DOJ moves to drop Virginia case against Salvadoran alleged MS-13 gang leader
The Brief
Villatoro Santos faces deportation under ICE detainer.
Officials claim Villatoro Santos is a top MS-13 leader on the East Coast.
Defense warns of risks if deported to El Salvador without due process.
WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice on Wednesday filed a motion to dismiss its case against Henrry Jose Villatoro Santos, a Salvadoran national living in Virginia who was accused of being an MS-13 leader.
What we know
According to federal court documents obtained by FOX News, Villatoro Santos faced only one federal charge of illegal firearms possession. FBI agents executed a search warrant at his Woodbridge residence on March 27 and discovered a Taurus G2C 9mm pistol, three additional firearms, ammunition, and two suppressors in a bedroom, the documents said.
"As a terrorist, he will now face the removal process," Attorney General Pam Bondi told FOX News on Wednesday evening.
A motion filed Wednesday evening to delay the dismissal of the case against Villatoro Santos states that his newly appointed counsel understands "the Government now intends to pursue the deportation of Mr. Villatoro Santos in lieu of prosecution."
READ MORE: Charges dropped for man arrested in Virginia, accused of being top MS-13 gang leader
Click to open this PDF in a new window.
"The above is a fairly straightforward procedural history," the defense's motion, filed by attorney Muhammed Sayed, said. "But in the background of this routine legal process, the United States government, at its highest levels, has been publicly and loudly propagating allegations that Mr. Villatoro Santos 'is one of the top leaders of MS-13' and 'one of the leaders for the East Coast, one of the top in the entire country,' claims made by Attorney General Pam Bondi at a high-level press conference on March 27, 2025."
During a news conference following his arrest, Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel identified Villatoro Santos as the top MS-13 leader on the East Coast. They were joined at the briefing by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
"He will not be living in our country much longer," Bondi said at the time.
Sayed stated that the government intends to remove his client from the United States under an ICE detainer.
"The danger of Mr. Villatoro Santos being unlawfully deported by ICE without due process and removed to El Salvador, where he would almost certainly be immediately detained at one of the worst prisons in the world without any right to contest his removal, is substantial, both in light of the Government's recent actions and the very public pronouncements in this case," he wrote.
READ MORE: Identity of MS-13 top leader arrested in Virginia released
The Source
Information in this article comes from FOX News, the Associated Press, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and previous FOX 5 reporting.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador brought back to US to face charges
A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces charges related to what US President Donald Trump's government said was a large human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally. His abrupt release from El Salvador is the latest twist in a saga that sparked a months-long standoff between Trump administration officials and the courts over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was done in error but then continued to stand behind in apparent defiance of orders by judges to facilitate his return to the US. The development occurred after US officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant for federal charges in Tennessee accusing Abrego Garcia of playing a key role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the US and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said. 'This is what American justice looks like,' US attorney general Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. Abrego Garcia's lawyers called the case 'baseless'. 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. Federal magistrate judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, determined that Abrego Garcia will be held in custody until at least next Friday, when there will be an arraignment and detention hearing. Abrego Garcia appeared in court wearing a short-sleeved, white, buttoned shirt. When asked if he understood the charges, he told the judge through an interpreter: 'Yes. I understand.' Democrats and immigrant rights groups had pressed for Abrego Garcia's release, with several politicians – including senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years – even travelling to El Salvador to visit him. A federal judge had ordered him to be returned in April and the US Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by directing the government to work to bring him back. But the news that Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs, was being brought back for the purpose of prosecution was greeted with dismay by his lawyers. The case also prompted the resignation of a top supervisor in the US attorney's office in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Ben Schrader, who was chief of the office's criminal division, did not explain the reason for his resignation but posted to social media around the time the indictment was being handed down, saying: 'It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I've ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.' He declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Friday.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Multiple immigration sweeps reported across L.A., with a tense standoff downtown
In a show of force in the heart of Los Angeles, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Friday carried out a series of immigration sweeps, including two downtown that sparked a tense standoff. Videos showed federal agents running after people in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Westlake, not far from downtown Los Angeles. A man recording the video can be heard warning people in Spanish that immigration officials were at the location and to stay away. Another raid occurred at a business in the Garment District near 9th and Towne streets, with agents in riot gear detaining workers at a clothing store as dozens of people began to gather outside. As workers were hauled off in cuffs, throngs of people yelled at the agents and held up cellphones to record them, according to videos of the showdown. One person threw eggs at one of the vehicles as agents pushed members of the public back, the videos showed. In the street, immigrant-rights advocates stood on a bed of a truck, using megaphones to speak to the workers inside the store, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents. They also told the agents that lawyers wanted access to the workers, and sometimes called out specific names. 'I want to talk to my clients Luis Lopez and Michel Garcia. We are here," one person could be heard saying. "The community is here with you. Your family is here with you." Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, said federal agents in downtown Los Angeles were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country. At least 44 people were arrested and one for obstructing No other details were provided. The raids are the latest in a string of high-profile immigration enforcement actions over the last week, part of President Trump's promised deportation crackdown. A few days ago, immigration agents raided a popular San Diego restaurant and made arrests, sparking a standoff with outraged residents. Agents also arrested Chinese and Taiwanese nationals at an underground nightclub in the Los Angeles area. Officials from the Service Employees International Union said in a statement that its California president, David Huerta, was detained and injured during a downtown raid "while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity." An SEIU spokesperson said Huerta was taken to LA County General Hospital for his injuries and later released into federal custody. In a post on X, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said federal agents were executing a lawful judicial warrant at a LA worksite "when David Huerta deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle." he wrote. "He was arrested for interfering with federal officers and will face arraignment in federal court on Monday." Friday's actions were met with criticism from L.A. leaders, who oppose the immigration crackdown. "These actions are escalating: agents arrive without warning and leave quickly, aware that our communities mobilize fast," Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said in a statement. "I urge Angelenos to stay alert." Mayor Karen Bass said that such raids "sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city... We will not stand for this.' Among the names immigration advocates called out Friday during the downtown L.A. raid was that of Marco Garcia, 37. Outside, his daughter, 18-year-old Katia Garcia, peered into the store as federal agents swept through the location. "I'm in disbelief," she said. "I can't believe this is happening." Katia Garcia, a U.S. citizen, said she was notified about her father's situation by phone, left school and headed to the clothing store. She said her father is undocumented and has been in the U.S. for 20 years. "We never thought this would happen to us," she said. The crowd remained mostly peaceful, but photos and videos of the scene showed some unmarked vehicles used by ICE had been vandalized with graffiti. As agents whisked away workers in white SUVs, members of the crowd walked and ran alongside the vehicles, videos from the scene showed. At one point, a man backpedaling in front of a departing SUV was nearly run over when he tripped and fell in front of the vehicle. The SUV reversed and sped around him, the videos showed. Two miles away, near the intersection of 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue, FBI agents were spotted at a warehouse associated with the raid at 9th and Towne streets. A crowd had gathered outside the gates of the business, where agents arrested Huerta. Ilse Escobar, a United Teachers Los Angeles political organizer, told The Times she saw a scuffle take place before seeing Huerta being thrown to the ground by a federal agent. "I told him, you just arrested a labor union president," Escobar said. The Los Angeles Fire Department said at least one person was transported to a local hospital from that location. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a written statement that his department was aware that ICE was conducting operations in the city. 'I'm aware that these actions cause anxiety for many Angelenos, so I want to make it clear: the LAPD is not involved in civil immigration enforcement," he said. "While the [department] will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations nor will the LAPD try to determine an individual's immigration status." McDonnell said since 1979, the department's policy has barred officers from initiating police action solely to determine a person's immigration status, and it will continue to focus on reducing crime and enhancing public safety. "I want everyone, including our immigrant community, to feel safe calling the police in their time of need and know that the LAPD will be there for you without regard to one's immigration status," he said. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has pushed ICE to start making at least 3,000 arrests a day, an effort that is reflected in the rising detention numbers by ICE, which have topped more than 50,000 for the first time since Trump's first presidency, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonprofit that tracks the federal government's enforcement activities. This week, CBS reported that ICE had recorded 2,000 arrests each day, a dramatic increase from the daily average of 660 arrests reported by the agency during Trump's first 100 days back at the White House. Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, an independent political organization advocating for immigrant rights and social justice, said his group has been "flooded" with calls about immigration sweeps taking place. "There were ICE agents at a Home Depot in Cypress Park, there's ICE agents at Wilshire Boulevard and Union Avenue, a construction site in North Hollywood and in South L.A.," he said in a phone interview. "They're everywhere." Times staff writer Joseph Serna contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘I'm afraid to go to my court hearing.' ICE arrests at asylum hearings rattle SF attorney, migrant clients
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco immigration attorney is speaking out after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained his client. The attorney says it happened moments after an asylum hearing, and now others fear the same could happen to them. San Jose's undocumented residents 'under attack' by ICE, councilman says Alex Lubarsky has been representing undocumented immigrants for 30 years. But he says, he's never seen anything even close to what's been happening at immigration courts across the country and in the Bay Area. Sergio Enrique Yasila is a gay man from Peru who is seeking asylum in the U.S. He has a hearing on Monday in San Francisco, but he stopped by his immigration attorney's office on Friday to express concerns about the possibility of being detained by ICE at the courthouse. Lubarsky is his lawyer. He says he just witnessed this happening to another client seeking asylum at the San Francisco Immigration Court on Sansom Street on Friday. 'I've never had a client until today that was detained at their court hearing,' says Lubarsky. 'Essentially, he was ambushed today in court.' 'If they return me to my country of Peru, it's likely they would kill me,' says Yasila via a translator. 'We're afraid to go to our court hearings because we understand the government is detaining people now.' 'And I'm afraid to go to my court hearing.' 'He is fearful of the government of this country, and this is the place he came to seek protection and seek a better life,' adds Lubarsky. Lubarsky works at the San Francisco Office for Community Legal Centers. He says the Trump administration's crack down on migrants has them overloaded. 'We have lines at some of our offices that stretch out the door and halfway around the block,' says Lubarksy. 'I've never seen anything quite like it. The phones never stop ringing. It's just sheer pandemonium.' Lubarsky says having ICE agents detain people at courthouses is disrupting the due process his clients deserve. 'My clients arrived to the United States without understanding, and now the rug's been yanked out from beneath them,' claims Lubarsky. Lubarsky says even in these uncertain times, the best thing to do is to fight your case in court. 'I get clients coming in all the time recently saying, 'Should I just not go to court? Should I runaway? Should I hide?' That's really the worst thing you could do,' advises Lubarsky. 'That would result in a removal order. You certainly can't ever win any kind of lawful status if you don't follow through with your case.' Lubarsky says he looked online and called the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but no record has been posted yet of his hoping to see where he's being detained on Monday, but he and his client's family is in the dark for now. KRON4 reached out to ICE but did not hear back in time for this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
