'This Court has grave concerns': Judge slams Trump administration for 'apparent willingness to disregard' court orders on wrongly deported man now missing

A federal judge in Maryland has admonished the Trump administration for its apparent refusal to follow court orders regarding a Venezuelan man erroneously removed from the U.S., warning of her "grave concerns" about the government's behavior.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher's 15-page order concerns Venezuelan national Daniel Lozano-Camargo, who is referred to in pleadings as "Cristian," and his deportation to El Salvador despite having a pending asylum claim in the U.S. He was subsequently sent to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange facilitated by the U.S., landing him back in the country from which he was seeking asylum.

Now he is missing, Gallagher bluntly stated, noting that while it is possible he has thrown aside his dreams of returning to the U.S., "[i]t is equally possible that Cristian has been the victim of the anticipated violence that caused him to seek asylum in the United States in the first instance."

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In March, after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act and warned of the pervasiveness of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the administration rounded up hundreds of Venezuelan nationals and deported them to El Salvador to be held in a notorious terrorist prison. Lozano-Camargo was among them.

Because the man known as "Cristian" had a pending asylum claim, his attorneys filed an emergency motion for his return, and Gallagher ordered that the administration "facilitate" it. Such facilitation would include the Department of Homeland Security making a "good faith request" to the Salvadoran government for Lozano-Camargo's release.

In May, the Trump administration was ordered to file status reports on the man's location and condition, and what steps were being taken to "facilitate" his return. The U.S. State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were looped in to help.

The status reports were lacking, according to Gallagher, finding that "none of them detailed steps being taken for his return or provided evidence that either Defendants or the State Department had made a good faith request to El Salvador for Cristian's release." Then, in July, the court learned that Venezuela and the U.S. had agreed to a prisoner exchange, and Lozano-Camargo, who was just 20 years old when he was deported, was among the people in El Salvador heading further south.

Within the context of fulfilling the court's order, things have only gotten worse.

"[B]eginning in late August, 2025, Class Counsel has been unable to reach Cristian to provide updates on his desire to return to the United States," Gallagher wrote on Nov. 14. "His whereabouts are presently unknown."

Three motions were filed to which the judge was responding, with two coming from Lozano-Camargo's lawyers. One of them sought "prompt notice" of his return to the U.S., which Gallagher denied, finding it "moot" because he is not believed to be in any government's custody. Their other motion was for the defendants — including Rubio, who they argued was acting as the defendants' "agent" — to be held in contempt.

Though Gallagher expressed her "frustration" with the administration and its behavior, she would not grant this.

"While this Court shares Class Counsel's frustration with what appears to be lack of good faith government efforts at compliance with this Court's order, it cannot find, on the particular facts of this case, the factors needed to find probable cause for criminal contempt," Gallagher wrote.

She went on: "Even if one assumes, as is reasonable, that the State Department focused its efforts on using Cristian as one of many pawns in its prisoner swap instead of endeavoring to comply with this Court's order to facilitate his return, criminal contempt is unavailable because this Court's order did not (and could not) clearly direct the State Department or Secretary Rubio to take action."

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Still, Gallagher was harsh in her critique of the president's administration, saying that their status reports were "often woefully deficient" and at times, "also filed late." For one report filed on July 18, "Class Counsel can establish that the violation of the filing deadline was willful" because officials did not want the prisoner swap operation to fall apart.

"This Court has grave concerns about the government's apparent willingness to disregard this Court's orders," as well as "its determination that protection of the prisoner swap (apparently from prospective judicial intervention) is a valid reason to ignore (or at least delay compliance with) a valid Court order to provide a status report," Gallagher wrote. But ultimately she found that the "immense power" of criminal contempt proceedings was a step too far.

The administration, for its part, filed a motion for the "facilitation" paragraph of her order to be thrown out, arguing Lozano-Camargo has shown an "unwillingness to return" to the U.S. This, too, she denied, "reject[ing] the premise" that he doesn't want to come back.

Furthermore, as the administration is not currently obligated to file status reports because his whereabouts are unknown, it is not suffering any burden, the judge found. "And, should Cristian resurface and express a desire" to return, the administration "should retain their existing obligation" to bring him back.