Lawyer Who Criticized Government in Deportation Case No Longer With DOJ: Attorney General

Erez Reuveni represented the government in a case concerning the deportation of an illegal immigrant.

Attorney General Pam Bondi in Florida in a file picture. Marco Bello/AFP via Getty Images

The lawyer who criticized the U.S. government over its handling of the deportation of an illegal immigrant to his home country is no longer with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Attorney General Pam Bondi said on April 16.

Erez Reuveni “is not with our office anymore, and he won’t be coming back,” Bondi said during an appearance on Fox News.

A DOJ spokesperson declined to say whether Reuveni resigned or was fired.

Reuveni did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The DOJ had suspended Reuveni after he appeared for the department in the first court appearance for a case brought by an illegal immigrant residing in Maryland. The man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was arrested in March and deported to his native country of El Salvador.

“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States,“ Bondi said in a statement when the suspension happened. ”Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

Bondi, in a Feb. 5 memorandum, said DOJ lawyers could be fired if they refuse orders.

After lawyers for Abrego Garcia told a federal court that his deportation was illegal because of a 2019 withholding order that found he would be in danger if he were deported to El Salvador, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said the deportation was made in error because officials had not marked the existence of the order on a flight manifest.

Reuveni said during the hearing several days later, on April 4, that he was not able to provide the judge overseeing the case much information.

“My answer to a lot of these questions is going to be frustrating,” he said. “I am also frustrated that I have no answers for you on a lot of these questions.”

When asked why the United States could not just get Abrego Garcia back, Reuveni told her: “I will say, for the Court’s awareness, that when this case landed on my desk, the first thing I did was ask my clients that very question. I’ve not received, to date, an answer that I find satisfactory.”

“The government made a choice here to produce no evidence,” he added later.

U.S. officials have since argued that because courts have found evidence that supports Abrego Garcia’s being a member of MS-13, and because officials recently designated MS-13 a terrorist group, the withholding order would no longer apply.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the case, ordered the government to “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States. An appeal reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the first part but questioned the breadth of the latter part. Xinis then removed effectuate from an updated order.

The government filed a notice on Wednesday that it was appealing the judge’s updated order, in part because lawyers said she was inappropriately trying to intervene in foreign affairs.

The government also released a tranche of documents that showed that when Abrego Garcia was arrested in 2019, he was with MS-13 members, and a police source told officers that Abrego Garcia was an active member of the gang.

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia have said he is not an MS-13 member.