Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A Justice Department lawyer, who had served for 15 years in the federal government, was dismissed by the Trump administration for his role in mistakenly sending a protected Maryland resident to a harsh work prison in El Salvador. This incident occurred as part of deportations of Venezuelan migrants using an 18th-century wartime authority, a tactic that has faced opposition from several federal judges.
Erez Reuveni, acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation, was informed of being placed on indefinite paid leave due to comments he made in a court hearing before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis. The hearing was related to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully returned to El Salvador without proper procedure, defying a court order prohibiting his deportation.
During the court session, Reuveni openly admitted, “The facts are conceded,” referring to the wrongful deportation of Abrego Garcia. Following this revelation, he was terminated from the Justice Department, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“Mr. Abrego Garcia should not have been removed,” Reuveni told the court. “He should not have been sent to El Salvador.”
Reuveni also appeared frustrated during the hearing, telling Xinis that one of the first things he did upon being assigned the case was ask his “clients” why they had not requested that Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S., but was not provided with a clear answer, CNN reported.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Reuveni was suspended following the hearing for failing to “follow a directive” from his superiors.
“He was put on administrative leave by Todd Blanche on Saturday. And I firmly said on Day 1, I issued a memo that you are to vigorously advocate on behalf of the United States,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement addressing Reuveni’s suspension. “Our client in this matter was Homeland Security — is Homeland Security. He did not argue. He shouldn’t have taken the case. He shouldn’t have argued it, if that’s what he was going to do. He’s on administrative leave now.”
Bondi added, “You have to vigorously argue on behalf of your client.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly vacillated on Abrego Garcia’s deportation. Reuveni is only one among several DOJ officials to swear that Abrego Garcia’s March 15 expulsion was an “administrative error.”
“ICE was aware of this grant of withholding of removal at the time Abrego-Garcia’s removal from the United States. Reference was made to this status on internal forms,” Robert Cerna, the acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in a sworn court filing last month. “Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight.”
Similarly, in an April 7, petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that “the United States concedes that removal [of Abrego Garcia] to El Salvador was an administrative error.”
Several Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday penned a letter to Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying that Reuveni’s firing was based on “unethical and improper grounds.” The lawmakers requested that Reuveni be reinstated and called for Bondi to clarify that DOJ attorneys “must always be honest and forthright with the court, even if that undermines the Department’s position.”
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