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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Guardian staff and agencies

DoJ lawyer put on leave after not backing erroneous deportation of US man

people holding American flag outside building marked 'department of justice'
People stand outside of the justice department building in Washington DC on 4 March. Photograph: Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

A federal justice department attorney has been placed on leave by the Trump administration for purportedly failing to defend the administration vigorously enough after it says it erroneously deported a Maryland man to El Salvador, which a US judge called a “wholly lawless” detention.

The action against justice department lawyer Erez Reuveni came after US district judge Paula Xinis had ordered that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who lived in the US legally with a work permit, be returned to Maryland despite the Trump administration’s position that it cannot return him from a sovereign nation.

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