A federal judge in Maryland has ordered the Trump administration to return a second migrant who was deported to El Salvador’s notorious prison system despite a previous court settlement barring their removal.
It might be hard for the president and his officials to argue the ruling is the work of a radical left, activist judge, as Trump appointed her.
According to ABC News, Maryland District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must facilitate the return of a man referred to as “Christian” in court records. Christian was one of hundreds of migrants deported to El Salvador and imprisoned in the notorious CECOT mega-prison without due process. Christian was previously party to a 2019 class action lawsuit that reached a settlement with the U.S. government allowing adults who entered the United States without documentation as unaccompanied minors to remain in the U.S. while their asylum claims were adjudicated.
In her ruling, Gallagher referenced the case of Kilmar Abgrego Garcia, a Maryland man who has also been sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration, despite a protective order barring his deportation to the country over fears for his safety.
“Like Judge [Paula] Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this court will order Defendants to facilitate Christian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties’ binding Settlement Agreement,” Gallagher wrote in her ruling determining that the government had violated the conditions of the 2019 settlement.
The Trump administration has countered that because they have deemed Christian an “alien enemy” under the Alien Enemies Act — an archaic wartime law that grants the president powers to deport citizens of nations the United States is engaged in armed conflict with without due process — he is no longer protected by the settlement.
Gallagher determined that the government must make “a good faith request to the government of El Salvador and to release Christian to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS.”
Gallagher’s decision came after Maryland District Court Judge Paual Xinis issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s defiance of the courts, accusing it on Wednesday of engaging in “a willful and bad faith refusal” to comply with orders related to the Abrego Garcia case.
The Trump administration is not pleased with their series of losses in court. In a Wednesday interview with Fox News, White House Deputy Chief of Staff called for “radical left wing judges” to be removed from the bench.
“Either we all side and get behind President Trump to remove these terrorists from our communities or we let a rogue radical left judiciary shut down the machinery of our national security apparatus,” Miller screamed at Fox News Host Sean Hannity. “President Trump will make this nation safer than ever before and do it over the fighting and opposition of the communist left-wing judges.”
Someone should let Miller know that in the case of Christian, the “communist left-wing” judge ruling against their attempts to ignore the rule of law is a Trump appointee.
