Judge Seeks Clarification from DHS Following El Salvador’s Statement

As disputes persist over the government’s extensive Alien Enemies Act (AEA) deportations of Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a federal judge in Maryland chosen by President Donald Trump is seeking explanations from the administration following an important admission regarding legal responsibility.

In a Tuesday letter addressed to the attorneys in J.O.P. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — a case concerning “Cristian,” a 20-year-old Venezuelan identified by Politico as Daniel Lozano-Camargo who was “incorrectly” deported from the U.S. due to a technicality and notwithstanding a settlement — U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher indicated that she was taking judicial notice of a court filing in J.G.G. v. Trump.

J.G.G. is a D.C. District Court AEA case that previously reached the U.S. Supreme Court and left with the justices concluding in April that detained alleged Tren de Aragua gang members were “entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal” — that is, they were entitled to due process before being deported.

As recently as Monday, the J.G.G. plaintiffs filed an exhibit of a United Nations report on “Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances” that contained El Salvador’s admission that jurisdiction and “legal responsibility” for deportees imprisoned in CECOT belong to the United States. From the report:

The actions of the State of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another State, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other State. In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters.

El Salvador’s statement directly conflicted with the Trump administration’s representations in court to Chief Judge James Boasberg, who was told the detainees “are in the custody of a foreign nation pursuant to its laws”; that the U.S. neither had “constructive custody” of them nor jurisdiction over them.

The explanation also conflicted with what DHS said in April of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case in Maryland. The agency averred that Abrego Garcia was at that time “held in the sovereign, domestic custody of the independent nation of El Salvador” and that DHS “does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”

Evidently, Judge Gallagher is aware of the implications of the UN report and is interested in getting to the bottom of it all, particularly on what the Trump administration plans on doing to “facilitate” the return of Lozano-Camargo to America.

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“In status reports submitted pursuant to this Court’s June 5, 2025 Order, Defendants have repeatedly skirted this Court’s directive to provide information regarding the steps they have taken and will take to facilitate the return of Cristian to the United States,” Gallagher wrote. “Instead, Defendants have repeatedly made oblique references to their request of ‘assistance’ from the U.S. Department of State (DOS), which has ‘enter[ed] into negotiations to facilitate Cristian’s return’ and ‘assumed responsibility on behalf of the U.S. Government for … diplomatic discussions with El Salvador.'”