The Department of Justice on Wednesday asked a federal court to withdraw its case against a Virginia man that top officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed was a senior “terrorist” within the ranks of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, less than two weeks after the man’s arrest.
A multi-agency task force arrested Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, 24, on March 27, and he later faced gun charges. Agents testified that they found four guns, ammunition, and a suppressor in the Dale City home where he was staying, as well as an image of “Jesus Malverde,” a Mexican folklore icon associated with criminal groups.
At a press conference the day of the arrest, Attorney General Bondi celebrated the arrest alongside FBI director Kash Patel, describing Santos as the Salvadoran gang’s East Coast leader and “one of the top domestic terrorists” in the United States.
“We took one of the worst of the worst off the streets today,’’ she later told Fox News.
The Justice Department did not describe its reason for seeking to dismiss the case.
“As a terrorist, he will now face the removal process,” Attorney General Bondi said in a statement.
Senior officials told The Washington Post anonymously that the administration is seeking to fast-track Santos for deportation, a break from typical practice, where officials would normally attempt to convict those charged with serious criminal offenses before deportation.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Santos’s lawyer, Muhammad Elsayed, argued removing the case was tantamount to giving Santos a life sentence in his native El Salvador without due process, given the Trump administration’s recent pattern of using emergency powers to summarily send alleged gang members to CECOT, a notorious prison that human rights experts have called a “tropical gulag.”
“The risk of this turning effectively into a life sentence without any due process is very real,” Elsayed wrote, according to court records.
The attorney also pointed to recent cases tied to the prison, like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, despite a federal court order barring his removal to that country, and of the hundreds of men sent to CECOT on allegations they were part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, despite a court order that their deportation flights return to the U.S. amid a legal challenge.
The government has admitted many of those deported to the prison on gang allegations lack a criminal record, and critics say the government used flimsy rationale, including common tattoos, as supposed evidence of their criminality.
In a January executive order, President Trump declared a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, part of an effort to use expanded powers against Tren de Aragua and MS-13. The order said the Latin American gangs are “extraordinarily violent, vicious, and similarly threaten the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
As part of the national emergency, the administration has invoked the centuries old wartime Alien Enemies Act, in order to summarily deport alleged Venezuelan gang members to CECOT, where Salvadoran officials have said inmates have little chance of ever being released.
Todd Lyons, acting head of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said Tuesday the administration will invoke the law to prosecute MS-13.