US Judge Holds Homeland Security in Contempt Over CECOT Deportation
Key Facts
El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre has taken American deportees for eighteen months, and US courts are still arguing about it. On one Friday in Washington, two separate benches took up the same question.
A federal judge in Maryland held the US Homeland Security department in contempt on 25 September. She ordered a deported asylum seeker brought back, hours after an appeals court in Washington weighed the removals to CECOT.
Why This Matters Beyond El Salvador
CECOT is the Terrorism Confinement Centre, a maximum-security prison opened by President Nayib Bukele in 2023. Since March 2025 it has also held men removed from the United States under American deportation orders.
That made a Salvadoran prison the endpoint of a policy decided in Washington. The legal question is whether a US court can reach a person once a foreign government holds him.
If the answer is no, a removal becomes final the moment the aircraft lands. If the answer is yes, every disputed deportation stays open to review for years.
For Latin American governments, the case sets the terms on which they accept deportees at all. For foreigners living in the United States, it decides how much a court order is worth in practice.
Two benches took the question up on the same day and from different directions. Neither has closed it.
What the Maryland Judge Ordered
US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher sits in Maryland and was appointed by President Donald Trump. She found that the government had violated three separate orders protecting the man from removal.
Axios reported those orders as dating from November 2024, April 2025 and July 2026. It was her second contempt finding against the administration in the same class action in under two months.
She ordered the government to return him, restore his property and documents and halt any removal order. The protection runs until his asylum claim is decided or the underlying settlement expires.
Her written opinion was filed under seal, so her reasoning is not public. The court told both sides to report by 2 October on whether the man wants to come back.
If he does, they must file a plan for bringing him. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to ABC News’s request for comment.
Who the Man Is, and How He Was Removed
He is identified in the record only by the initials E.L.A., which the court uses to protect him. Axios described him as a 19-year-old asylum seeker, removed to El Salvador and covered by the settlement.
He belongs to a class of former unaccompanied minors covered by a case filed in 2019. A 2024 settlement barred the government from removing class members with live asylum claims.
According to filings, he missed a biometrics appointment in 2025 and a protective marker was dropped from ICE systems. He was removed, returned voluntarily by air on 7 August, and then removed a second time.
The government acknowledged in a 2 September filing that he had been sent out of the country. It said it was considering steps to rectify the communication errors behind the removal.
Court papers cited by ABC News say at least 107 people covered by the settlement were removed before decisions. Of those, 54 were confirmed class members and 53 were flagged as possibly protected.
The Appeal Heard the Same Day
The DC Circuit heard argument on the Venezuelans sent to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. That statute allows removals of nationals of a hostile power without ordinary immigration hearings.
Judge James Boasberg found their due process rights denied and ordered the government to facilitate hearings. Fox News reported he gave the option of returning them or arranging hearings abroad.
The Rio Times covered a parallel ruling on removals to third countries. The panel was Neomi Rao, appointed by Trump, Raymond Randolph, appointed by George H.
W. Bush, and Harry Edwards, appointed by Jimmy Carter.
Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union argued for the men. He said allowing detention in foreign prisons without hearings would hollow out legal protection.
He added that some of the men are in hiding in Venezuela, which makes their release largely nominal. Justice Department lawyer Tiberius Davis argued the case is moot because the government no longer holds them.
Edwards questioned that custody argument, while Rao and Randolph were sceptical about ordering returns. Davis said the men had been released to Venezuela and were free or had travelled elsewhere.
How Washington Describes the Deportees
The administration has consistently called the men sent to CECOT criminals and gang members. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in December 2025 that Trump was removing dangerous criminal and terrorist aliens.
Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said the same month that nearly 300 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists were deported. She said they no longer posed a threat to the American people.
In January 2026 she said the department would not publish intelligence whenever a gang member denies membership. Trump himself said in April 2025 that he would like to send American homegrown criminals to the same prison.
Legal scholars quoted by PBS said that would be unlawful for US citizens. The administration has not withdrawn any of those characterisations.
Its lawyers have made a narrower argument in court, resting on custody rather than criminality. That gap between the political and the legal case runs through both hearings.
What the Record Shows About the CECOT Group
ProPublica reported that 238 Venezuelan men were flown to CECOT on 15 March 2025. Its review of government data found 130 had no US criminal record beyond immigration violations.
It counted 32 with US convictions and six convicted of violent offences. A further 67 were recorded as facing pending charges.
The outlet reported that the gang designations often rested on tattoos and social media posts. McLaughlin responded that those listed as non-criminals simply have no American rap sheet.
The men were released to Venezuela in July 2025 in an exchange involving Americans held in Caracas. That release is the basis of the government’s mootness argument before the DC Circuit.
Allegations against individual deportees have not been tested in any court. None of the men was convicted in El Salvador before being held there.
El Salvador’s Position
Bukele’s government has treated the arrangement as a matter of sovereignty and payment. In April 2025 he told reporters at the White House that he would not return a man deported in error.
He said he did not have the power to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States. His government later proposed exchanging the Venezuelans held at CECOT for prisoners in Caracas.
That exchange went ahead in July 2025, which removed the men from Salvadoran custody. Bukele has answered foreign criticism of CECOT publicly and without apology.
His office has not commented on Friday’s rulings in Washington. Human Rights Watch said in March 2026 that Salvadorans deported from the United States had been forcibly disappeared.
The Salvadoran government rejects that description of its prison system. No Salvadoran court has reviewed the detentions of the deported men.
What It Means If You Live in or Move Between the Americas
A pending asylum claim is not by itself a guarantee against removal, as the settlement class found. Keeping copies of filings, receipts and appointment notices outside the United States is now basic prudence.
Missing an administrative appointment can remove a protective marker from a government system. Employers with Salvadoran or Venezuelan staff should expect notice periods to be short.
Lawyers advise clients to record emergency contacts who can file in court within hours. For Latin American governments, accepting deportees now carries a litigation tail in US courts.
For travellers, the practical risk lies in transit through American airports rather than at destination. Consulates in Washington have been the main channel for locating detained nationals.
That channel worked slowly in the CECOT cases, according to families quoted by NBC News. None of this is settled law, and appeals are still running.
What Is Not Yet Known
Gallagher’s reasoning is sealed, so the legal basis of the contempt finding is not public. It is not known whether E.L.A. will accept a flight back to the United States.
The government says it cannot compel him to take the relief it has offered. His lawyers have not said publicly what he intends.
The DC Circuit has not said when it will rule on the Venezuelans’ case. It is unclear whether the panel will reach the merits or decide the appeal is moot.
No sanction has been imposed for either contempt finding so far. Neither the White House nor the Salvadoran presidency has responded to the rulings.
The number of settlement class members still outside the country has not been confirmed. The next fixed date in the case is the joint report due on 2 October.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Maryland court decide on 25 September?
Judge Stephanie Gallagher held the Department of Homeland Security in civil contempt for deporting an asylum seeker in breach of three orders. She ordered him returned and his documents restored.
Who is E.L.A.?
He is identified only by initials in court records and is described as a young Salvadoran asylum seeker. He belongs to a class of former unaccompanied minors covered by a 2024 settlement.
What is the appeal in Washington about?
It concerns Venezuelans removed to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act, for whom Judge James Boasberg ordered hearings facilitated. The government argues the case is moot because the men were released to Venezuela.
Were the men sent to CECOT convicted criminals?
ProPublica’s review of government data found most had no US convictions beyond immigration violations. The administration maintains they were dangerous gang members and has not withdrawn that description.
Sources: Axios, the contempt finding and the three orders, ABC News, the settlement class and the return order, Fox News, Boasberg’s order to bring the CECOT group back, The Washington Sun, the DC Circuit argument, CBS News, White House and Homeland Security statements, ProPublica, the records on the March 2025 flights, NPR, Bukele on returning a deported man, Human Rights Watch, on deportees held in El Salvador
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
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