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u.s. department of justice
DOJ Indicts East LA Community Defender Accused of Giving Face Shields to Anti-ICE Protesters
One group asserted that Alejandro Orellana "has done nothing wrong; speaking out against ICE terror, raids, and deportations is not a crime, protesting is not a crime!"
Jul 03, 2025
The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday indicted a longtime immigrant rights defender who allegedly distributed items including face shields and bottles of water to demonstrators during a downtown Los Angeles protest last month against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Alejandro Orellana, 29, of East Los Angeles was indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders. According to federal prosecutors, Orellana and others met on June 9 and loaded his Ford pickup truck with face shields, masks, bottles of water, and other items and then drove to a protest and handed out the items.
Orellana was arrested during a June 12 raid by FBI agents backed by National Guard troops and county law enforcement on his family home in East L.A. According to Los Angeles Public Press, federal agents executed a search warrant two weeks later against fellow activist Verita Topete, seizing her phone and leaving her bruised.
At a June 27 press conference at Ruben F. Salazar Park in East Los Angeles, Orellana thanked "friends, family, community, and allies" for their support.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli told Fox News at the time of Orellana's arrest that "we have made it a huge priority to try to identify, locate, and arrest those who are involved in organizing, supporting, funding, or facilitating these riots."
If fully convicted, Orellana—a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with no criminal record—could face up to five years behind bars.
Orellana and Topete are members of Centro CSO, a Chicano-led civil rights group that is no stranger to state surveillance and repression. Founded in 1947 by Fred Ross, Antonio Rios, and Edward Roybal—who was later elected to the Los Angeles City Council and then the U.S. House of Representatives—the group was originally known as Community Service Organization (CSO).
Notable CSO members have included César Chávez and Dolores Huerta of United Farm Workers, both of whom were targeted for FBI surveillance under longtime Director J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO program.
Centro CSO was born out of CSO in the 2000s to "fight against the war in Iraq, and military recruiters, and also the fight for public education," longtime member Carlos Montes told Los Angeles Public Press. Another Centro CSO member, Sammy Carrera, told the outlet that the arrest of Orellana and seizure of Topete's phone are a continuation of state suppression of CSO.
"I don't think they anticipated such an organized community that was willing to defend our neighbors, our family members, and so they're scrambling to see, you know, see how they can smash us to stop, you, these rebellions that are being organized," Carrera said of the government's response to the anti-ICE protests.
Responding to Orellana's arrest, the Los Angeles-based Legalization 4 All (L4A) Network said last week: "Alejandro has done nothing wrong; speaking out against ICE terror, raids, and deportations is not a crime, protesting is not a crime! As Chicanos, Mexicanos, Centroamericanos around the country are being racially profiled and viciously kidnapped, activists like Alejandro have every right to speak out."
"Protesting is not a crime, fighting against ICE terror is not a crime! Legalization for all and stop the ICE raids now!" L4A added.
Noting the numerous documented injuries suffered by anti-ICE protesters at the hands of police and the Los Angeles Police Department's long history of spying on and repressing civil rights defenders, attorney Peter Bibring told Los Angeles Public Press that "taking protective measures isn't a sign of criminal activity, it's common sense."
Centro CSO has been organizing events in support of Orellana, including a planned press conference at 4:30 pm Thursday at the Edward Roybal Federal Building and a Saturday rally in La Placita Olvera.
"Our movement will continue, even if they obtain warrants to confiscate our electronic devices," Carrera said at the June 27 press conference. "Our movement will continue, even if they bring in the National Guard to raid our members. Our movement will continue. Drop the charges now!"
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'Beyond Unfit': Emil Bove Endorses Trump's 'Unitary Executive' Theory at Confirmation Hearing
The federal judicial nominee supports signing "a blank check for Trump to control every agency," said one government watchdog.
Jun 25, 2025
A whistleblower complaint alleging that top Justice Department official Emil Bove pressured government lawyers to ignore court orders was a primary concern for Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday as the panel held Bove's confirmation hearing to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit—but a government watchdog urged lawmakers not to overlook another key issue that came to light during the hearing.
Bove told the committee that the whistleblower complaint that was filed by ousted former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni Tuesday addressed "a dispute about the challenges posed by the unelected bureaucracy to the unitary executive and to the people that elected the president and put him in office."
Accountable.US said Bove had inserted a "buzzword" into his testimony: the far-right "unitary executive" theory, which holds that limits on presidential power over the executive branch are unconstitutional—or that the president should hold absolute power over every government agency, unencumbered by members of "the unelected bureaucracy" like Reuveni and anyone else in the federal government who would express disagreement with President Donald Trump's policies or actions.
As Common Dreams reported Tuesday, Reuveni's whistleblower complaint detailed allegations that just before Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to swiftly deport more than 200 immigrants to El Salvador—claiming they were gang members who were part of an "invasion" of the U.S.—Bove told DOJ lawyers that deportation flights "needed to take off no matter what" and that the agency should "consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such order" that would try to stop the forced removals.
In his testimony Wednesday, Bove took issue with the idea that a career government attorney like Reuveni, who was acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation, "was in a position or considered himself to be, to bind the department's leadership and other Cabinet officials."
Bove suggested Reuveni, who served in the department for 15 years under Democratic and Republican administrations, should not have been empowered to say in a court hearing that the Trump White House had mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, as he did in April—just before he was placed on administrative leave and then fired.
Under the "unitary executive" theory, said Accountable.US, Trump alone would control "the DOJ, the Fed, even election oversight. No president should have that kind of power."
Bove expanded on his views regarding presidential power when Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) questioned him about "the contours of the president's authority to appoint and remove" executive branch officials.
"Generally speaking," said Bove, "I think the court used the phrase 'all of it' is committed to the president of the United States."
In a column in February, John Bergmayer, legal director of Public Knowledge, warned that with an executive order purporting to place independent regulatory agencies under Trump's control, the president had embraced the fringe "unitary executive" theory and posed "a grave threat to the rule of law and the separation of powers—cornerstones of our constitutional system."
"That this 'unitary executive' theory has made its way from the fringes of academia to the halls of power, and that it has even been accepted by some credulous judges, does not mean that it is right," wrote Bergmayer. "Many legal observers have pointed out the shoddy scholarship and selective history that underpins it. We are a nation of laws, and we cannot be ruled by executive fiat."
At the hearing, Bove denied the allegations in the whistleblower complaint, saying he "never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order." He told Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) under questioning that he "did not recall" whether he made the comments detailed in the complaint.
Accountable compiled a list of numerous concerns about Bove's potential appointment to a lifetime seat on the federal judicial bench as part of its Judicial Nominations Watch project.
In addition to the allegations in the complaint, said the group, Bove:
- Created turmoil and chaos in the Justice Department after dropping corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, prompting the resignation of multiple staff attorneys, who left in protest;
- Advanced dubious legal arguments meant to throw out or delay Trump's legal cases when he served as his attorney, including by trying to avoid discovery requirements and petitioning to move Trump's New York state criminal case to federal court; and
- Developed a reputation as a federal prosecutor who belittled subordinates and was the subject of an email from defense attorneys expressing concern about his "professionalism" and "power plays"—a document he pinned to a wall as "a badge of honor."
Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an adviser at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Bove has been shown to be "beyond unfit to serve in a lifetime judgeship."
"His temperament, subversion of the rule of law, and efforts to seek retaliation while at the Justice Department demonstrate that he would not be fair-minded, independent, or committed to protecting the rights of all people in America," said Zwarensteyn. "As his actions have shown, he would only be loyal to the president—rather than to the Constitution and the law—at the expense of the American people and our democracy."
"With each day there are more and more damaging reports and questions about Bove's tenure at both the Justice Department and in the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of New York," she added. "Senators must take their constitutional responsibility seriously. They must reject his nomination for the 3rd Circuit."
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Whistleblower Says Top DOJ Official Pushed to Ignore Court Orders to Carry Out Deportations
Emil Bove "does not belong on the federal bench," said one Democratic lawmaker ahead of confirmation hearings on the Justice Department official's judicial nomination.
Jun 24, 2025
With the Senate scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on federal judicial nominee Emil Bove on Wednesday, Democrats urged the Republican Party to consider an explosive whistleblower complaint as they weighed Bove's nomination—one that revealed allegations that he directed U.S. Department of Justice staffers to ignore court orders to carry out the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda.
The whistleblower complaint was filed Tuesday with federal lawmakers and the DOJ's inspector general by a veteran lawyer in the agency's Office of Immigration Litigation, Erez Reuveni, who was fired in April after expressing concerns in federal court that the administration had wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
In the 27-page complaint, filed by Reuveni's lawyers at the Government Accountability Project, the attorney described a meeting on March 14 in which Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general, told his subordinates that President Donald Trump would soon invoke the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to quickly remove a group of immigrants from the U.S., sending more than 200 people to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Bove "stressed to all in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what," the complaint reads. He noted that "a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated," but said the DOJ "would need to consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such order."
"Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room," reads the complaint.
Reuveni also alleged that DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign lied in court on March 15, the day Trump invoked the AEA, when he told Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. that he didn't know whether any deportation flights were scheduled to leave in the coming 24-48 hours.
"Ensign had been present in the previous day's meeting when Emil Bove stated clearly that one or more planes containing individuals subject to the AEA would be taking off over the weekend no matter what," reads the complaint.
Reuveni said that by April, he was "frozen out" of discussions about the Trump administration's use of the AEA to carry out deportations.
That month, he said in a court hearing that the deportation of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man with no criminal record, had been a mistake. Abrego Garcia was sent to CECOT in March. The administration repeatedly said it would not facilitate his return to the U.S. as it was ordered to by the U.S. Supreme Court, before Abrego Garcia was indicted in Nashville on smuggling charges and abruptly returned to the U.S., where he is still detained, earlier this month.
After the hearing, Ensign asked Reuveni in a phone call why he hadn't supported the administration's claims in court that Abrego Garcia was a terrorist and gang member. He replied that no evidence supported the claim, and noted that even if Abrego Garcia was a criminal he would still be entitled to due process, which he was not afforded when he was sent to El Salvador.
As The New York Times reported:
The next day, Mr. Reuveni was told he should sign an appeal brief making the terrorism claim against Mr. Abrego Garcia.
Mr. Reuveni's lawyers say he resisted, arguing that the law does not allow advocates to make new factual claims, which he saw as "contrary to law, frivolous, and untrue."
That led to a final standoff with his supervisor... who told him "he should sign the brief and that he had signed up for the responsibility to do so," the account states.
Mr. Reuveni responded, "I didn't sign up to lie."
He was placed on administrative leave hours later, and fired the next week.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) responded to the report by saying that Bove "does not belong on the federal bench."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged Republicans on the panel "not to turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge."
"The accusations against Emil Bove are serious. Not only do they speak to his failure to fulfill his ethical obligations as a lawyer, they also demonstrate his part in a broader pattern by the Trump-Bondi DOJ to undermine the rule of law," he said, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi—who has been accused of "serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, applauded Reuveni "for having the great courage to come forward to expose the lawlessness of Mr. Bove and Trump's DOJ."
"Whistleblowers are the first line of defense to hold those in power accountable," said Raskin. "The extraordinary nature of the disclosure demands further investigation by Congress, and Judiciary Democrats are committed to getting to the truth on all of the Trump administration's efforts to turn the Department of Justice into a gangster state law firm devoted to violating the rights of the people, lying to federal judges, violating court orders, and persecuting those who uphold their oaths and speak the truth."
The news of the whistleblower complaint came two days after Judge Barbara Holmes of the Federal District Court in Nashville said Abrego Garcia should be freed from immigration detention.
Holmes took issue with the Trump administration's central claim about Abrego Garcia: that he is a member of the gang MS-13.
"Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind. And his reputed gang membership is contradicted by the government's own evidence," said Holmes.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Holmes' ruling was "remarkable."
The opinion, she said, "completely [dismantled] all the allegations and 'evidence' against him as 'defy[ing] common sense' and not credible."
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