US sidelines DOJ lawyer involved in deportation case

WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Sunday a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney had been placed on leave after he failed to vigorously defend the government's handling of a man erroneously deported to El Salvador in what a US judge called a "wholly lawless" detention.

- 

US District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered that Mr Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran person who lived in the US legally with a work permit, be returned to Maryland despite the DOJ's position that it cannot return him from a sovereign nation.

The Trump administration has appealed the case, and a ruling is expected as soon as Sunday night ahead of the judge's 11.59pm deadline for his return yesterday.

At a court hearing on Friday, Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni struggled to answer questions from the judge about the circumstances of Mr Abrego Garcia's deportation.

Mr Reuveni, she had said, raised questions with the officials about why the federal government could not bring back Mr Abrego Garcia but had received no "satisfactory" answer. He acknowledged what he called an "absence of evidence" justifying Mr Abrego Garcia's detention and deportation.

Ms Bondi told