Secretary of State Marco Rubio is taking the lead in the Trump administration's efforts to return a wrongly deported Venezuelan from El Salvador, according to a Monday court filing.
Given his "personal relationship" with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Rubio is "personally handling" a court's order to return the man, referred to by the pseudonym "Cristian" in the filing.
Politico previously identified the man as Daniel Lozano-Camargo.
Monday's filing was made by Mellissa Harper, acting deputy director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Harper has been on the job since Thursday, the filing said.
"Based on his deep diplomatic experience with El Salvador and the secretary's familiarity with political and diplomatic sensitivities in that country, he is personally handling the discussions with the government of El Salvador regarding persons subject to the court's order detained in El Salvador," the State Department authorized Harper to say.
The filing says Rubio is "committed to making prompt and diligent efforts on behalf of the United States to comply with the order."
Harper asserted that the U.S. is awaiting a response from El Salvador about the man's location.
Lozano-Camargo was one of 300 men sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a Salvadoran maximum-security prison, under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Lozano-Camargo, however, had entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor and was seeking asylum. The U.S. was barred from removing him while his case was pending.
But the Department of Justice argued that Lozano-Camargo's deportation was lawful because it was carried out under a separate authority — the Alien Enemies Act — not covered by a 2024 settlement by the Biden administration to resolve ongoing litigation from Trump's first term, which prohibited deporting unaccompanied minors before their asylum cases have been fully adjudicated.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher disagreed, stating that there was no language in the settlement that limited it to standard immigration cases. Gallagher, appointed by President Donald Trump, ordered his return.
Lozano-Camargo is the second deportee from a March flight ordered returned by a federal judge. Earlier, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that the administration must attempt to repatriate Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran deported in violation of an immigration court's protective order. The Trump administration asserts that he is a member of MS-13, a Salvadoran criminal gang.
The Trump administration challenged that decision up to the Supreme Court, which upheld most of the directive.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.