Judge orders return to U.S. of second migrant deported to El Salvador (2025)

Separately, the Trump administration shared its plans in a federal court filing in Texas for notifying migrants it intends to deport under the act, revealing that detainees will be given 12 hours to state whether they want to contest being labeled an “alien enemy.” Lawyers representing the migrants said that will not offer them a meaningful opportunity to contest the designation.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that detainees deported under the Alien Enemies Act must first have an opportunity to challenge their deportations. Since then, migrants in several court districts across the country have filed habeas petitions to try to block their removal.

“It’s extraordinary not only that the government believes 12 hours is sufficient but that it could keep that information secret from the public and the other courts considering the notice issue, including the Supreme Court,” said Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney on the case.

The developments came as the Trump administration is facing increasing pressure to return Kilmar Abrego García, a Maryland man it has admitted was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher of Maryland found that another man should also have been shielded from removal. The federal judge said in a court filing that a migrant identified as “Cristian” should have been protected from deportation because he was part of a settlement involving several plaintiffs who were granted the right to remain in the United States while their asylum claims were processed.

The 20-year-old Venezuelan man was sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act on March 15 after President Donald Trump invoked the centuries-old authority against alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang.

“We filed this motion to hold the government accountable to the promises it made to the Court and to the thousands of vulnerable young people whose futures depend on the integrity of this process,” Cristian’s lawyers said in a statement Thursday. “We are grateful that the court upheld the rights of Cristian and other class members to pursue their asylum claims safely in the United States.”

The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the ruling, instead referring a reporter to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a question on whether the Trump administration plans to seek Cristian’s return to the United States.

Cristian came to the United States as an unaccompanied minor and was part of a plaintiff class in a lawsuit against the government. The lawsuit contended that he and other migrants who arrived as children should be able to stay in the United States while their asylum claims are adjudicated.

A settlement was reached in November. The agreement says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “will refrain from executing the Class Member’s final removal order until [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] issues a Final Determination on one properly filed asylum application.”

The Trump administration argued that Cristian’s status as an “alien enemy” supersedes his ability to carry out his asylum claim. But Gallagher said the case was not simply about any migrants asking for asylum but this particular group of migrants, who a court has already ordered are protected until a decision is reached on whether they qualify for asylum. Gallagher pointed out that no exceptions were made for the Alien Enemies Act in the settlement.

The judge also referenced Abrego García’s case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the administration must “facilitate” his return to the United States. Gallagher said she stood by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis and the assertions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that the government’s facilitation requires concrete steps to bring the erroneously removed migrant back to the United States.

Gallagher was initially nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, but her nomination stalled in the Senate. She was renominated by Trump during his first term.

“Standing by and taking no action is not facilitation. In prior cases involving wrongfully removed individuals, courts have ordered, and the government has taken, affirmative steps toward facilitating return,” Gallagher said in the opinion. She said the Trump administration needs to make a “good faith request” to the Salvadoran government to release Cristian.

Nearly 300 migrants have been sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT, its Spanish acronym. The unprecedented agreement to hold U.S.-detained migrants in a foreign prison with a history of alleged human rights violations has sparked a national outcry and contentious court battles.

On Thursday, the Trump administration made public the form that migrants are given to notify them that they have been identified as a member of the Tren de Aragua gang and will be removed under the Alien Enemies Act.

Carlos Cisneros, an assistant Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office director based in Harlingen, Texas, stated in a court filing that the Trump administration is giving migrants 12 hours to decide whether they would like to contest their designation as “alien enemies.” If they do want to contest it, they are given 24 hours to file a habeas petition.

If they don’t file it within that 24-hour window, they are then subject to removal, Cisneros said. He added that “such removal may not actually occur for many more hours or days, giving the alien additional time to file the petition.”

Cisneros, who has worked at ICE for 25 years, said such a timeline is “consistent with, if not more generous than” the time frame for expedited removal procedures.

The form the migrants are provided with is written only in English, but Cisneros said it is “read and explained to each alien in a language that alien understands.”

The information had been sealed in a case in which a federal judge in Texas had granted three petitioners and other migrants in the district a temporary restraining order, preventing their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. But the ACLU, which is representing the men, urged the court to make it public.