Attorneys for a Virginia man labeled by the Trump administration as a top MS-13 gang leader are urging a judge to delay dismissing his criminal case, arguing that he could be deported without ever hearing — or defending himself against — the specific allegations leveled against him.
The arrest of Henrry Villatoro Santos was announced last month during a nationally televised news conference in which the attorney general accused Villatoro Santos of being the “East Coast leader” of the infamous MS-13 transnational gang. He was accused of being responsible for violent crimes and coordinating the gang’s criminal attacks across the United States.
Villatoro Santos’ criminal case has evolved into a unique paradox: Justice Department prosecutors want it dismissed. And Villatoro Santos is fighting to keep his case alive.
Villatoro Santos is still in pretrial detention in Virginia, where he is charged with federal felony gun possession. However, the Justice Department has yet to provide any details about his alleged MS-13 crimes. Instead, the government is asking a magistrate judge to dismiss Villatoro Santos’ case so that administration officials can deport him from the United States.
The defendant has filed a motion, requesting that a judge prevent the case from being dismissed. Although the judge denied Villatoro Santos’ request, he has agreed to postpone his decision to allow for an appeal. Villatoro Santos will remain in the custody of US Marshals pending his appeal. He has been detained in an Alexandria, Virginia, jail.
Villatoro Santos’ defense attorney claims the Trump administration is preparing to deport him without due process.
In a court filing on Wednesday, defense attorney Muhammad Elsayed expressed concern that the administration will “immediately and summarily deport Mr. Villatoro Santos to El Salvador in violation of the law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court’s most recent decisions reaffirming the right of immigrants to notice and an opportunity to be heard prior to removal.”
He goes on to say, “This risk is not an imaginary or speculative one: multiple statements by high level government officials about Mr. Villatoro Santos strongly indicate the Government may intend to immediately deport him upon dismissal of his case, without notice and a hearing in immigration court.”
His attorney also claims that there are no due process hearings scheduled. His paperwork stated: “To date, the Department of Homeland Security has not issued a Notice to Appear to Mr. Villatoro Santos, which is the first step in legal removal proceedings.”
Villatoro Santos’ lawyers argued in a filing that if he is deported, “there is no doubt” he will be sent to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has detained hundreds of Salvadoran and Venezuelan migrants accused of gang membership.
Multiple legal battles over deportations
In a separate case, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union claim that a group of would-be deportees has been relocated to a Texas detention facility in preparation for a potentially imminent deportation under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act emergency power, which was used in the March 15 deportation flights of Venezuelan citizens.
In a court filing this week, his defense attorney referred to Villatoro Santos’ high-profile case. The filing stated, “Beginning on March 27, multiple top government officials publicly accused Mr. Villatoro Santos of being ‘one of the top leaders of MS-13’ and ‘one of the leaders for the East Coast, one of the top three in the entire country,’ claims made by Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a high-profile press conference on March 27, 2025. They described him as a “terrorist” and “horrible, violent, worst of the worst criminals.”
At a Wednesday news conference, Bondi declined to answer directly why the Justice Department has not publicly released evidence in the Villatoro Santos case. The Justice Department also did not respond to CBS News’s requests for information about Villatoro Santos’ alleged MS-13 crimes.
Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin all spoke at a news conference on March 27 to announce Villatoro Santos’ case.
It was held at a federal law enforcement facility in Manassas, Virginia, and was billed as an announcement of the arrest of a prominent MS-13 figure.
The arrest of Villatoro Santos was filmed, and FOX News, a cable network for which Bondi had previously worked as an analyst and guest, was given advance notice of the arrest.
Bondi, Patel, and Younkin did not publicly release Villatoro Santos’ name during the news conference, nor did they provide any specifics when asked about the nature or details of Villatoro Santos’ alleged MS-13 leadership role or criminal activities.
The charging documents in his criminal case make only a passing reference to MS-13. According to an affidavit filed by an immigration officer, “FBI agents and TFOs also observed indicia of MS-13 association in the garage bedroom” of Villatoro-Santos’ home.
He has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. The magistrate judge who initially granted the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the case has “stayed” his decision while Villatoro Santos appeals to a higher-level judge in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking to overturn the dismissal. More court hearings are scheduled in the coming days.