Henry Josue Villatoro Santos, 24, was arrested final month by FBI brokers at his household house in Virginia.
Federal prosecutors are looking for to drop a prison case in opposition to an unlawful immigrant whom the Division of Justice (DOJ) accused of being a frontrunner of the MS-13 gang following his arrest final month.
On the identical day that the federal government introduced its intention to dismiss the case, Muhammad Elsayed, a lawyer for Villatoro Santos, requested a choose to delay ruling on the movement for 2 weeks.
“The Authorities now intends to pursue elimination proceedings in opposition to Mr. Villatoro Santos pursuant to an ICE detainer,” Elsayed wrote.
“The hazard of Mr. Villatoro Santos being unlawfully deported by ICE with out due course of and eliminated to El Salvador, the place he would nearly actually be instantly detained at one of many worst prisons on this planet with none proper to contest his elimination, is substantial, each in gentle of the Authorities’s current actions and the very public pronouncements on this specific case.”
In response to Elsayed’s submitting, Villatoro Santos was arrested on March 27 after members of the FBI’s Particular Weapons and Ways Crew executed a federal search warrant at his household house in Virginia.
He was charged with a single federal cost of possession of a firearm by an unlawful immigrant.
On the identical day that Villatoro Santos was arrested, Bondi advised a press convention that officers had arrested an “unlawful alien from El Salvador.”
“He was the chief for the East Coast,” Bondi mentioned. “One of many high three in your complete nation.”
Bondi didn’t title the person who had been arrested on the convention, nor did she present particulars relating to the costs in opposition to them.
She advised reporters that the arrested particular person wouldn’t be “dwelling in our nation for much longer.”
The arrest got here shortly after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which grants him the ability to deport noncitizens throughout occasions of battle or invasion.
In his submitting with the court docket, Elsayed said that “in its rush to show to the American public that this administration is hard on crime and immigration enforcement,” the federal government has “wrongfully deported” some people however nonetheless maintains that it has “no obligation” to return them to america.
“Based mostly on this current sample of abuse of course of and defiance of court docket orders by immigration enforcement officers, there’s a substantial threat that if this Court docket enters a dismissal order at the moment that Mr. Villatoro Santos could also be instantly deported with out due course of and earlier than he has a possibility to retain immigration counsel and assert any defenses he might need to elimination,” his lawyer wrote.
A federal choose beforehand ordered Villatoro Santos to stay in jail to await trial.
The Epoch Instances has contacted the DOJ for additional remark.
Reuters contributed to this report.