Judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of second deported man

A federal judge in Maryland ordered the return of a second man deported by the Trump administration to a Salvadoran prison, saying his removal violated a court settlement she approved in 2019.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ordered the return of a Venezuelan man referred to in court documents only as Cristian, while blocking the administration from removing anyone else protected by the settlement.

Gallagher said that 20-year-old Cristian was among those who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, protected from removal while they were permitted to seek asylum.

“Defendants are hereby ORDERED to facilitate Class Member Cristian’s return to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits,” she wrote in the Wednesday order.

The decision comes after U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man and Salvadoran national who had also been protected from deportation to El Salvador.

The Justice Department has been fighting that order as well as a Supreme Court decision upholding it that ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

That has prompted Xinis to order depositions and written questions between the parties to determine whether to hold any Trump officials in contempt.

The Trump administration has argued facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return requires only sending a plane if the Salvadoran government agrees to release him. President Nayib Bukele has said he will not do so.

Gallagher’s order appears to nod to that struggle, writing that “facilitation includes, but is not limited to, a good faith request by Defendants to the government of El Salvador to release Cristian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States.”

For immigration advocates, the second case is a sign there could be more men among those sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison who may have been removed in defiance of various protections.

“The second deportee that's being required to be returned, but I think that's incredibly important, because it is clear to those closely following the Garcia case that it doesn’t appear to be isolated,” Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, told The Hill.