Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi listen as President Donald Trump meets with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Apr. 14 to discuss issues including the detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Daniel Lozano-Camargo, previously referred to in court documents as "Cristian," is a 20-year-old Venezuelan immigrant deported in March under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law invoked by Trump to quickly remove hundreds of immigrants and send them to El Salvador to be detained in the country’s maximum-security CECOT prison.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled in April that his deportation violated a settlement agreement that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stuck last year with a group of young asylum seekers, including Lozano-Camargo, who had entered the country as an unaccompanied child and later sought asylum.
Under that agreement, DHS agreed not to deport the immigrants until their asylum cases were fully adjudicated in court, which she said had not happened in Lozano-Camargo’s case prior to his removal.
Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ruled that his deportation was a breach of contract. In ordering his return to the U.S., she stressed that her ruling had nothing to do with the strength of his asylum request in question – a nod to the two apparent low-level drug offenses he had racked up prior to his removal – but simply his ability to have his asylum request adjudicated in court under the agreement with DHS.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld that decision late last month, clearing the way for Gallagher to set a formal timeline for the government to comply with facilitating the return. DHS officials told the court last week in a status update that Lozano-Camargo remains held at CECOT.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW EL SALVADOR DEPORTATION FLIGHT CASE
The Trump administration relented for the first time last week and complied with a federal judge's order to return a deported migrant removed from the U.S. based on erroneous information. (Getty Images)
Murphy ordered the Trump administration to keep in U.S. custody a group of six immigrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or notice until they have the opportunity to conduct so-called "reasonable fear interviews," or a chance to explain to U.S. officials any fear of persecution or torture, should they be released into South Sudanese custody.
Currently, all six individuals remain detained at a U.S. military base in Djibouti – the only U.S. military base currently operational in all of Africa – and where ICE officials tasked with keeping them in custody cited recent health risks, including from malaria exposure, searing heat, nearby burn pits as well as the "imminent danger" of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen.
In response, Murphy reiterated earlier this month that the individuals need not remain in South Sudan and that the U.S. is free to move them to another location, including back to the U.S., to more safely carry out these proceedings. It is unclear whether the government has plans to relocate the group.
WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP'S DEPORTATION EFFORTS?
Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, attends a panel discussion at the annual ABA Spring Antitrust Meeting in Washington, D.C. (AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg last week ordered the Trump administration to provide all non-citizens deported from the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador to be afforded the opportunity to seek habeas relief in court and challenge their alleged gang status – the latest in a heated fight centered on Trump's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport certain migrants.
Boasberg reiterated in the 69-page ruling that due process includes providing migrants deported to CECOT prior notice of removal, as well as so-called habeas protections, or the right to challenge their removals in court. He gave the Trump administration until Wednesday to submit to the court plans for how it will go about providing the habeas relief to plaintiffs held at CECOT.
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"Defendants plainly deprived these individuals of their right to seek habeas relief before their summary removal from the United States — a right that need not itself be vindicated through a habeas petition," Boasberg said in his order.
The order is almost certain to spark fierce backlash from the Trump administration, which has previously railed against Boasberg's earlier rulings and the temporary restraining order handed down in March. Boasberg later found probable cause to hold the administration in contempt of court, citing the government's "willful disregard" for his March 15 emergency order, which ordered the administration to halt its deportation under the Alien Enemies Act, and immediately return all planes to the U.S., which did not happen.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
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