04/24/2025
🚨 : Trump admin must seek return of another man who was improperly deported to El Salvador, judge rules
(POLITICO) -- The Trump administration must seek to return a second man who was improperly deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in violation of a previous court order, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Maryland-based Trump appointee, ruled that the administration deported a 20-year-old Venezuelan man last month in violation of a legally binding, court-approved settlement agreement reached in a lawsuit last year. Under that settlement, the U.S. agreed not to deport migrants who arrived as unaccompanied minors until their asylum claims are fully adjudicated.
The man, identified in court papers only as “Cristian,” arrived in the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor and sought asylum in December 2022. That claim was still pending when he was deported last month.
The newly revealed improper deportation, which was first reported by ABC News, resembles the high-profile case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland before being deported to El Salvador despite a 2019 immigration court order that barred the U.S. government from sending him there.
The Supreme Court called Abrego Garcia’s deportation “illegal” and upheld a district judge’s order requiring the U.S. to facilitate his return. The Trump administration has resisted doing so, claiming that it has no authority to bring him back, although it recently said the State Department engaged in “appropriate diplomatic discussions” with Salvadoran officials about his case.
