A Trump-appointed federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Venezuelan man who was deported to El Salvador last month, saying his deportation violated a prior court settlement.
The 20-year-old migrant, who goes by the pseudonym "Cristian" in court filings, was deported to an El Salvador prison on March 15.
The deportation came after President Donald Trump's "Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua" proclamation, known as the AEA proclamation.
Maryland District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher, however, ruled Wednesday that Cristian should not have been deported because he is part of a class action settlement that bars his removal pending his asylum application adjudication.
Cristian was part of a class action lawsuit filed in 2019 by a group of undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied children and later sought to remain in the U.S. as their asylum applications were adjudicated on the merits by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A settlement in the case was reached in 2024.
Despite the settlement, Cristian was deported.
Counsel for the class plaintiffs filed an emergency motion on April 14 to enforce the settlement agreement.
Following the judge's ruling, the attorneys said in a statement they are grateful he and others can pursue their asylum claims "safely."
The attorneys said they filed the motion to hold the government "accountable to the promises it made to the Court and to the thousands of young people whose futures depend on the integrity of this process."
But the defendants — including the Department of Homeland Security, USCIS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — argued that Cristian's removal didn’t violate the settlement agreement because "his designation as an alien enemy pursuant to the AEA results in him ceasing to be a member" of the class group.
A declaration filed by Robert L. Cerna, an ICE acting field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, said Cristian was arrested in January for cocaine possession in Harris County and ERO later placed a detainer on him. Cerna said ICE determined Cristian was subject to the AEA proclamation.
Gallagher ordered that he be returned to the U.S. under the settlement agreement.
"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 wrote in a memorandum.
Her memorandum also mentioned the high-profile deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported to a Salvadoran prison in March.
"Thus, like Judge 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," Gallagher said.
She went further to say that "facilitating" includes "defendants making a good faith request to the government of El Salvador to release Cristian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application."
Her order directed the Trump administration not to remove any members of the class settlement, noting that once USCIS adjudicates a class member’s asylum application on its merits, the individual is no longer a class member.
NBC News has reached out to the attorneys representing the class group, as well as the Trump administration, for comment on the order.
CORRECTION (April 24, 2025, 10:55 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the subject’s pseudonym. He is Cristian, not Christian.
