Appeals Court Orders Return of Venezuelan Migrant Deported to El Salvador

A federal appeals court on Monday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a young Venezuelan migrant who was deported to a Salvadoran prison, marking the second time a court has demanded the Trump administration retrieve a migrant from El Salvador over concerns about the legality of his deportation.

In a 2-1 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block a judge’s earlier order requiring the return of a 20-year-old migrant identified in court filings as Cristian. The panel found the administration violated a class-action settlement protecting unaccompanied minors from deportation while their asylum claims are pending.

The Trump administration said it made a preliminary finding that Cristian would be denied asylum because he was classified as an “alien enemy” under the Alien Enemies Act. As a result, officials argued he was no longer protected by the court settlement that blocked the deportation of unaccompanied minors with pending asylum cases.

Cristian was removed from the United States earlier this year despite those protections, and federal officials argued his alleged ties to the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang, which the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization, justified his removal under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.

But the majority rejected that argument, with Judge Roger Gregory, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, slamming the administration’s legal theory that the growth of the Venezuelan criminal network in the U.S. constituted an “invasion” warranting wartime deportation authority.

“As is becoming far too common, we are confronted again with the efforts of the Executive Branch to set aside the rule of law in pursuit of its goals,” Gregory wrote in a concurring opinion. “It is the duty of courts to stand as a bulwark against the political tides that seek to override constitutional protections.”

But Trump-appointed Judge Julius Richardson dissented, arguing the matter was a contractual dispute improperly entangled with foreign policy.

“Many options may be available to district courts seeking to craft appropriate relief in response to deportations they find unlawful,” Richardson wrote. “But directing diplomatic negotiations to the Executive Branch is not among them.”

Although the Trump administration had argued the courts lacked authority to intervene, the two Democratic-appointed judges — Gregory and Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden — held the government to the terms of the class-action agreement.

The case, JOP v. DHS, is among several fast-moving legal fights over President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to carry out mass deportations of Venezuelans suspected of gang ties. On Friday, the Supreme Court extended an order temporarily blocking the administration from deporting another 176 men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

Richardson wrote that Cristian’s case is “difficult to reconcile” in part because “even winning all he seeks would give Cristian little prospect of real-world benefit.”

The administration has insisted it cannot retrieve another deportee, Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite the Supreme Court having ordered the administration to “facilitate” his removal. In an April 4 order, the justices stopped short of agreeing with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’s order that the administration “effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., leading to weeks of disputes over the specificity of the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Justice Department has argued it cannot retrieve Abrego Garcia now that he is in a foreign country and contends that courts cannot interfere in diplomatic activities.

Separately, a federal judge in Texas ordered the government on Monday to restore access to attorneys for a 24-year-old Venezuelan man deported to the country’s most notorious prison, the first ruling of its kind since Trump ramped up mass deportations after returning to the Oval Office in January.

Judge Keith Ellison, a Clinton appointee, gave officials until Wednesday to facilitate attorney-client contact for Widmer Josneyder Agelviz Sanguino, held incommunicado at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador.

“This shows that the court is as concerned as we are as to the whereabouts of this individual and the illegal justification for his continued detention,” said his attorney, Javier Rivera.