Wrongfully Deported Man Must Return. Can He?

June 30th, 2025

Azzy Xiang

A federal appeals court has delivered a significant ruling ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, a 31-year-old Salvadoran man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador just 30 minutes after the same court had barred his removal. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals is yet another instance of federal judges pushing the Trump administration to facilitate the return of immigrants who were deported from the United States by accident.

Melgar-Salmeron had been in immigration detention since 2022 while deportation proceedings against him were pending. According to court records, he had served two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun. The Department of Homeland Security has characterized him as having previous affiliations with a gang, but his attorneys maintain he has renounced those ties and lives with his family in Virginia.

On May 7, at 10:59 AM, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of removal, barring Melgar-Salmeron's deportation. However, just 28 minutes later, he was placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador. The Justice Department has now admitted that his removal occurred due to what they termed a "confluence of administrative errors," including missed emails and an inaccurate passenger roster.

Recently, the court has also required the Trump administration to file a declaration within one week detailing Melgar-Salmeron's current physical location and custodial status. Additionally, the Trump Administration must specify what steps the government will take to facilitate his return. This was intended to prevent excessively long delays, like in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was another wrongfully deported man who took months to get back to the U.S. The DHS has strongly contested the court's ruling, posting on social media that it views the decision as "completely at odds with President Trump's duty to faithfully execute federal law." They also said that Melgar-Salmeron is a "serial criminal illegal alien" and claims El Salvador authorities wanted him for homicide and criminal conspiracy.

In less than six months, courts have directed the Trump administration to bring back at least four deported people. This raises a significant concern about due process protections and immigration law enforcement, as legal scholars and experts warn that violating these protections can have consequences that may eventually threaten the rights of all people in the United States.

Extemp Analysis by: Ty Tan

In the case of this question, your solvency will focus on you addressing whether or not courts have ‘credible’ mechanisms of pushing back against Trump’s wrongful deportations. The analysis here will be more specific, and require strong B’s to prove your setup.

Question: Can courts credibly fights Trump’s lieu of wrongful deportations?

AGD: On your AGD, I always prefer a heart story but since a lot of your impacts will likely be stories of wrongfully deported citizens, I would use a joke in your intro.

Background: I would focus on identifying three things:

What Trump’s wrongful deportations look like
What courts are doing
Whether or not they’re credible

It should be concise and relatively brief to get deep into the court mechanical analysis.

As for your answer, I would be focusing on strong B’s to make proving the word ‘credibility’ to a tee.

Answer: Yes, by focusing on x strategy

For your points, I would pick 3 niche mechanisms and specific examples in which courts are pushing back.

P1: Issuing Injunctions and Stays

P2: Case-by-Case Challenges
P3: Enforcing Due Process Rights

I personally think Point 1 can have a lot of nuance when it comes to issuing injunctions, but you have to be careful not to get caught up in the solvency game. There’s plenty of other possible points, but I think these 3 are a good launching point.