A lawyer working for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota has been removed from that detail after telling a federal judge “this job sucks” during a hearing on Immigration and Customs Enforcement failures to follow court orders.
Julie Le, who is listed as an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security, was assigned to Minnesota to support the Department of Justice in immigration cases after a wave of lawsuits followed mass arrests under Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation efforts in the state.
That detail is now “over,” The Independent has learned.
The episode reveals the mounting frustrations among government attorneys that rarely boil over in public but are now beginning to spill out in courtrooms, where judges are increasingly firing off warning signs about the Trump administration’s legal barrage.
“The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need,” said Le, according to Minnesota’s FOX 9, which observed the hearing.
A federal judge hauled government attorneys to his courtroom Tuesday to find out why ICE failed to comply with several court orders to swiftly release wrongly detained immigrants whose cases appeared on his docket. District Judge Jerry R. Blackwell wanted to hear from the government why he shouldn’t be holding officials in contempt for their “alarming” failures.
Instead, the judge heard from a lawyer who appeared to be at a breaking point.
“I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,” Le reportedly told the judge.
According to court records, Le has been named as the government’s attorney on more than 80 immigration cases in the state since the beginning of the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge.
Le told the judge she is simply “overwhelmed” by the number of legal challenges from Trump’s mass deportation dragnet.
“I am here to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with court orders,” said Le, who reportedly appeared visibly upset during the hearing.
She reportedly said it was like “pulling teeth” to get the Homeland Security and the Justice Department to follow court orders.
In a statement to The Independent, the Justice Department denied allegations that ICE isn’t following court orders and blamed judges for “overwhelming” their own courts by failing to prepare them.
The Trump administration is “complying with court orders and fully enforcing federal immigration law” after “four years of de facto amnesty” under Joe Biden’s presidency, a spokesperson told The Independent.
“If rogue judges followed the law in adjudicating cases and respected the government’s obligation to properly prepare cases, there wouldn’t be an ‘overwhelming’ habeas caseload or concern over DHS following orders,” the spokesperson said.
“The level of illegal aliens currently detained is a direct result of this Administration’s strong border security policies to keep the American people safe,” the person added.
Le is among several government lawyers who appear to have been forced from their jobs after frank admissions in court hearings against the Trump administration.
Last year, the Justice Department fired an attorney who the Trump administration accused of sabotaging its case against Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken removal from the United States to his home country ignited a still-ongoing legal battle over his return and deportation.
Erez Reuveni was initially placed on administrative leave last year after he expressed frustration with the government’s inability to respond to the court’s questions about Abrego Garcia’s case and admitted that “he should not have been sent to El Salvador.”
Asked why the government could not simply ask El Salvador to return him, Reuveni replied: “The first thing I did when I got this case on my desk is ask my clients the same question.”
Dozens of other career prosecutors across the country were forced out over their refusals to drop cases or under pressure to bring politically charged prosecutions against the president’s perceived enemies and longtime foes.
At least five Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys have resigned over political interference from the Trump administration, including prosecutors in Manhattan who were pressured to drop a case against former Mayor Eric Adams and a U.S. attorney in Virginia tasked with prosecuting New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Last year, roughly 10,000 attorneys worked across the Justice Department and its components, including the FBI. The Trump administration has fired, forced out, or offered buyouts to roughly 5,500 attorneys and other Justice Department employees, according to Justice Connection, an advocacy group that has tracked departures.
Meanwhile, top federal prosecutors in Minnesota are fleeing the office over mounting frustrations with the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
At least eight more career prosecutors are leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota — one month after several others resigned under pressure from the Justice Department to investigate the widow of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis last month.
Veteran prosecutor Joseph Thompson, who was previously appointed by Trump to serve as Minnesota’s acting U.S. attorney and first assistant U.S. attorney, among at least six prosecutors who left last month.
Thompson reportedly objected to the Justice Department’s refusal to investigate Good’s killing as a civil rights matter and was outraged by an alleged demand to pursue a criminal investigation into Good, according to people familiar with the matter who spoked to The New York Times.
Source: independent.co.uk