Erez Reuveni worked as a lawyer for the Department of Justice for nearly fifteen years, largely on immigration cases. After refusing to make claims that he considered unsupported about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, he was fired. Now he’s speaking out. Plus:

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Illustration by Nicholas Konrad; Source photographs from Getty

Why a Devoted Justice Department Lawyer Became a Whistle-Blower

In the first Trump Administration, “they didn’t say ‘Fuck you’ to the courts,” Erez Reuveni said.

By Ruth Marcus

In the early days of the first Trump Administration, Erez Reuveni, a lawyer for the Department of Justice, went to court to defend the new President’s travel ban on foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries. He told the federal judge hearing the case to ignore the unpleasant fact that, as a candidate, Donald Trump had argued for a travel ban on Muslims; those statements, he said, didn’t justify interfering with Trump’s authority to take actions that he deemed necessary to protect national security. Second-guessing a President in that way, Reuveni argued, would place the court and the President “in an untenable position.” As the Administration’s efforts to restrict immigration and deport noncitizens continued in the months that followed, Reuveni defended the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to turn up at court hearings to arrest undocumented immigrants. He argued in support of the Administration’s decision to eliminate asylum protections for victims of domestic violence, and he defended its rule denying asylum to migrants at the southern border unless they first sought asylum in Mexico or a third country.

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