Trump-appointed judge orders administration to return second deported migrant

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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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 the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS."

The Trump administration, meanwhile, told the court it had determined that Cristian was eligible for removal under the Alien Enemies Act because he had been arrested and convicted for cocaine possession earlier this year.

They told the court that his designation as an "alien enemy pursuant to the AEA results in him ceasing to be a member" of the class that had negotiated a settlement. 

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That agreement did not appear to hold water with Gallagher, who ordered the government not to remove any other members of the class until their asylum claims are properly adjudicated.

"Therefore, under the plain terms of the Settlement Agreement and fundamental tenets of contract law, removal from the United States of a Class Member, including but not limited to Cristian, without a final determination on the merits by USCIS on the Class Member’s pending asylum application violates the Settlement Agreement," Gallagher said.

She also granted a temporary restraining order to another member of the class, an 18-year-old referred to as Javier, whom counsel for the group said was in "imminent danger" of being deported earlier this month, as ABC reported. 

Gallagher agreed that Javier was covered by the settlement with the government and blocked his removal from the U.S.