Immigration Law
DOJ lawyer blames ‘confluence of administrative errors’ for another El Salvador deportation
Immigrants deported from the United States arrive in Guatemala on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight during President Donald Trump’s first term in February 2017. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer last week blamed “a confluence of administrative errors” for the deportation of an immigrant from El Salvador in Central America, despite a federal appeals court order allowing him to remain in the United States during litigation.
Jordin Alexander Melgar-Salmeron was deported 28 minutes after the appeals court’s May 7 order that he remain here while he contests his removal, report the New York Times, Politico and the Investigative Post. The appeals court had previously been told that he would not be removed until May 8.
The deportation of Melgar-Salmeron was at least the fourth in which people were removed from the United States in violation of court orders, according to the New York Times. The best known case is that of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was deported to a prison in El Salvador because of an “administrative error.”
The other cases are that of a Venezuelan man identified as “Cristian,” also deported to a prison in El Salvador, and a Guatemalan immigrant identified as “O.C.G.,” deported to Mexico, even though he said he had been raped and kidnapped in that country.
A lawyer for Melgar-Salmeron, Matthew Borowski, said he thinks that the deportation appears to be part of a pattern of ignored court orders by immigration officials.
“Until these guys start facing real consequences for their actions they’re going to continue to snub court orders and violate law,” Borowski told the Investigative Post.
In a letter filed May 28, DOJ lawyer Kitty M. Lees told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York that “several inadvertent administrative oversights” led to the removal.
One issue was an incorrect notation by a case officer in Buffalo, New York, that said Melgar-Salmeron was scheduled for deportation May 9, even though the actual removal date was May 7. Another issue was that a manifest for the May 7 flight from Louisiana that included Melgar-Salmeron was not forwarded to the Buffalo, New York, officer assigned to Melgar-Salmeron.
As a result, immigration officials in Buffalo, New York, did not communicate the court order to officials in New Orleans, where Melgar-Salmeron was transferred for deportation, until after the flight took off.
Because the removal began before the 2nd Circuit’s order, it was not in violation of the order, Lees argued.
Melgar-Salmeron was previously affiliated with the MS-13 street gang, but his lawyer said he has since disavowed that connection. He had served two years in prison for possessing an unregistered sawed-off shotgun before he was placed in immigration detention.
At the time of his arrest, he was working as a roofer, according to the Investigative Post. He was living in Virginia with his wife and four children.
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