A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of a Salvadoran man deported last month to his native country just minutes after the same court ruled he shouldn’t be removed from the US.
An order issued by judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stated the government must facilitate the return of Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, 31, “as soon as possible.”
Melgar-Salmeron, who was deported in May, is at least the fourth individual to have been wrongly removed from the US, despite court rulings or protected status, amid the administration’s vast deportation efforts.
Tuesday’s order noted that a stay of removal for Melgar-Salmeron was issued on May 7 at 9:52 a.m. but that a flight carrying him to El Salvador departed approximately 30 minutes later.
“The Government represents that Petitioner was removed that day due to ‘a confluence of administrative errors,’” the order read, pointing to the government’s acknowledgment in earlier court documents that a “perfect storm of errors occurred to allow for Petitioner’s untimely, and inadvertent, removal, despite the Government’s assurance and the eventual stay order.”
The judges also stated the government must file within a week a supplemental declaration addressing Melgar-Salmeron’s current physical location and custodial status and include what steps the government will take, “and when, to facilitate his return to the United States.”
Melgar-Salmeron’s case comes weeks after another wrongly deported man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was returned to the US after being removed to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring his removal.
Abrego Garcia, who faces a federal indictment for smuggling undocumented migrants across state lines in 2022, has been described as a vessel for the Justice Department’s hardball approach to immigration enforcement.
He has pleaded not guilty to taking part in a smuggling conspiracy.
In Tuesday’s order, the court denied a request by Melgar-Salmeron’s lawyers to appoint a special master to investigate authorities and officials involved in the wrongful deportation.
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