Baltimore, Maryland – On Tuesday, a federal judge refused to change an order that required the Trump administration to force a 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker back to El Salvador, citing due process protections.
During a hearing in Baltimore Tuesday, Trump's appointee, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, rejected the government's request to amend her previous ruling that ordered the government to return 20-year-old Venezuelan Daniel Rozano Camargo to the soil in the United States.
However, she also agreed to suspend the 48-hour sentence. It's enough time for the government to ask the Fourth Circuit to file a lawsuit.
If the court declines, Gallagher said she would amend her ruling to set a formal timeline for the 20-year-old immigrants to return to the United States.
Identification of a second deported man who wants the judge to come back to us.
It was held by someone referring to the El Salvador Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) prison during a May Day demonstration of President Donald Trump and his immigration policy in Houston, Texas. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP)
The decision “will strike a proper balance between giving the government the ability to appeal to the High Court as it deems appropriate.” The plaintiffs also allow U.S. courts to seek legitimate proceedings, Gallagher said.
Previously known as “Christian” in court documents, Lozano Camargo was deported to El Salvador in March under the early waves of Trump administration's alien enemies.
Gallagher ruled in April that the government violated a 2024 settlement between DHS and a group of young asylum seekers, including Lozano Camargo. Under that deal, the DHS agreed not to deport immigrants who entered the United States as unaccompanied children until they are fully heard in court.
Last month, Gallagher said he ordered the US government to promote his release as Lozano Camargo's deportation was a “breach of contract” and his asylum case has not yet been heard.
Gallagher repeated her previous decision on Tuesday. She also nodded to the conviction as in recent January with two obvious low-level drug offenses and it has nothing to do with the strength of his asylum demand. Rather, she said it was to allow the process of being attacked by DHS under the law and under settlement.
The settlement agreement “requires him to be here and have hearing,” she said.
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Residents protesting against the Trump administration will march to county courthouse in Livingston, Montana on April 19, 2025. (William Campbell/Getty Images)
Gallagher noted that his lawyers are not capable of challenging the case in court, and that his removal without a U.S. court ruling “will determine the outcome in advance.”
The Trump administration told the court that Lozano Camargo was entitled to removal under the alien enemy laws.
On Monday, an administration lawyer told the court that his designation of “AEA-based alien enemies from becoming members” of the class that negotiated the settlement negotiated the settlement.
During a status hearing Tuesday, Gallagher revealed that her decision was based solely on protection of the due process.
In this case, the government “measurs the utility using the wrong yardstick,” she said, adding that it is not a case of whether Rozanokamargo will ultimately undergo asylum. It's a process problem.
The process is important for a variety of reasons, she said — remember that even if the outcome of a particular criminal case or trial appears obvious, an individual is still entitled to trial under US law.
More than 250 suspicious gang members, including 238 members of Venezuela's Trend Aragua and 23 members of MS-13, will arrive in El Salvador on March 16, 2025. (President El Salvador / Handouts /Anadoru via Getty Images)
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“We don't skip to the end and say, 'I know how this will end, so I'm just going to skip that part,'” she said.
The administration's appeal against the Fourth Circuit is scheduled by Thursday afternoon if it chooses to file it.
