New Delhi, April 6 -- The US Justice Department has placed a senior attorney on leave after he admitted in court that a Salvadoran man was wrongly deported despite legal protections, prompting a firestorm over the federal government's handling of immigration cases.

Erez Reuveni, a Justice Department lawyer who conceded in court Friday that 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia was erroneously removed from the country, was removed from the case and placed on leave by Saturday. His name was notably absent from the government's filing to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals, where the administration is now challenging a lower court order to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department would not tolera...