(BALTIMORE) — A federal judge in Maryland is hearing arguments from the federal government Tuesday over the 20-year-old Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador whose removal violated a previous court settlement, according to a court order.
The hearing comes two weeks after U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of the man, identified as Cristian in court filings.
In her opinion, 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.
But in a court filing on Monday, attorneys for the Department of Justice called Cristian a member of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua and argued that, if returned, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would deny his asylum application because of his alleged gang membership.
The government said USCIS issued an “Indicative Asylum Decision” last week “making clear” that if the 20-year old Venezuelan returned to the U.S., the agency would deny his asylum application.
“USCIS based this decision on Cristian being [redacted] TdA which has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and described as “a brutal organization ‘that uses murder and torture to achieve its aims,” the government said.
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