Court Orders DHS to Pay $165K after Wrongfully Deporting a Venezuelan Man to Salvadoran Prison Known for Government Torture

From [HERE] The U.S. Department of Homeland Security must pay almost $165,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses for the wrongful deportation of a Venezuelan man to a notorious prison in El Salvador, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Maryland U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher ordered the department to pay for the litigation costs after it deported a Venezuelan immigrant in violation of a settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit.

Gallagher ruled the government was not “substantially justified” in labeling the man — identified as “Cristian” in court documents — as a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without due process and deporting him before his asylum claim could be adjudicated.

Cristian is a plaintiff in a seven-year-old class-action lawsuit on behalf of unaccompanied alien children, who have neither legal status nor guardians. His membership in the lawsuit prevented his removal before his asylum claim could be resolved.

He was deported in March 2025 to CECOT, a Salvadoran prison notorious for torture, a day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act to justify the removal of Venezuelans accused of being in the gang without due process. The State Department had recently deemed the group a “foreign terrorist organization,” and the executive order claimed falsely the U.S. was facing an “invasion” by Tren de Aragua.

After moths in El Salvador, Gallagher wrote, Cristian was sent to Venezuela — the country he fled because he feared persecution — as part of a prisoner swap. Gallagher ruled in April 2025 that the then-20-year-old’s deportation was wrongful and ordered DHS to “facilitate” his return. [MORE]