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 with 15 years of experience in the federal government has been fired by the Trump administration after admitting in court that a protected Maryland resident was mistakenly shipped off to a notorious work prison in El Salvador as part of his deportations of Venezuelan migrants through the unprecedented use of an 18th-century wartime authority, which have since been blocked multiple federal judges.
Erez Reuveni was the acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation earlier this month when Trump administration officials notified him he was being placed on indefinite paid leave for comments he made during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is presiding over the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. His termination from the Justice Department was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“The facts are conceded,” Reuveni confessed during the proceeding, which centered around Abrego Garcia being sent back to his native El Salvador without due process, in violation of a court order that he not be deported.
“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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