A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to explain how a teenage asylum seeker was deported to El Salvador after previously being returned to the United States under a court-supervised settlement, demanding details about who authorized the move and what steps the government will take to correct the situation. The judge also asked whether federal immigration systems contained an alert identifying the teenager, referred to in court documents as E.L.A., as a potential member of the class covered by the litigation and requested the government's plan for “promptly rectifying this error.” In a September 2 order filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, directed the government to answer eight questions by noon the following day, including: “Who was responsible for the decision to move E.L.A. from the detention center?” and “Who was responsible for the decision to place E.L.A. on a plane to San Salvador?” The order came after attorneys for E.L.A. told the court that he had been deported to El Salvador on September 1 despite being covered by protections established in the long-running class-action case J.O.P. v.
Department of Homeland Security. Newsweek has contacted DHS and the man's attorneys for comment. According to filings by class counsel, E.L.A. was first removed from the United States in March 2026.
On May 22, 2026, the government confirmed that he was a class member after the court ordered officials to provide that information. Class counsel later informed the government that E.L.A. wished to return to the United States so his asylum application could be adjudicated. The government returned him on August 7, 2026.
Attorneys said E.L.A. was then held in immigration detention in Louisiana while preparing for an asylum interview and a psychological evaluation related to his asylum claim. According to court filings, counsel learned on September 1 that a scheduled video appointment had been canceled because E.L.A. was "no longer at this facility." The attorneys said attempts to determine his whereabouts were unsuccessful. By midmorning, the online ICE detainee locator no longer reflected a record for E.L.A.
Eastern Time, class counsel emailed government lawyers requesting "urgent corrective action" and seeking information about his location. Later that day, attorneys said they learned through family members that E.L.A. had contacted relatives from El Salvador and reported that he had been deported. According to the filing, E.L.A. said officials told him he would be transferred to another detention center, but instead took his belongings and placed him on a flight to San Salvador.
Class counsel argued that the removal violated multiple court orders and provisions of the settlement agreement governing certain asylum seekers who entered the United States as unaccompanied minors. The attorneys cited previous orders barring the government from removing covered class members before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adjudicates their asylum applications.
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