President Donald Trump’s administration has suspended a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyer over his handling of a controversial deportation case of a Salvadoran national with reported ties to MS-13,who was mistakenly removed despite having protections from deportation to El Salvador.
According to reports, the DOJ lawyer in question, Erez Reuveni, did not “zealously advocate” for the government’s position in the case, leading to his suspension. His supervisor, August Flentje, was also suspended.
Reuveni reportedly said in court, “Our only arguments are jurisdictional. … He should not have been sent to El Salvador.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”
The man in question, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, resided in Maryland, and the administration has attributed his deportation to El Salvador to an “administrative error.”
“On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” a recent filing read. According to reports, a judge ordered that Garcia be returned, but the Trump administration filed an emergency stay.
“Late Friday afternoon, a federal district judge ordered the United States to force El Salvador to send one of its citizens – a member of MS-13, no less – back to the United States by midnight on Monday,” the government’s emergency appeal reads in part, according to Fox News Digital.
“If there was ever a case for an emergency stay pending appeal, this would be it,” the government added, also noting that Garcia “has been found to be a member of a designated Foreign 3 [sic] Terrorist Organization, MS-13.”
“Given that status, he has no legal right or basis to be in the United States at all,” it added.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also emphasized this point, describing Garcia as an “illegal criminal who broke our nation’s immigration laws.”
RELATED — White House Press Sec. Leavitt: All Illegal Immigrants Are Criminals“He is a leader in the brutal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human trafficking,” she said, reminding reporters that MS-13 is now a designated foreign terrorist organization.
“Foreign terrorists have no legal protections in the United States of America,” she pointed out. “And this administration is going to continue to deport foreign terrorists and illegal criminals from our nation’s interior.”
