Secretary of State Marco Rubio has voiced that he is devoted to ensuring the return of a Venezuelan man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador after the Department of Homeland Security requested it.
The deported man, who has been identified in court documents only as "Cristian", would be the first individual to be returned to the US after being deported to the high-security prison Salvadoran Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, in El Salvador. He was deported despite court-ordered protections giving him legal status to remain within the US.
The Trump administration announced that Rubio was personally working on the case on Monday. Rubio, who has a long-standing relationship with El Salvador's president Nayyib Bukele, is currently negotiating Cristian's release with Bukele.
"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 said in a statement included in the filing.
Furthermore, the statement says Rubio has "read and understands this court's order and wants to ensure the court he is making prompt and diligent efforts" to comply.
Cristian, who is 20-years-old, entered the US as an unaccompanied minor and hence is protected by a lawsuit allowing him and others to seek asylum instead of being deported.
However, he is not the first case of a wrongful deportation to make headlines. Earlier this year, Salvadoran man Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador despite a 2019 order from an immigration judge which granted him legal status within the US.
The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the US, but, as of publication, he remains at CECOT.
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