The US Justice Department has placed a senior attorney on leave after he admitted in court that a Salvadoran man was wrongly deported despite legal protections, prompting a firestorm over the federal government’s handling of immigration cases.
Erez Reuveni removed from case
Erez Reuveni, a Justice Department lawyer who conceded in court Friday that 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia was erroneously removed from the country, was removed from the case and placed on leave by Saturday. His name was notably absent from the government’s filing to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, where the administration is now challenging a lower court order to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Statement from Attorney General
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department would not tolerate such lapses.
“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,” Bondi said in a statement Saturday.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation
Abrego Garcia, who was living and working legally in Maryland, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month — a country from which he fled in 2011 due to threats from local gangs. A US immigration judge had granted him protection from deportation in 2019. Nevertheless, Abrego Garcia was arrested and removed, despite no clear legal basis for his detention.
DOJ argues against court order
“A judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way… is constitutionally intolerable,” the DOJ wrote. “It is an injunction to force a foreign sovereign to send back a foreign terrorist within three days’ time. That is no way to run a government. And it has no basis in American law.”
White House MS-13 claims
The White House has continued to claim that Abrego Garcia has ties to MS-13, though his attorneys say there is no evidence supporting that accusation. They contend he had been working legally as a sheet metal apprentice and was pursuing a journeyman license. His wife is a US citizen.
Criticism of Government response
“Plenty of tweets. Plenty of White House press conferences. But no actual steps taken with the government of El Salvador to make it right,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s attorney.
The appeals court has asked Abrego Garcia’s legal team to respond to the government’s motion by Sunday afternoon.
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