The Department of Justice (DOJ) placed one of its senior immigration lawyers, who criticized the Trump administration over mistakenly deporting a Maryland man to a prison in El Salvador, on leave.
Erez Reuveni, who represented the U.S. government in court on Friday in the deportation case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador in March over a clerical error, was placed on indefinite leave Saturday, a DOJ official told The Hill’s sister network, NewsNation.
“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”
Abrego Garcia was sent to a high-security prison in El Salvador last month, in spite of an order from the court saying that he not be deported to the Central American country.
On Friday, Reuveni told the U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis that “our only arguments are jurisdictional … he should not have been sent to El Salvador," according CNN.
Reuveni asked Xinis to give the government “one more chance to do this. “That’s my recommendation to my client, but so far that hasn’t happened.”
Xinis ordered on Friday that the government should return Abrego Garcia, who resides in Maryland, by Monday night. The administration has filed an emergency stay to halt the judge’s order.
Earlier this week, the administration admitted it mistakenly sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center because of an “administrative error.”
The news of Reuveni being placed on leave was first reported by The New York Times after obtaining a letter from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who told Reuveni he was suspended for failing to “follow a directive from your superiors.”
