Trump admin sus­pends lawyer in case of Mary­land man mis­tak­en­ly deport­ed for fail­ing to ‘zeal­ous­ly advo­cate’

The Trump admin­is­tra­tion has placed a Jus­tice Depart­ment (DOJ) lawyer on leave for not “zeal­ous­ly advo­cat­ing” its posi­tion in the case involv­ing a Sal­vado­ran man liv­ing in Mary­land who was mis­tak­en­ly deport­ed last month. 

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Pam Bondi’s office placed Erez Reuveni, who argued for the gov­ern­ment, in Friday’s hear­ing in which a judge ruled Mary­land father Kil­mar Abrego Gar­cia must be returned to the U.S. by Mon­day, on indef­i­nite paid leave, Fox News has learned. 

“At my direc­tion, every Depart­ment of Jus­tice attor­ney is required to zeal­ous­ly advo­cate on behalf of the Unit­ed States,” Bon­di told the New York Times in a state­ment. “Any attor­ney who fails to abide by this direc­tion will face con­se­quences.” 

Fox News Dig­i­tal has reached out to the DOJ for com­ment. 

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Reuveni on Fri­day admit­ted that Garcia’s depor­ta­tion was a mis­take, accord­ing to the New York Times. 

On Sat­ur­day, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion argued in an emer­gency appeal that U.S. Dis­trict Judge Paula Xinis can’t force the admin­is­tra­tion to return Gar­cia to the U.S. 

Xinis on Fri­day ruled that the gov­ern­ment must make arrange­ments to have Gar­cia back in the U.S. before Mon­day at mid­night.

The Sat­ur­day emer­gency appeal seeks to tem­porar­i­ly stay Xinis’ deci­sion until the gov­ern­ment has time to prop­er­ly appeal the rul­ing. 

“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. If there was ever a case for an emer­gency stay pend­ing appeal, this would be it,” the gov­ern­ment wrote in the emer­gency appeal reviewed by Fox News Dig­i­tal. 

The gov­ern­ment also argued that it “does not have con­trol over” Gar­cia now that he is in El Sal­vador. 

“Nev­er­the­less, the court’s injunc­tion com­mands that Defen­dants accom­plish, some­how, Abrego Garcia’s return to the Unit­ed States in give or take one busi­ness day,” the appeal said, call­ing it “inde­fen­si­ble.”

The fil­ing said that the “lacked the pow­er” to require the gov­ern­ment “on the clock, to try to force a for­eign coun­try to take a dis­crete action.”

It added, “Abrego Gar­cia has been found to be a mem­ber of a des­ig­nat­ed For­eign 3 Ter­ror­ist Orga­ni­za­tion, MS-13. Giv­en that sta­tus, he has no legal right or basis to be in the Unit­ed States at all.” 

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Xinis on Fri­day said that the U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­men­t’s March 15th expul­sion of Gar­cia vio­lat­ed the Admin­is­tra­tive Pro­ce­dures Act, since it occurred with­out a judi­cial pro­ceed­ing.

The Trump admin­is­tra­tion has acknowl­edged Gar­ci­a’s removal was an “admin­is­tra­tive error,” but has also defend­ed it, alleg­ing that Gar­cia has ties to MS-13.  

“This indi­vid­ual is an ille­gal crim­i­nal who broke our nation’s immi­gra­tion laws. He is a leader in the bru­tal MS-13 gang, and he is involved in human traf­fick­ing,” White House press sec­re­tary Karo­line Leav­itt said in a brief­ing on Tues­day. 

“And now MS-13 is a des­ig­nat­ed for­eign ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion. For­eign ter­ror­ists have no legal pro­tec­tions in the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. And this admin­is­tra­tion is going to con­tin­ue to deport for­eign ter­ror­ists and ille­gal crim­i­nals from our nation’s inte­ri­or,” she added. 

An immi­gra­tion judge five years ago said Gar­cia, who came to the U.S. ille­gal­ly in 2011 and asked for asy­lum, could not be deport­ed to his home coun­try, over con­cerns he would become a vic­tim of local El Sal­vador gang mem­bers.

His request for asy­lum was denied, but he was giv­en pro­tec­tion from depor­ta­tion and ICE did­n’t appeal the deci­sion. 

Gar­ci­a’s wife, Jen­nifer Vasquez Sura, who is a U.S. cit­i­zen, has vig­or­ous­ly cam­paigned for his return. 

Gar­cia had been work­ing as a sheet met­al appren­tice in Mary­land and was arrest­ed in an IKEA park­ing lot on March 12 while his 5‑year-old son was in the car. 

His lawyers have argued the man had a Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty per­mit to work in the coun­try, and strong­ly deny any gang affil­i­a­tions. They also say that the gov­ern­ment has giv­en lit­tle evi­dence to back up its claim. 

There was no indi­ca­tion how the gov­ern­ment would com­ply, since he is incar­cer­at­ed in an El Sal­vador prison under that gov­ern­men­t’s cus­tody.

Fox News’ Cameron Arcand and The Asso­ci­at­ed Press con­tributed to this report.