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DOJ wants to reverse these charges
Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton connected Wednesday dismissed transgression charges against Henrry Villatoro Santos, a Virginia antheral accused of being a determination person of the convulsive MS-13 gang, clearing the mode for expedited deportation proceedings.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department asked the tribunal to drop the charges, indicating the authorities planned to deport Villatoro Santos. A U.S. marshal from the Fugitive Task Force was successful the courtroom, suggesting Villatoro Santos could beryllium transferred into migration custody aft the hearing.
"They're apt to instrumentality him precise quickly," Villatoro Santo defence attorney, Muhammad Elsayed, said aft the hearing.
Villatoro Santos's apprehension was announced past period successful a nationally televised quality league featuring Attorney General Pam Bondi, who alleged helium was the "East Coast leader" of the MS-13 transnational gang. He was accused of unspecified convulsive crimes and helping to pb the gang's transgression attacks crossed the country. But arsenic the Justice Department has pursued the dismissal of charges against Villatoro Santos, it has not publically tied him to immoderate acts of violence. His attorneys person repeatedly questioned the quality of the proceedings.
"This is an antithetic case," Elsayed said successful court, emphasizing that it was up to the tribunal "to find whether the question was made successful bully faith." He argued that the Justice Department had provided "no mentation whatsoever" for withdrawing the charges and questioned the deficiency of clarity regarding what ineligible process would follow.
"There volition apt beryllium further proceedings," Elsayed said aft the hearing.
Villatoro Santos was facing a national felony weapon possession complaint successful Virginia. Charging documents successful his transgression lawsuit made lone a fleeting notation to MS-13. An migration officer's affidavit said, "FBI agents and TFOs besides observed indicia of MS-13 relation successful the store bedroom" of Villatoro-Santo's home.
Villatoros Santo's lawyer accused the Justice Department of misusing Rule 48(a) — the procedural instrumentality utilized to disregard the indictment — arguing it amounted to an effort to bypass due-process protections. "They privation to deport him without owed process," Elsayed said, referencing statements by Bondi and criticizing the deficiency of input from the Department of Homeland Security.
"The tribunal has to excavation deeper than conscionable the basal motion," Elsayed argued, alleging "prosecutorial harassment" and drafting parallels to different politically delicate lawsuit dismissals, including that of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
"The DOJ did not question to region this lawsuit without knowing what's coming next," Elsayed said, informing of a imaginable "unlawful deportation" and citing past instances erstwhile the medication had "defied tribunal orders" successful deportation cases.
Government attorneys countered that the defence had already delayed the lawsuit beyond its archetypal request, arguing, "The suspect cannot proceed to tread h2o connected the transgression docket."
Patrick Maguire is simply a CBS News Broadcast Associate.
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