By LEA SKENE, Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) — Despite a judge’s order calling for his return to the United States from El Salvador, a Venezuelan migrant was instead sent back to his home country in a prisoner exchange deal reached last week, an unexpected development that left his lawyers scrambling to locate him.
It marks the latest wrinkle in yet another messy court battle over the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, which has repeatedly challenged the power of federal courts.
Attorneys for the Venezuelan native — identified only as Cristian in court papers — said during a court hearing Tuesday that they don’t know where he is or how to get in touch with him.
After he was deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison in March, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ordered the government to facilitate the his return to the U.S. She cited the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to the same notorious prison.
Cristian is among a group of plaintiffs who entered the country as unaccompanied children seeking asylum. A 2019 settlement agreement said they couldn’t be deported until their asylum claims were adjudicated. Because his application is still pending, Gallagher said, the Trump administration violated that agreement in sending Cristian to a notorious prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members.
And now he’s back in Venezuela, the country he escaped years ago because he feared persecution, his attorneys argued during Tuesday’s hearing in federal court in Baltimore.
“They sent him back to the one country he’s actually seeking asylum from,” attorney Kevin DeJong told the court. “We were shocked to see that happen on Friday.”
Cristian was released from CECOT along with 251 other Venezuelan migrants who had been imprisoned in El Salvador since March. President Donald Trump paid El Salvador $6 million to house them there after he issued a proclamation calling for the arrest and removal of Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law.
As part of the deal on Friday, Venezuela released 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents in exchange for getting back the 252 deportees.
“Cristian was a pawn in this plan, I don’t know how else to say it,” DeJong said. “He was a pawn in this prisoner exchange deal.”
DeJong said Cristian’s legal team hasn’t been able to get in touch with him since.
Gallagher, who was nominated to the federal bench by Trump in 2019, told the government’s lawyers Tuesday to help provide contact information for Cristian. But Justice Department attorney Ruth Ann Mueller wasn’t able to confirm even where in Venezuela he ended up.
“This is a fast-evolving situation,” she said.
The judge said she’s seen no evidence showing the Trump administration tried to get Cristian sent directly to the U.S. upon his release from prison in El Salvador.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they plan to file a motion requesting sanctions against the government for failing to comply with the court’s orders.
Mueller, however, argued they were in compliance, saying she believes “what happened with El Salvador is moot now,” given Cristian’s release. She said facilitating his return looks “very different now that he’s in Venezuela.” The first step would be Cristian’s lawyers contacting him and confirming whether he indeed wants to return to the U.S.
Before his deportation, he was transferred into federal custody from a jail in Harris County, Texas, in January.
Immigration officials have already determined that Cristian isn’t entitled to asylum, according to earlier testimony from the government. But his lawyers argue he’s still entitled to a ruling on the merits of his asylum application by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Attorneys for the government wrote in court papers last week that Venezuelan leaders have pledged not to interfere with travel plans for anyone in Cristian’s position who has to attend legal proceedings in the U.S.
“With these assurances now having been obtained, and Cristian now having been released from El Salvador’s custody, the Department of State has pledged to assist the Department of Homeland Security in facilitating the return of Cristian should he wish to return,” the attorneys wrote.
Mellissa Harper, acting assistant director of enforcement and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a written declaration to the court that State Department and embassy officials have assumed responsibility for high-level diplomatic discussions about the situation.
Gallagher ordered the government to file weekly status reports as the case proceeds.