Cnn
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The Ministry of Justice decided to drop on Wednesday a man whom they had allegedly alleged as a “major chief” of the Gang MS -13 – only a few weeks after having publicly praised his arrest – a move that his lawyer says he is the first step towards deporting him immediately to El Salvador.
The Attorney General Pam Bondi, at a press conference last month, said that the man, Henrry Villatoro Santos, was the “chief of the east coast” of MS-13 and that he was one of the “horrible, violent, worse of the worst criminals”.
Now, two weeks later, the Ministry of Justice of Trump, without explanation, moved to reject the only federal accusation which he faced with the illegal possession of a firearm. In a legal file, the prosecutors only said that “the government no longer wanted to continue instant prosecution at the moment”.
The change in tactics occurs while the Trump administration works to quickly expel the alleged gang members. In March, President Donald Trump invoked the law on extraterrestrial enemies of 1798, which gives a president the power to target and withdraw undocumented immigrants in wartime or when an enemy attempts an “invasion or predatory foray”.
Villatoro Santos’s lawyer quickly moved to temporarily hold the federal accusations awaiting his client, saying that if the case was abandoned, Villatoro Santos would be “immediately transferred to police custody”.
“The danger that Mr. Villatoro Santos was illegally expelled by ice without regular procedure and moved to Salvador, where he would almost certainly be immediately detained in one of the worst prisons in the world without any right to challenge his withdrawal, is substantial, in defense light, Muhammad Elsay and wrote to the court.
He quoted the current legal battle on the use by Trump of the Act respecting extraterrestrial enemies to expel more than 200 Venezuelan nationals at the Méga prison with maximum security of El Salvador. Elsayed said that “in its precipitation to prove to the American public that this administration is difficult for crime and the application of the immigration law”, the government has “evicted” people and maintains that it has “no obligation” to facilitate their yields.
“The undersigned is perfectly aware of the unusual nature of this movement,” he wrote. “But these are unusual times.”
According to non -sealed court documents last month in the Virginia Oriental District, Villatoro Santos was placed in police custody in an ongoing administrative immigration mandate. He was also accused of illegal possession of a firearm. Federal agents have found several firearms in the residence.
The arrest has been carried out by a new interinable working group established by the Trump administration to target transnational organized crime and coordinate efforts in application of immigration across Virginia. Its creation was part of a repression of the Trump administration on members of foreign gangs residing in the United States.
