The Trump administration has admitted that it improperly deported another immigrant in violation of a court order — the fourth known case in which the administration deported someone erroneously or in breach of specific legal requirements.
Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, had been in immigration detention since 2022 while deportation proceedings against him were pending.
In court papers this week, officials blamed a “confluence of administrative errors,” including missed emails and an inaccurate roster of passengers on the May 7 deportation flight.
Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a Venezuelan man who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court-approved settlement.
When the court learned about the deportation, it sent pointed questions to the administration about what had happened.
The fourth instance in which the Trump administration has deported someone incorrectly or in violation of certain legal requirements has been the administration’s admission that it wrongfully deported another immigrant in defiance of a court order.
Due to pending deportation proceedings, Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, had been held in immigration detention since 2022. Immigration authorities, however, deported him back to his home country on May 7, just after a federal appeals court ordered the government to keep him in the United States.
“I plan to ask the court to hold government officials in contempt and to order the government to return my client from El Salvador,” Melgar-Salmeron’s attorney Matthew Borowski told POLITICO.
Officials attributed the May 7 deportation flight to a “confluence of administrative errors,” including overlooked emails and an erroneous passenger roster, in court documents this week. Requests for comment from the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department were not answered.
The Investigative Post, a nonprofit news organization based in western New York, was the first to report on Melgar-Salmeron’s deportation.
Three other deportations that courts have ruled to be unlawful or improper in recent months are reminiscent of this episode.
A Salvadoran man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador against the directive of an immigration judge.
Venezuelan national Daniel Lozano-Camargo was deported to El Salvador against the terms of a settlement agreed upon by the court.
In court, a man from Guatemala who went by the initials O. C. G. The administration now admits that the decision to deport him to Mexico was a mistake because he was not given the opportunity to exercise his legal right to express concerns about being tortured there.
Judges in those three other cases have directed the administration to attempt to return the deportees to the United States for due process. According to the administration, efforts are underway to bring O back. A. The G. However, claiming they have no authority because Abrego Garcia and Lozano-Camargo are in Salvadoran custody, they have resisted the orders to return the men.
A deportation flight after a court order.
Court documents show that Melgar-Salmeron, who lived in Virginia for years, had been in immigration detention since 2022 after receiving a prison sentence for owning an unregistered shotgun. He had initially been charged with illegal immigration as well, but in 2021 he was permitted to enter a guilty plea to just the firearms charge. Melgar-Salmeron was detained by immigration officials while his deportation proceedings were pending after his prison term ended. Amid larger immigration-related litigation, the Biden administration halted Melgar-Salmeron’s proceedings in January 2024.
According to court documents, however, the Trump administration took action to remove that hold in April. A lengthy appeal against Melgar-Salmeron was still pending at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Although it stated that it would not take any action before May 8, the administration asked the court to “expedite” the appeal and stated that it hoped to deport him by May 9 “at the latest.”.
The government was ordered by a three-judge panel of the court to keep Melgar-Salmeron in the United States while he pursued claims of torture fear in his native country on the morning of May 7.
Melgar-Salmeron was deported to El Salvador by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at a Louisiana staging facility, in violation of the court’s order. It took off at 10:20 a.m. A. — 28 minutes after the court’s directive. Melgar-Salmeron is currently incarcerated in El Salvador, according to Borowski.
The court asked the administration pointed questions about the deportation after learning about it. Sworn statements from the ICE officers in charge of the man’s deportation were required by the court, along with an explanation of how the individuals who placed him on the flight to El Salvador apparently failed to receive the court’s order to prevent his deportation.
The administration had promised the judges that Melgar-Salmeron would not be deported until at least May 8, the judges noted. They insisted on knowing why, less than an hour after they gave their order, his deportation was suddenly moved to May 7.
The administration acknowledged the error of the deportation in a letter to the court on Wednesday. According to Justice Department lawyer Kitty Lees, the process had broken down on several levels.
Despite the Government’s explicit promise to this Court that it would postpone removing Petitioner until May 8, 2025, Lees wrote, “a number of unintentional administrative errors resulted in Petitioner’s removal on May 7, 2025.”. “”.
Among the mistakes are:.
Melgar-Salmeron was always scheduled to be deported on May 7, when ICE Air Operations, the company that organizes deportation flights, had a long-planned deportation flight scheduled. Weeks before the May 7 flight, he was on the manifest. However, Melgar-Salmeron’s case was handled by the Buffalo-based ICE office, which entered a different date—May 9—into his official file and communicated that information to the court and the Justice Department.
ICE Air sent a flight manifest containing Melgar-Salmeron to the Buffalo office handling his case via email on May 6 and May 7. Not all four Buffalo officers received the spreadsheet automatically; the officer in charge of Melgar-Salmeron’s case did not see it until the flight had taken off. The … Buffalo officers who received the emails did not forward them to the petitioner’s designated … Buffalo officer due to an oversight and the volume of emails received regarding removal flights, Lees wrote.
Melgar-Salmeron did not show up and was marked as a “no-show” on the manifest when ICE was boarding passengers onto the flight “for an unknown reason,” Lees continued. They found him during a second sweep of the facility and “escorted him onto the airplane,” but the manifest was never changed to show that he had been located.
rapid deportations as a pattern.
Melgar-Salmeron’s case’s haphazard circumstances share some characteristics with other well-known deportations that judges have attempted to overturn.
Despite an immigration court order from 2019, which prohibited the government from sending Abrego Garcia to El Salvador because he might be vulnerable to violence from a local gang, the administration deported him there in March. A federal judge ordered the administration to assist in his release from El Salvador’s custody after a Justice Department attorney admitted in court that the deportation had been wrong. The deportation had been “illegal,” according to the Supreme Court, which largely upheld that requirement. “.”.
Additionally, a separate federal judge has mandated that the administration assist Lozano-Camargo’s return. Lozano-Camargo was deported to El Salvador against the terms of a settlement agreement approved by the court that protected certain immigrants who entered the United States. S. . as youngsters. Although POLITICO previously identified him as Lozano-Camargo, he is referred to by a pseudonym in court documents. ).
Lozano-Camargo and Abrego Garcia are still incarcerated in El Salvador. In court, the Trump administration has asserted that it lacks the authority to compel the Salvadoran government to repatriate them to American custody.
However, the administration claims to have taken action to set up a flight to return O. C. G. . the Guatemalan national who was sent to Mexico in February. The man says that during a prior visit to Mexico, he was sexually assaulted and subjected to other forms of discrimination because he is gay. In court, administration representatives first stated that he was given an opportunity to voice concerns about being sent back to Mexico. However, they later withdrew that claim and acknowledged that they lacked proof that he was ever questioned about whether he was afraid of violence in Mexico.
A federal court decided that O. A. The G. had been deported without following the correct procedures and directed the government to make it easier for him to return.
