A federal judge on Friday held the Department of Homeland Security in contempt for deporting a young asylum seeker to El Salvador.
US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, ordered the Trump Administration to bring him back.
The Trump Administration twice deported the asylum seeker, identified as 19-year-old E.L.A., in violation of three different court orders.
In 2019, a federal class-action lawsuit challenged Trump’s policy for minors seeking asylum.
As part of the settlement, unaccompanied minors seeking asylum cannot be deported before an asylum determination has been made.
ABC News reported:
A federal judge on Friday found the Trump administration in contempt for deporting an asylum-seeker to El Salvador in violation of three court orders.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ordered the government to return the man — identified in court documents as E.L.A. — to the U.S. and to “refrain” from executing any removal orders against him until his asylum case is fully processed.
According to court documents, E.L.A. was wrongfully deported twice.
After his first deportation, he voluntarily boarded a plane on August 7 to return to the U.S., “submitted himself” to immigration custody, and “endured weeks of detention only to be wrongfully removed by the government a second time to his country of feared persecution.”
The case stems from a 2019 federal class-action lawsuit that protects the asylum rights of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors.
According to court documents, at least 107 people protected by the settlement — 54 confirmed class members and 53 more the government flagged as potentially protected — were removed under final deportation orders before their asylum claims were decided.
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