A 20-year-old Venezuelan man seeking a return to the United States after being sent to El Salvador won a legal victory over President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday.
A divided panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to leave in place an order directing the Trump administration to facilitate the man’s return after a federal judge in Maryland determined that his deportation breached an existing legal settlement.
The man, identified in court records by the pseudonym “Cristian,” challenged his removal after he was sent in mid-March on a flight to El Salvador following President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, found in April that Cristian’s removal violated a class action settlement on behalf of individuals who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and later sought asylum.
The administration then asked the appellate court to reverse Gallagher’s order, arguing that the directive to return Cristian to the U.S. “would impose serious foreign-policy harms on the Government and threaten the public interest, while doing nothing for Cristian,” according to the government’s court filings.
Circuit Judges DeAndrea Gist Benjamin and Roger Gregory, writing for the panel’s majority, rejected the administration’s reasoning.
“The argument that the Government would be ‘irreparably harmed’ by facilitating Cristian’s return rings hollow,” Benjamin wrote. “Cristian’s injury arises from the fact that instead of having his asylum application adjudicated on the merits—as the Settlement Agreement guaranteed—he was summarily removed,” added Benjamin, a Biden appointee to the circuit court.
More than 250 suspected gang members arrive in El Salvador by plane, including 238 members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and 23 members of the MS-13 gang, who were deported to El Salvador by the US in San Salvador, El Salvador on March 16, 2025. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele confirmed they will be sent to the country’s infamous mega-prison at CECOP facility prison. San Salvador forces took heavy security measures. (Photo by El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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The government argued in its motion to stay that removing Cristian under the Alien Enemies Act was not a breach of the settlement agreement, which was finalized in 2024.
The government also challenged Gallagher’s order on the grounds that an “Indicative Asylum Decision,” issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) weeks after Cristian’s deportation, determined he would be denied asylum because he is an admitted Tren de Aragua gang member, which he denies.
The government also notes Cristian has a felony drug possession conviction in Harris County, Texas.
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Cristian’s lawyers for a comment.
The appellate panel majority, however, determined that the “indicative” asylum decision, reached without an opportunity for Cristian to contest its findings, “was not an authentic change in factual circumstances.”
In a concurring opinion, Gregory, a Clinton appointee, criticized the Trump administration for its attempt to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to excuse its alleged breach of the settlement agreement in this case.
“The government’s argument in this case is that this plainly invalid invocation of the Act can be used to void any and all contractual obligations of the federal government. That cannot be — and is not — the rule of law,” Gregory wrote.
In his dissent, Circuit Judge Julius Richardson — a Trump appointee — argued that the district court’s order exceeded its authority; and that returning Cristian to the United States would be futile, given the near-certainty that his application for asylum would be denied.
“Still, it is in this case that the district court has directed the Executive to engage in specific diplomatic negotiations with a foreign power. Despite serious merits problems and little reason to think its order would help Cristian, the district court entered a more potent injunction than any other court has in the numerous Alien Enemies cases pending across the country.” Richardson wrote.
The Trump administration could now ask the full 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case or petition for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
