Federal judge greenlights push to hold Trump admin in contempt

BALTIMORE— – A federal judge in Baltimore cleared the way for potential contempt proceedings to be brought against the Trump administration on Tuesday after it failed to comply with a court order requiring it to return a deported Venezuelan migrant from El Salvador back to U.S. soil.

The update from U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher capped an extraordinary court hearing centered on the status and location of “Cristian,” a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant who was deported to El Salvador’s CECOT maximum-security prison in March, as part of the Trump administration’s early wave of Alien Enemies Act deportation flights.

Gallagher told Cristian’s lawyers on Tuesday that the flurry of recent updates in the case could allow plaintiffs to potentially move on sanctions or possible contempt proceedings against the Trump administration, though she stressed she was not opining on whether the effort would be successful.

“I don’t disagree that you have proffered a basis under which you could potentially seek some sort of sanctions or contempt” against the administration, Gallagher said. “I’m certainly not ruling on that – or offering any opinion whether that effort would succeed – but it sounds to me that you have proffered a basis on which you believe such a motion could possibly be forthcoming.”

FEDERAL JUDGE EXTENDS ARGUMENTS IN ABREGO GARCIA CASE, SLAMS ICE WITNESS WHO ‘KNEW NOTHING’

She also stressed that, despite the procedural changes before the court, it does not mean they are “abandoning ship” in efforts to secure Cristian’s return to the U.S., though she acknowledged the situation on the ground had shifted significantly.

Gallagher, a Trump appointee, had ruled in April that Cristian’s deportation violated a settlement agreement that the Department of Homeland Security struck last year with a group of young asylum seekers. Under the 2024 deal, DHS agreed not to deport members of that class until their asylum claims could be fully adjudicated by a U.S. court.

The hearing sharply underscored the fast-changing fact pattern underpinning Cristian’s custodial status. Days earlier, Cristian was deported from CECOT, in El Salvador, to his home country of Venezuela. 

Gallagher said Tuesday that the new situation has put the court “in a different posture” compared to its position just one week ago.

Lawyers for Cristian argued the move, which they had no prior notice of, should be grounds to move on holding the Trump administration in criminal contempt. The judge, for her part, did not rule it out.

In Gallagher’s ruling four months ago, she determined that Cristian’s removal was a “breach of contract” due to the settlement terms of the 2024 DHS deal. She then ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S.

But as Tuesday’s hearing made clear, Daniel Lozano-Camargo, or the migrant referred to in court documents as “Cristian,” is not on his way to the U.S. from CECOT.

In fact, Justice Department lawyers confirmed Tuesday that he was deported from CECOT back to his home country of Venezuela on Friday along with 251 other Venezuelan migrants, whom the Trump administration deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in March under the auspices of a wartime immigration law used just three times previously in U.S. history.

Their return to Venezuela was part of a prisoner swap made in order to secure the release of 10 Americans detained in that country, and was confirmed later Friday by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

It has also raised profound concerns about the status of the hundreds of Venezuelan migrants sent from CECOT to their country of origin. Little is known about the individuals deported to CECOT earlier this year, and it is unclear if, or how many, migrants in question had been given “withholding of removal” orders from the U.S. blocking their return to Venezuela.

Cristian’s lawyer, Kevin DeJong, on Tuesday upbraided the Trump administration for its “blatant disregard” for Gallagher’s order, and described his inclusion in the prisoner swap as an “egregious violation” of the April order.

FEDERAL JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG FINDS PROBABLE CAUSE TO HOLD TRUMP IN CONTEMPT OVER DEPORTATION FLIGHTS

The Trump administration, plaintiffs said Tuesday, “sent [Cristian] to Venezuela, the country he is seeking asylum from,” without providing any notice to the court or to his legal team until after he was on the ground.

DeJong argued that the exchange appears to have been in the works for several weeks, which he said suggests that the Trump administration took “active, purposeful steps to deport [Cristian] to the country from which he actively fears persecution.”

“There have been recurring violations” from the administration, DeJong said, and “blatant disregard for the [DHS] settlement agreement, for the court’s orders, and the court’s orders to file status reports.”

“I do not say this lightly – and it’s a weighty issue to consider – but given the history of violations here,” DeJong said, they believe that “criminal contempt should be on the table.”

Gallagher did not disagree. She told the plaintiffs that they seem to have proffered a basis under which they “could potentially seek some sort of sanctions or contempt” against the Trump administration, though she stressed she was not opining on whether the effort would succeed.

She also noted that the update does not mean the court is “abandoning ship” on its efforts to secure Cristian’s return to the U.S., though she acknowledged the situation on the ground had shifted significantly.

After a short recess, lawyers for Cristian told Gallagher they would file appropriate sanctions-related measures within the next 10 days. 

In the interim, Gallagher said she will still require the Trump administration to file weekly status reports on Cristian’s status in Venezuela. 

She also sparred with Justice Department attorney Ruth Ann Mueller in a remarkable exchange, after Mueller argued that any ongoing discovery as to Cristian’s status in Venezuela is “outside the scope” of the relief the court has been afforded, since the relief sought “has already been provided.”

They argued the case should be dismissed since the matter is now moot, which Gallagher strongly refuted. 

Gallagher then asked how the Trump administration’s filings to date answer the court’s question of whether it complied with her order to request the Salvadorian government return Cristian to the U.S. or to help “facilitate his return.”

DOJ argued that question is moot also, since Cristian is in Venezuelan custody now.

“No, that doesn’t comply with my order,” Gallagher sharply objected. “That doesn’t answer the question.”

The case bears many similarities to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian migrant wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March and ordered by a federal judge to be returned to the U.S. 

Like Abrego Garcia, Cristian remained in El Salvador for months, despite a court order demanding his return, and requiring the administration to file regular updates to his status in order to determine compliance with the order. 

But Tuesday’s motions hearing – and the blitz of court filings submitted to Gallagher in recent days – underscored the very different situation that has played out instead. 

“Cristian was a pawn in this plan,” DeJohg said on Tuesday, noting that the government took “active purposeful steps to deport him” despite the court order, and with apparent prior knowledge. 

“They could have included him” on the flight back to the U.S. with Abrego Garcia, he argued.

Instead, DeJong said, the “only reasonable inference we see is that the government attorneys willfully disregarded” the court.

Gallagher in May declined to grant the Trump administration’s request for her to lift her order requiring them to return Cristian. She stressed that her order has nothing to do with the strength of his asylum request, in a nod to two apparent low-level drug offenses and a conviction as recently as January. 

Rather, she said, it is about allowing him the process under the law, and under the settlement struck with DHS.

She said then that it is not a case of whether Lozano-Camargo will eventually receive asylum – it’s a question of process.

The DHS settlement agreement “requires him to be here and have his hearing,” she said then.