A 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongfully deported to El Salvador in defiance of a legal settlement is now at the center of another dramatic legal showdown over the Trump administration's use of emergency wartime powers to expel migrants.
Until now, the public focus has mostly centered around Kilmar Abrego Garcia, another migrant living in the United States who was deported under similar circumstances earlier this year. But newly surfaced court documents and reporting by Politico confirm that Daniel Lozano Camargo, who had only been identified in court by a pseudonym, was also among those swept up and expelled under the Alien Enemies Act.
“Crucially, Lozano-Camargo was also covered by a 2024 legal settlement that barred immigration authorities from deporting him while his request for asylum was pending. U.S,” according to Politico. “District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, the Trump-appointed judge who approved that settlement, ruled last month that Lozano-Camargo’s deportation violated the agreement.”
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But the Trump administration, in a court filing released Monday, claimed that Lozano Camargo is disqualified from asylum in the U.S. as a member of “a violent terrorist gang” – an allegation his family vehemently denies, Politico added.
“My son isn’t one of Tren de Aragua,” his mother, Daniela Camargo, insisted in an emotional Facebook video. “Anyone who knows my son knows he’s innocent.”
While Lozano Camargo has two minor drug offenses on his record, there has been no public evidence linking him to organized crime. His family believes his tattoos likely contributed to the false accusation, Politico reported Monday.
Still, DOJ attorneys insisted in court filings that bringing Lozano Camargo “would no longer serve any legal or practical purpose,” the publication added. The judge is set to hear the case Tuesday in a Baltimore courtroom.