WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has moved to drop a criminal case against the alleged East Coast leader of the MS-13 gang less two weeks after he was charged, saying they plan to deport him instead of prosecuting him in the U.S.
In an unusual move, his lawyer is now fighting prosecutors’ request to immediately dismiss the case, contending he’s in danger of being swiftly deported without due process and sent to an El Salvador prison.
The late March arrest of Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos in the suburbs outside of Washington was loudly celebrated by the Trump administration as a major victory in the president’s effort to take down violent street gangs designated “foreign terrorist organizations.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other law enforcement leaders held a press conference to announce his arrest. Bondi and Patel and other senior officials watched the arrest happen in northern Virginia in a nearby operation center.
The El Salvador man, who Bondi says was living in the country illegally, was charged in federal court with illegal gun possession after agents found several firearms during the search of his home, according to court papers. Investigators have said they found “indicia of MS-13 association” in his bedroom but prosecutors have provided no other details in court documents about his alleged gang involvement.
Prosecutors told the judge on Wednesday that he should dismiss the case because “the government no longer wishes to pursue the instant prosecution at this time.”
In a statement, Bondi called him a “terrorist” and said “he will now face the removal process.” Bondi had suggested at the press conference that the administration would ultimately seek to deport him, saying: ”He will not be living in our country much longer.”
But Villatoro Santos’ lawyer told the judge in court papers Wednesday evening to wait two weeks before ruling on the government’s dismissal request.
The defense lawyer noted that top government officials have “been publicly and loudly propagating allegations” that he is one of the top three MS-13 leaders in the country. Attorney Muhammad Elsayed said there’s a serious risk he would be “unlawfully deported by ICE without due process and removed to El Salvador, where he would almost certainly be immediately detained at one of the worst prisons in the world without any right to contest his removal.”
“The risk of this turning effectively into a life sentence without any due process is very real,” Elsayed wrote. “The undersigned is keenly aware of the unusual nature of this motion. But these are unusual times.”
The Trump administration has already sent roughly 260 deportees to the El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT prison. For more than 100 of them, the administration justified their removal under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law the administration has used to target alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The families of multiple people who have already been deported they are not gang members.
The administration has acknowledged one of the deported men was mistakenly sent to the El Salvador prison. But it has resisted his lawyers’ demands to return him to the U.S., saying the government has no way to get him back.
