A second U.S. judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to return another man who was deported from the U.S. to El Salvador last month under the Alien Enemies Act – the latest case in a high-profile legal battle playing out in federal courts across the country.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration violated a settlement agreement DHS reached last year with a group of young asylum seekers when it deported a 20-year-old man, referred to in court filings as “Cristian,” to El Salvador last month.
He was part of a group of migrants who had entered the U.S. illegally as unaccompanied children and who later filed asylum claims to remain in the U.S.
DHS agreed in the settlement that it would refrain from deporting any of the individuals in the class until their asylum claims could be fully adjudicated by a U.S. court.
Gallagher ruled that the government breached that agreement when it deported Cristian, a member of the class, and ordered that they return him to the U.S.
News of the case and settlement in question was first reported by ABC News.
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Trump holds a photo of Abrego Garcia’s hand tattoos at the White House. (President Trump/Truth Social)
Gallagher stressed in her ruling that, unlike other court challenges to Trump’s deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, this one centers on a “breach of contract” by the government.
Her ruling also alluded to the deportation of Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 member living in Maryland who was deported to El Salvador last month. U.S. officials have resisted court orders to facilitate his return to the U.S.
In response to this, Gallagher specifically tasked the Trump administration in her ruling with “making a good faith request to the government of El Salvador and to release Cristian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await…
