With the identical first identify because the final Aztec emperor, it’s not shocking that Cuauhtémoc Ortega selected to be a fighter.
The federal public defender for Southern California is in control of a unit that’s at all times underfunded and perpetually an underdog in opposition to the would possibly and sources of the federal government. His group loses as a rule. However in a yr when the Trump administration has tried to bend the regulation at each degree and alternative to its whims, Ortega has emerged as an vital bulwark in opposition to federal overreach.
His workplace filed a movement in August to take away performing U.S. Atty. Invoice Essayli from his publish, arguing that the highest federal prosecutor for Southern California has “no such lawful authority” as a result of he’s but to be formally confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Ortega and his group — the most important federal public defender’s workplace within the nation — are coping with a deluge of immigration-related circumstances filed by Essayli. Considered one of them concerned an activist that prosecutors claimed assaulted a Border Patrol agent throughout a protest in Paramount. A jury acquitted Ortega’s consumer after screening video proof that contradicted the federal government’s claims.
The trial additionally made nationwide information after Ortega cross-examined Border Patrol sector chief Gregory Bovino about earlier feedback he had made describing undocumented immigrants as “scum, filth and trash.”
“It was quite a lot of enjoyable to confront him,” Ortega stated quietly however proudly. “Particularly since I’m Latino and it wasn’t misplaced on me that this particular person was head of the Border Patrol and {that a} lawyer who’s named Cuauhtémoc is cross-examining him.”
His observe report has earned the respect of associates and foes.
“We’ve been on reverse sides as a rule, however I’d by no means query his motives or ethics — ever,” stated Essayli’s predecessor, E. Martin Estrada. “Cuauhtémoc is collegial, he’s humble and he’s sort. Frankly, as a result of it’s not the norm, it makes him stand out.”
Ortega interned beneath him after graduating from Columbia Legislation College and the 2 commonly visited regulation faculties whereas Estrada was in his place to induce college students of coloration to work within the federal justice system.
Anthony Solis sits with Ortega on a panel that approves personal attorneys to face in for the general public defender’s workplace when it has a battle of curiosity. The Calabasas-based lawyer remembered being initially “shocked” when he bumped into Ortega in Washington, D.C., whereas each had been representing purchasers accused of crimes associated to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“However then I considered it,” Solis continued. “Most good public defenders aren’t simply directors telling folks what to do. They’re within the trenches with their folks. That’s management. That’s Cuauhtémoc.”
I just lately met Ortega at his Tenth-floor nook workplace in Little Tokyo, which has gorgeous views of downtown L.A. He’s 43, immaculately dressed and groomed and has the countenance of a highschool counselor. His largely sparse workplace is embellished with mementos from earlier profitable trials, resembling a wood cross and a duplicate of Iceberg Slim’s “Pimp: The Story of My Life.” Awards and certificates of recognition spoke to a distinguished profession, together with one signed by the late Supreme Courtroom Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — “She received the accent proper on my identify.”
He pointed to a Pollock-esque portray in entrance of his desk created by a dying row inmate represented by his predecessor.
“I saved it up there as a result of it reminds you the way resilient somebody may be even when they’re going through execution. They will nonetheless take the time to make one thing inventive,” he stated. “That carried that means for me as a result of I like to think about my purchasers as folks past the costs. That helps me persist with them and get up with them.”
Cuauhtémoc Ortega, proper, at a federal courthouse in 2023 with a consumer, former Los Angeles Metropolis Councilmember Jose Huizar, who pleaded responsible to a bribery and cash laundering scheme.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Occasions)
The son of immigrants from the Mexican state of Zacatecas who initially got here to this nation with out papers, Ortega grew up a “sheltered, nerdy child” in La Puente. He attended UCLA with the intentions of turning into an opinion columnist and served as editor in chief of the Day by day Bruin once I was considered one of its columnists, though we by no means had an opportunity to speak again then. That gig allowed him to intern in 2003 for the New York Occasions’ opinion part, which he known as a “spotlight of my life.”
That summer season, the paper weathered a plagiarism scandal involving reporter Jayson Blair that led to the resignation of govt editor Howell Raines.
“Some folks there instructed me, ‘This paper is, like, going to crumble,’” Ortega remembered, and so they urged him to think about one other profession. The New York Occasions most positively didn’t crumble within the years that adopted, regardless of what number of occasions Donald Trump subsequently proclaimed it “failing.”
Nonetheless, Ortega was already desirous about regulation faculty after noticing that former classmates of his from Nogales Excessive had been “going into the system … and I believed one mistaken flip and I may’ve been there myself.”
After ending at Columbia, he clerked for a federal choose primarily based in Orange County that Ortega described as “robust. So I used to be at all times mesmerized with the general public defenders coming in and pushing again on her. I believed, ‘That is harmful — what are you doing?’ And that’s when it actually began to click on. Like, I believe it might be cool to have the ability to do this.”
He’s been within the federal public defender’s workplace for Southern California since 2010 save just a few months in personal observe. The primary two years had been “terrifying” however the recommendation a juror gave him after a dropping trial — be extra “pure and approachable” as a substitute of rehearsed — made Ortega notice that he wanted to narrate higher to his purchasers, largely Latino and dealing class, as a substitute of “attempting to imitate different folks’s type.”
Ortega quickly grew to become a supervisor however stated turning into the highest man “was not likely an ambition till shortly earlier than it occurred.” He’s happy with having shepherded his workplace via COVID-19 and in addition high-profile circumstances like that of disgraced former L.A. Metropolis Councilmember Jose Huizar, whom Ortega wouldn’t touch upon apart from to say he was “actually happy with the work we did in that case.” (Huizar pleaded responsible to racketeering and tax evasion and was sentenced to 13 years in federal jail, seven years lower than the utmost sentence.)
I requested how Ortega was feeling proper now.
“Whereas Estrada was in workplace, we mainly had none of these [immigration] circumstances,” he stated. “So it’s a possibility for us to essentially gear up once more and do not forget that we all know how one can defend these circumstances.”
He’s needed to cope with a hiring freeze for a few yr, however he’s extra involved that court-approved personal attorneys resembling Solis, whom his workplace is determined by, haven’t been paid since early July as a result of Congress hadn’t funded them — and this was earlier than the present authorities shutdown.
“I’m afraid these attorneys are going to cease taking circumstances,” Ortega stated. “With out attorneys in courtroom representing defendants, the case can’t go ahead. … It’s fairly unprecedented and it’s actually horrible for these attorneys and worse for his or her purchasers. And in order that’s why I’m attempting to determine how one can assist them.”
Is that why his receptionist was promoting cookies downstairs?
“That’s for our consumer fund,” Ortega stated with a chuckle. “Our employees retains petty money in case considered one of our purchasers wants an Uber or a resort evening or bus fare to get again house. The courtroom doesn’t present that.”
The employees scarcity was one of many causes Ortega personally defended the case that discovered his consumer harmless of assaulting a Border Patrol agent. He particularly reveled in cross-examining Bovino, discovering it amusing that whereas the opposite Border Patrol brokers who testified wore fits and ties, the sector chief sported his uniform, which Ortega joked made him appear like “the summary idea of la migra had personified into flesh and blood.”
U.S. Atty. Invoice Essayli solutions questions at a information convention in Los Angeles on June 4, 2025.
(Damian Dovarganes/Related Press)
Ortega declined to touch upon his workplace’s push to sack Essayli in addition to what was already of their authorized movement however claimed it was “nothing private.” He did reward their “optimistic, cordial relationship” on mutual efforts to hurry up trials and stated he wasn’t shocked that Essayli appears to be obsessive about prosecuting something associated to President Trump’s deportation avalanche.
“Each prosecutor brings a special set of priorities that partly flows from the priorities of the Justice Division, so I perceive the place he’s coming from,” Ortega stated. “So I don’t actually give it some thought in private phrases. I give it some thought extra in, what’s our workplace going to do to reply to that?”
Essayli’s spokesperson, Ciaran McEvoy, stated his boss was unavailable for an interview and had “no additional remark.”
Ortega was accepted final yr to serve one other four-year time period by the U.S. ninth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals, however doesn’t assume he’s a lifer as a result of “it’s generally good to have new management.”
I requested whether or not he had a message for Southern Californians.
“We’re right here able to battle aggressively and in a classy approach for anybody who faces any federal prosecution at any time,” Ortega stated. “We’re not afraid.”
We shook arms. However earlier than I left, Ortega requested whether or not he may plug as soon as once more his plea for Congress to pay the court-approved personal attorneys who assist out his workplace.
“It’s vital to fund our justice system, as a result of with out having a lawyer, you may’t have a trial, you may’t have a continuing,” Ortega stated. “No one’s priorities might be superior if there isn’t a protection lawyer current within the courtroom.”
I purchased some cookies from his receptionist earlier than I left.
