White House Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller on Monday called the Justice Department attorney who was handling the Abrego Garcia deportation case a Democrat “saboteur” and accused him of falsely claiming Garcia was mistakenly removed.
On April 4, DOJ attorney, Erez Reuveni, told U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis that Garcia “should not have been removed,” and that he didn’t know why the alleged MS-13 member was even arrested. “I am also frustrated that I also have no answers for you on a lot of these questions,” he said.
After that court appearance, Reuveni was placed on leave. “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 on April 5. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”
Miller explained what happened during a fiery appearance on Fox News, Monday.
“A DOJ lawyer who has since been relieved of duty, a saboteur, a Democrat, put into a filing incorrectly that this was a mistaken removal. It was NOT!” Miller said. “This was the right person sent to the right place.”
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley posted on X later Monday that Miller may have opened himself up to a defamation lawsuit.
“Reuveni could argue that the characterization of his work as that of a “saboteur” implies something more than poor lawyering,” Turley wrote. “It suggests an intent to derail his client’s legal claims, a potential “per se” claim based on professional integrity.”
In his defense, Turley continued, Miller “would have to show evidence that Reuveni was engaged in an active and intentional effort to undermine the case of the Trump Administration while representing the Administration in court.”
When he was detained in 2019, Garcia’s lawyers argued in court that he fled El Salvador as a teenager to escape gang and violence and that he doesn’t have a criminal record there or in the United States.
An immigration judge reportedly barred Garcia from being returned to El Salvador in 2019, saying it was “more likely than not that he would be persecuted” there.
But both the original immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals found there was sufficient evidence that Garcia was a member of MS-13 and, as such, a danger to the public.
Miller argued on Fox News Monday that the judge’s order in 2019 was no longer applicable.
“Now some have said, well, but he had a thing called a ‘withholding order,'” he told Fox News host Bill Hemmer. “A withholding order means you’ve been ordered deported, but an immigration judge is saying you cannot go back to a particular country. Here’s the thing: if you are a member of a foreign terrorist organization, you cannot have a withholding order.”
“Since he’s in MS-13, there is no withholding order,” Miller explained. “Furthermore, that gang he is accused of being persecuted by doesn’t exist anymore in El Salvador! The 18th Street gang is GONE.”
When asked if he’s certain that Garcia belongs to MS-13, Miller responded that he is, but his gang affiliation isn’t the only issue driving his deportation. “Not only am I convinced of it, not only is El Salvador convinced of it. Bill, he’s an illegal alien from El Salvador with a deportation order!” he exclaimed. “So his only options in life, Bill, his only options in life are to be deported to El Salvador or to be deported to some other country. That’s it.”
“So you have an illegal alien from El Salvador,” Miller added. “Bill, where are we supposed to send the illegal alien from El Salvador? To what country?”
In a 9 to 0 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court instructed the Trump administration to take steps to “facilitate” the return Abrego Garcia, but because the District Court was vague on what steps Trump officials should take, it vacated the lower court’s order.
Miller told Hemmer that the corporate media have been egregiously misreporting the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We won the Supreme Court case. Clearly, 9-0,” Miller told Hemmer. “A district court judge said, unconscionably, that the president and his administration have to go into El Salvador and extradite one of their citizens, an El Salvadorian citizen —that would be kidnapping.”
That we have to kidnap an El Salvadorian citizen against the will of his government and fly him back to America, which would be an unimaginable act and an invasion of El Salvador’s sovereignty. So he appealed to the Supreme Court and it said – clearly, no district court can compel the president to exercise his Article II foreign powers in any way whatsoever.
DOJ called me after that Supreme Court ruling and they said, this is amazing. We won this case nine zero. We are an excellent standing here. So this has been portrayed wrong for 72 hours in the media.
They said the most a court could ever compel you to do would be to facilitate return, which would basically mean if El Salvador voluntarily sends him back we wouldn’t block him at the airport. We would put him back into ICE detention and then he would be deported either back to El Salvador or somewhere else.
The Supreme Court said that is the most that the government can be expected to do. So we won the case handily. The misreporting on this has been atrocious.
He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador.
In 2019, he was ordered deported. He hass a final removal order from the United States. These are things that no one disputes. Where is he from? El Salvador. Where is he a resident and citizen of? El Salvador. Is he here illegally? Yes. Does he have a deportation order? Yes.
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