(BALTIMORE) — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s argument that a 20-year-old Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador, whose removal violated a previous court settlement, should not be returned to the U.S. because his asylum application would be denied.
During the hearing in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher — who last month ordered the government to facilitate the return of the man, identified as Cristian in court filings — said that a 2024 settlement agreement requires Cristian to be present in the U.S. to be able to argue his case for asylum.
In her opinion last month, Judge Gallagher referenced the case of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and said that “like Judge [Paula] Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this court will order Defendants to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties’ binding Settlement Agreement.”
The class action case from 2019 was filed on behalf of individuals who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and later sought asylum.
The group sued the government to be able to have their asylum applications adjudicated while they remained in the United States. The parties settled in 2024.
Attorneys for the Department of Justice say Cristian is a member of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua and argued that because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued an “Indicative Asylum Decision” last week declaring that Cristian’s asylum application would be denied, the order to return him should be dismissed.
“The Indicative asylum decision makes clear that if Christian asylum application is more or less moot, his claim to asylum is moot,” said DOJ attorney Richard Ingebretsen.
Judge Gallagher, however, pushed back on that argument and said the indicative ruling submitted by the Trump administration “prejudges the outcome of the asylum proceeding with no ability for Christian or his legal representatives to provide any input into the process.”
“We don’t skip to the end and say we all know how this is going to end up, so there’s no point in going through this process,” Judge Gallagher said. “We go through the process. People are entitled to that. And there was a process that was specifically bargained for in this agreement.”
“Due process is important,” she said.
Judge Gallagher declined the government’s request to vacate her order requiring Cristian’s return and said that she will issue a 48-hour stay to allow the government to file an appeal with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If no appeal is filed, the judge said she will amend her order to set a timetable for the government to facilitate Cristian’s return and order status updates.
“There is some urgency here,” Judge Gallagher said. “We have a 20-year-old young man who’s been in prison in El Salvador for almost two months.”
When asked, Ingebretsen declined to say what steps, if any, have been taken to comply with the judge’s order to facilitate Cristian’s return, but added that the defendants and the State Department are aware of the order.
Kevin DeJong, an attorney representing Cristian, said that he is concerned the government is making an effort to “significantly delay compliance with the court’s order.”
DeJong added that he received notice last week from the government that another class member “was improperly removed” under Title 8 authorities.
“I will flag your honor that in fact, they notified us 15 days after that class member had been removed,” DeJong told the judge.
DeJong said that he is considering what legal strategy to employ for that particular class member.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
