DOJ suspends attorney who acknowledged wrongful deportation of Salvadoran national

The Department of Justice (DOJ) suspended the acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation, Erez Reuveni, who was in charge of the case of the deported Salvadoran who a judge ordered brought back to the United States.

The attorney general, Pam Bondi, justified the decision to remove Reuveni by saying that, under her mandate, all lawyers who are part of the federal agency are obligated to "zealously advocate on behalf of the United States." "Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences," she said in a statement picked up by The New York Times.

The same newspaper claims to have obtained a letter sent to the lawyer by Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, in which he accuses him of failing to "follow a directive from your superiors" and "engaging in conduct prejudicial to your client [the government]."

At a hearing last Friday, Reuveni admitted that Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia should not have been deported to El Salvador. A Maryland resident, married to an American and the father of a five-year-old son, Abrego Garcia was deported last month despite a 2019 ruling that prohibited sending him to the Central American country because he was targeted by local gangs. The same gangs that allegedly pushed him to migrate north.

"I’m also frustrated that I have no answers for you for a lot of these questions," Reuveni told federal judge Paula Xinis during that hearing, according to Time magazine. According to Político, the official would have even requested the Administration to reintroduce Abrego Garcia to the country. That was precisely the decision Xinis made: the judge ordered the White House to bring the immigrant back by midnight Monday.

The government protested the ruling, filing two motions the next day to hold it in abeyance, one before Xinis and the other before an appeals court. Before the latter, the DOJ argued that it lacks control over "the sovereign nation of El Salvador." It also alleged that the judicial decision intrudes into executive branch territory, in regards to acts of foreign relations, and that the immigrant is part of MS-13, a gang designated by Trump as a terrorist organization.

During a press conference on Friday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt also emphasized that last point, despite acknowledging that the deportation had been "a clerical error." "This individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not return to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang." "We have credible intelligence that shows that this individual was involved in human trafficking," she added.

For his part, Abrego Garcia's lawyer denied that he was part of the criminal group. He also accused the government of ignoring Xinis' decision by not taking any steps to bring back his client.