BALTIMORE — (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia has become a household name as the Trump administration is engaged in an intense legal campaign to keep him locked up in an El Salvador prison despite his mistaken deportation. But his case isn't the only one of its kind inching through the U.S. court system.
Nearly two months have passed since a 20-year-old Venezuelan native, known only as Cristian in court filings, was deported to El Salvador despite having a pending asylum application. Now his lawyers want to know if there are others like him.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher stopped short of ordering the Trump administration to produce a list of any others who are in the same legal situation as Cristian. But the judge made it clear during a hearing Tuesday that she won't second-guess her earlier order for the Trump administration to facilitate Cristian's return to the U.S.
Gallagher, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, said it is a “fair inference” that the administration has done nothing to comply with her April 23 decision. She gave the government until Thursday to appeal her ruling before she considers ordering specific steps to comply with the order.
Gallagher said the case isn't about whether Cristian is entitled to asylum if he is able to return to the U.S.
“The issue is and always has been one of process,” the judge said. “People are entitled to that.”
Abrego Garcia and Cristian both were deported on March 15. Dozens of other people were flown from the U.S. to El Salvador after Trump issued a proclamation calling for the arrest and removal of Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law.
Cristian had been transferred into federal custody from a jail in Harris County, Texas, in January. Abrego Garcia was arrested in Maryland, where he lived with his wife — a U.S. citizen — and their children.
Unlike Cristian, Abrego Garcia is a native of El Salvador. A U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 protected him from being sent there because he likely faced persecution by local Salvadoran gangs that terrorized him and his family.
Gallagher ruled that the government violated a 2019 settlement agreement when it deported Cristian. She said she was guided by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis' ruling that Trump's Republican administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.
“Standing by and taking no action is not facilitation,” Gallagher wrote. “In prior cases involving wrongfully removed individuals, courts have ordered, and the government has taken, affirmative steps toward facilitating return.”
Gallagher said her order requires the government to make “a good faith request” for the government of El Salvador to release Cristian to U.S. custody.
Xinis, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, ordered the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. The judge set May deadlines this month for administration officials to testify under oath about what they have done to comply.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys said the administration was moving toward bringing him back when it asked for a pause in the court case last month.
“We agreed to that request because we understood it to be made in good faith,” the lawyers said in a news release. “Unfortunately, one week later, it remains unclear what, if anything, the government has done in the past seven days to bring our client home to his family.”
The Justice Department is likely to appeal Gallagher's rulings in Cristian's favor. Any appeal would be heard by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the meantime, Gallagher refused Tuesday to suspend her April 23 decision.
The judge scheduled Tuesday's hearing to find out what, if anything, the government has done to comply with her order to facilitate Cristian's return. Justice Department attorney Richard Ingebretsen merely told her that the State Department was notified of her ruling.
“That is the extent of the information,” Ingebretsen added.
One of Cristian's attorneys, Kevin DeJong, dismissed that response as a “non-answer” and expressed concern that the administration is trying to avoid complying with the judge's order.
Ingebretsen said immigration officials have determined that Cristian isn't entitled to asylum. But the man's lawyers said he has a right to get a ruling on the merits of his asylum application by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Meanwhile, Cristian's lawyers want to know if the U.S. has deported other people who are covered by the same settlement that benefited him.
“There may well be other class members removed and we don't know about it," DeJong said. “It's not acceptable.”
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