The Trump administration has made a number of border-related changes, not the least of which has been advancing the punishment and harsher designations for the members of various Latin American groups.

Gang members have received a chilly reception from the current administration, which sees anyone who tries to enter the United States illegally as a possible gang or cartel member until proven otherwise, as The Daily Mail reported.

While those who are trying to enter the United States without legal documentation are considered guilty until proven innocent, at least one alleged gang member, was given the good old American justice treatment and assumed innocent until proven guilty.

Dropping Charges

According to a recent release from the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving to drop the charges against a man who stands accused of being an MS-13 leader.

While this might seem like a standard procedural move to some, it was seen as a possible gateway for deportation to El Salvador, according to the man's attorney.

During a recent press conference held last month, Bondi announced the arrest of Henry Villatoro Santos, referring to him as a Salvadorian national and “one of the top leaders of MS-13.”

Following the department's decision to drop the charges, the defendant's attorney made an unusual request for a delay in dropping charges against his client.

From the Defendant

Villatoro Santos’s lawyer asserted that the Trump administration likely plans to “immediately” put his client in the custody fo U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This would be a reasonable reaction to the alleged MS-13 member's status in the United States, considering that the Trump administration has been cracking down on non-American offenders.

The attorney has been fighting to keep his client in the United States, regardless of his status:

“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 particular case,” the lawyer, Muhammad Elsayed, wrote.

More From the Lawyer

Elsayed brought attention to a similar case that was contesting the deportation by the Trump administration of an additional Salvadoran male who had protection from removal in 2019 but was nevertheless sent to prison in El Salvador as a result of what the Justice Department referred to as an "administrative error."

“The examples of the Government depriving immigrants of basic due process have, unfortunately, become plentiful,” he wrote, noting that in another case in which Venezuelans challenged the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport them to the same prison, the government removed migrants and then argued it had “no jurisdiction once the petitioners were no longer on U.S. soil.”

“The undersigned is keenly aware of the unusual nature of this motion,” Elsayed wrote of his motion arguing to keep the charges against his client. “But these are unusual times.”