A U.S. appeals court will review the Trump administration’s effort to block the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who was deported to El Salvador earlier this year, allowing Salvadoran authorities to keep him in custody for now. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last week to hear the administration’s appeal, issuing a stay through May 15 on a lower court order that had required the government to bring the asylum seeker back to U.S. soil immediately.
The court also directed the plaintiffs to file their response by noon on Monday, while the Trump administration has until 9 a.m. Tuesday to reply. At the center of the case is Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a 20-year-old Venezuelan national previously identified in court filings as “Cristian,” who was deported to El Salvador in March as part of the Trump administration’s initial round of removals under the Alien Enemies Act, Fox News reported.
In April, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ruled that the deportation of Daniel Lozano-Camargo violated a 2024 agreement between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a group of young asylum seekers who had entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors.
Under the terms of that agreement, DHS committed not to deport the individuals involved until their asylum claims had been fully adjudicated in U.S. courts. Judge Gallagher determined that Lozano-Camargo’s removal constituted a “breach of contract,” as his asylum case had not yet been heard, and ordered the U.S. government to take steps to secure his release.
She reaffirmed that decision in court last week, dismissing a new filing from the Justice Department. The filing stated that they had determined Lozano-Camargo was eligible for removal under the law, referencing his previous arrest and conviction for cocaine possession in Houston earlier this year. Justice Department officials previously claimed in court documents that Lozano-Camargo was a member of a “violent terrorist gang,” although they have not connected him to Tren de Aragua. Some sections of their latest court filing have been redacted.
Gallagher had specifically ordered the Trump administration to make a “good faith request to the government of El Salvador” to “release Cristian, [or Lozano-Camargo], to U.S. custody for transport back to the United States to await the adjudication of his asylum application on the merits by USCIS,” which it had not done. Gallagher emphasized in court last week that her decision has nothing to do with the strength of his asylum request, and is based solely on due process protections, Fox reported.
“I don’t think that this is a case about whether or not Cristian is going to eventually get asylum,” she told lawyers for the Trump administration. “Process is important. We don’t skip to the end and say, ‘We all know how this is going to end so we’ll just skip that part.’ Whether he ultimately receives asylum is not the issue. The issue is – and has always been – one of process.”