he was detained inside San Salvador’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center, which human rights groups have labeled a “tropical gulag” and concentration camp, Abrego Garcia was moved to Centro Industrial prison in Santa Ana. Administration officials told Judge Xinis that he has “a room of his own with a bed and furniture” and is “not in a cell.”
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