Immigration officials have announced that a former El Salvadoran defense minister who has been tied to human rights abuses in the 1980s has been taken into U.S. immigration custody and is awaiting his final deportation orders.

As reported by ABC News, Tammy Spicer, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday that former Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova is in the agency's custody.

An immigration appeals court, in a precedent-setting decision held on March 12, upheld a deportation order for Gen. Vides Casanova.

According to The New York Times, the court found that Vides Casanova had participated in torture and killings by his troops when he was the acting as highest ranking Salvadoran military officer.

The court further found that Gen. Vides Casanova had aided in a cover-up in the killings of four American churchwomen in 1980.

Vides Casanova's lawyer Diego Handel said the order will be appealed to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The nation's highest immigration court earlier this month ruled that Vides Casanova should be deported to El Salvador.

In February Handel repeatedly cited the U.S. support for Salvador’s right-wing government during their war against leftist guerrillas.

Speaking on behalf of Vides Casanova, Handel said, "The United States government was an active participant on the side of the El Salvadoran government."

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Handel said it was unfair to deport Vides Casanova, when no U.S. officials have been held accountable for their role in the violence.

In 2012 a Florida immigration court ordered the deportation of Vides Casanova.

This made him the first high-ranking foreign official to be told to leave the country under a 2004 law that made it easier for the U.S. to expel human rights violators.

Vides Casanova, in his late 70s, has been living in Florida since 1989.