Judge says Trump administration broke 2019 settlement by deporting man to El Salvador

A federal judge picked by President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to help bring back a man who was deported to El Salvador last month, even though he still had an active asylum application.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland ruled on Wednesday that the government broke a 2019 settlement agreement when it deported the 20-year-old man, a Venezuelan named Cristian in court records.

Gallagher pointed to a similar case involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland and was mistakenly deported to El Salvador on March 15—the same day Cristian was deported. In that case, another judge told the government to help bring Abrego Garcia back.

Gallagher, nominated by Trump in 2019, said she understands that her ruling puts Cristian’s case into a complex legal situation that has received a lot of public attention, like Abrego Garcia’s case.

She said she followed the decision made by Judge Paula Xinis, who had ordered the Trump administration to assist in returning Abrego Garcia.

“Standing by and taking no action is not facilitation,” Gallagher wrote. “In prior cases involving wrongfully removed individuals, courts have ordered, and the government has taken, affirmative steps toward facilitating return.”

Gallagher’s order tells the government to make a sincere effort to ask El Salvador to release Cristian so that U.S. officials can take custody of him.

A group of immigrants who came to the U.S. as unaccompanied children and were living in the country without legal status filed a lawsuit in July 2019. They said the government illegally changed the rules for how unaccompanied children can apply for asylum.

Gallagher approved a settlement in that case last year. She said Cristian and others protected by the agreement must be allowed back into the U.S. to wait for a final decision on their asylum cases by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Lawyers from the Justice Department argued that Gallagher does not have the power to review Cristian’s deportation or order his return. They also said his removal did not break the 2019 settlement.

“As a threshold matter, the Court should reject Plaintiffs’ blatant attempt to recast the parties’ filed and ordered settlement agreement to include claims and disputes never before raised in the litigation,” government lawyers wrote before Gallagher gave her decision.

Cristian and many others were deported to El Salvador on the same day Trump issued an order calling for the arrest and deportation of Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law from 1798. Cristian had been taken into federal custody in January after being held at a jail in Harris County, Texas.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the Trump administration is trying to get around the settlement because it no longer wants to follow the agreement.

“Simply put, the AEA does not allow Defendants to disregard the binding commitments it made,” they wrote.

Government lawyers said Trump used the Alien Enemies Act because they believe members of the Tren de Aragua gang are part of an “invasion” and are a danger to the U.S.

“Given the strong public interest in ensuring the national security of the country from foreign invasion and terrorist organizations, any contract that purports to limit the President’s ability to invoke and apply the AEA in support of such public interest must be treated as void,” they wrote.

Gallagher said the government has not shown any proof that Cristian is a danger to public safety.