Judge orders return to U.S. of second migrant deported to El Salvador
A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to return a Venezuelan man who was sent to a megaprison in El Salvador despite having protection from removal
A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to return a Venezuelan man who was sent to a megaprison in El Salvador despite being part of a class action settlement that should have protected him from removal.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher said Wednesday that other migrants covered by the settlement should also be shielded from deportation or transfer to El Salvador until their asylum cases are processed.
The case marks the second time a judge has ordered the Trump administration to return a migrant it sent to El Salvador on March 15.
The first was Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran immigrant who received from an immigration judge in 2019 a “withholding of removal” order preventing his deportation and yet was sent to El Salvador. The Trump administration later acknowledged he was deported in error but has not yet returned him. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) flew to El Salvador and met with Abrego García, who had been transferred out of the Terrorism Confinement Center to another detention facility eight days before.
Unlike Abrego García, the 20-year old Venezuelan migrant identified only as Cristian in court filings was sent to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was invoked by President Donald Trump on March 14. The first deportations of migrants under the act occurred the next day and included Cristian.
Cristian came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor and was one of four plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the government. The lawsuit argued that he and other migrants who arrived as children should be able to stay in the United States while their asylum claims are adjudicated.
“We filed this motion to hold the government accountable to the promises it made to the Court and to the thousands of vulnerable young people whose futures depend on the integrity of this process,” Cristian’s lawyers said in a statement Thursday. “We are grateful that the court upheld the rights of Cristian and other class members to pursue their asylum claims safely in the United States.”
A settlement was reached in November. The agreement says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “will refrain from executing the Class Member’s final removal order until [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] issues a Final Determination on one properly filed asylum application.”
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/24/el-salvador-venezuelan-migrant-asylum/
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