‘This job sucks’: DOJ lawyer asks to be held in contempt so she can sleep after judge accuses ICE of blowing court orders
A federal judge in Minnesota hauled government attorneys to his courtroom to find out why Immigration and Customs Enforcement is failing to comply with court orders to swiftly release wrongly detained immigrants arrested during the Trump administration’s surge.
District Judge Jerry R. Blackwell wanted to hear from the government why he shouldn’t be holding officials in contempt for their “alarming” failures.
A lawyer working for the Department of Justice told the judge Tuesday that “the system sucks.”
“I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,” said Julie Le, according to Minnesota’s FOX 9, which observed Tuesday’s hearing. “The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need.”
Le, a private practice attorney who volunteered to help the U.S. Attorney’s Office last month, has been named as the government’s attorney on more than 80 immigration cases since Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 3,000 federal officers into the state last month for Operation Metro Surge.
She is simply “overwhelmed” by the number of legal challenges that are coming out of it.
“I am here to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with court orders,” said Le, who appeared visibly upset during the hearing.
Federal courts in the state are swimming in cases alleging unlawful arrests of immigrants and citizens alike swept up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation dragnet.
Judges across the ideological spectrum in courts across the country have spent months wrestling with high-profile lawsuits and cases that rarely, if ever, make headlines as thousands of immigrants challenge their arrest and detention.
ICE is also at the center of lawsuits alleging brutal and abusive conditions in its detention centers, while federal judges have described Homeland Security’s street-level operations as behavior that “shocks the conscience.”
Judge Blackwell expressed frustration with government attorneys after discovering indiscriminate arrests of people without criminal records who have been sitting in federal custody despite court orders for their immediate release.
He said the government is detaining too many detainees to keep up with its ability to adjudicate their cases.
“Some of this is of your own making because of non-compliance with orders,” the judge said, according to FOX 9.
Unlike federal district courts, immigration courts operate at the direction of the U.S. Attorney General and the Justice Department.
