A 20 -year -old Venezuelan man who is looking for a return to the United States after being sent to El Salvador won a legal victory over the administration of President Donald Trump on Monday.
A divided panel of the Court of Appeals of the 4th Circuit voted 2-1 to leave an order that ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of man after a federal judge in Maryland determined that his deportation violated an existing legal agreement.
The man, identified in the judicial records by the pseudonym “Cristian”, challenged his removal after he was sent in mid -March on a flight to El Salvador after the invocation of President Trump of the Law of Alien enemies.
The American district judge Stephanie Gallagher, designated by Trump, found in April that Cristian’s removal violated a class action agreement on behalf of the people who entered the United States as unaccompanied minors and then sought asylum.
Then, the Administration asked the Court of Appeals to reverse the order of Gallagher, arguing that the directive of returning Cristian to the United States “would impose serious damage of foreign policy to the government and threaten the public interest, while doing nothing for Cristian,” according to the archives of the Government Court.
The circuit judges of Andrea Gist Benjamin and Roger Gregory, writing for most of the panel, rejected the reasoning of the administration.
“The argument that the Government would be ‘irreparably damaged’ by facilitating the rings of Cristian Hollow,” Benjamin wrote. “Cristian’s injury arises from the fact that instead of having his asylum request awarded in the merits, as guaranteed the guaranteed agreement, he was summarily eliminated,” added Benjamin, a designated by Biden for the Circuit Court.
More than 250 alleged gang members arrive at El Salvador by plane, including 238 members of the Train de Venezuela gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the United States in San Salvador, on March 16, 2025. Prison. San Salvador forces took strong security measures. (Photo of El Salvador Presidency / Brochure / Anadolu through Getty Images)
Anadolu through Getty Images
The Government argued in its motion to remain to eliminate Cristian under the Alien enemies Law was not a violation of the agreement of agreement, which was ended in 2024.
The Government also challenged Gallagher’s order on the argument that an “asylum indicative decision” issued by US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS)
The government also points out that Cristian has a condemnation for drug possession in Harris County, Texas.
ABC News has communicated with the Department of National Security and Cristian’s lawyers for a comment.
However, the majority of the appeals panel determined that the “indicative” asylum decision reached without a chance for Cristian to challenge his findings, “it was not an authentic change in fact circumstances.”
In a concurrent opinion, Gregory, appointed by Clinton, criticized the Trump administration for his attempt to invoke the alien enemies law to apologize for his alleged breach of the agreement of agreement in this case.
“The government’s argument in this case is that this clearly invalid invocation of the law can be used to cancel each and every one of the contractual obligations of the federal government. That cannot be, and it is not, the rule of law,” Gregory wrote.
In his dissent, circuit judge Julius Richardson, a Trump designated, argued that the order of the District Court exceeded his authority; And that Cristian’s return to the United States would be useless, given the almost certainty that his asylum application would be denied.
“Even so, in this case, the District Court has ordered the Executive to participate in specific diplomatic negotiations with a foreign power. Despite the serious merits of the problems and the few reasons to think that his order would help Cristian, the District Court entered a more powerful court order than any other court in the numerous cases of enemy enemies throughout the country.” Richardson wrote.
The Trump administration could now ask the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case or the request for review of the United States Supreme Court.
