The Department of Justice told an appeals court on April 5 that a federal judge in Maryland does not have the authority to order the Trump administration to return a man who was deported to a prison in El Salvador.

Homeland Security investigators have said the man is a leader of the notorious MS-13 transnational gang, recently designated a terrorist organization.

Authorities arrested Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national, in Maryland last month and deported him to El Salvador although a 2019 ruling from an immigration judge shielded him from deportation.

The White House described the deportation of Abrego-Garcia as an “administrative error.”

A day later, Justice Department attorneys asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to pause Xinis’s ruling.

“It is an injunction to force a foreign sovereign to send back a foreign terrorist within three days’ time. That is no way to run a government. And it has no basis in American law,” they wrote.

The appeals court gave Abrego-Garcia’s lawyers until Sunday afternoon to respond to the government’s filing.

On Friday, Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni said Abrego-Garcia should not have been deported and couldn’t tell Xinis under what authority the man was arrested in Maryland.

Reuveni was subsequently placed on leave by the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed.

“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

On Friday, Xinis ruled that there was no legal justification to detain Abrego-Garcia and no legal basis for his deportation to El Salvador.

Homeland Security Investigations has deemed Abrego-Garcia an MS-13 leader and the White House reiterated that following Friday’s hearing. His attorneys argue there is no evidence of his ties to the gang.

His attorney said Abrego-Garcia had a permit to legally work in the United States, where he served as a sheet metal apprentice while getting his journeyman license. Abrego Garcia’s wife is a U.S. citizen.

Abrego-Garcia left El Salvador around 2011 and entered the United States illegally.

After immigration officers took him into custody in 2019, an administrative judge determined that year that Abrego-Garcia was a member of MS-13 and denied his request for release, saying he posed a risk to the community. He was ordered deported later in 2019, but was also granted protection against removal to El Salvador because an immigration judge found Abrego-Garcia was likely to face danger if he were sent back.

During the April 4 court hearing, Xinis noted that the immigration judge in 2019 did not find Abrego-Garcia was a member of MS-13 because there were no indictments or other evidence proving his ties to the gang.

Xinis wrote that her previous order “remains in full force and effect.”

“Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of the [Immigration and Nationality Act],” Xinis stated.

“Based on the foregoing, the Court retains jurisdiction to hear this case. Abrego Garcia has also demonstrated that he is entitled to the injunctive relief sought.”

Sam Dorman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.