The quiet shuffle of bureaucratic halls has given way to a louder battle cry from a onetime senior voice inside the nation’s legal powerhouse. A veteran immigration litigator who once carried the weight of the U.S. government’s courtroom arguments now stands on the other side of the line, joining a group devoted to challenging the very policies he once defended.
The former acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation, dismissed earlier this year after revealing to a federal judge that the administration had deported a man to El Salvador by mistake, has resurfaced as senior counsel at Democracy Forward — a hub of legal resistance aimed squarely at the White House’s agenda.
His departure from government didn’t end quietly. After being pushed out, he blew the whistle, saying a high-ranking official — now seated on a federal appeals court — had leaned on DOJ attorneys to sidestep judicial orders and accelerate mass deportations. That official has rejected the claims, but the fight has spilled far beyond internal memos.
His exit was part of a broader exodus of career legal professionals who found themselves at odds with the escalating legal brawls surrounding sweeping immigration actions and expanded executive authority. Many accused the administration of driving past traditional legal guardrails in pursuit of its goals.
Neither the Justice Department nor the White House had anything to say about his new role, though his own voice was loud enough. He framed his move as a moral pivot, a return to principle at a moment when he believes the department has strayed from constitutional commitments.
Democracy Forward’s leadership hailed his arrival as reinforcement from someone who refused to bend under political pressure — someone who chose to speak truth to power rather than echo it.
Before his long run in government, he practiced at a major law firm and clerked for respected federal judges. One of them recently stepped down from the bench, citing a desire to freely criticize what he viewed as dangerous excesses by the administration.
Now, the former DOJ insider steps into a different kind of courtroom — one where he won’t be defending policy, but contesting it, armed with an insider’s map of the system he once served.
