A government lawyer who told a federal judge “this job sucks” when she was hauled to court over the Trump administration’s immigration arrests is now running for Congress as a Democrat.
Julie Le, a now-former Homeland Security attorney, is preparing to formally launch her campaign for a House seat in Minnesota — which is currently held by Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose district represents the same Minneapolis area where federal officers fatally shot two demonstrators this year.
Le, who was a prosecutor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in immigration court, was supporting the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota last month to help with an avalanche of lawsuits that followed mass arrests under President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation efforts in the state.
A judge wanted lawyers to answer for ICE’s “alarming” failures to comply with court orders to swiftly release wrongly detained immigrants — leading to Le’s now-infamous outburst.
“What do you want me to do?” said Le, according to a transcript from the hearing. “The system sucks. This job sucks.”
She was fired hours later.
The episode exposed the growing frustrations among government attorneys that rarely boil over in public but are now beginning to spill out into courtrooms, where judges are increasingly running out of patience and threatening to hold officials in contempt.
“Sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep,” Le told Minnesota District Judge Jerry R. Blackwell last month.
According to court records, Le was named as the government’s attorney on more than 80 immigration cases in the state after Operation Metro Surge began.
Le told the judge she was simply “overwhelmed” by the number of legal challenges from Trump’s mass deportation dragnet.
She said it was like “pulling teeth” to get Homeland Security to follow court orders.
Le, who is kicking off her campaign on March 13, is among several former prosecutors and officials who left the Trump administration to run as Democratic candidates for higher office this year.
Former special counsel Jack Smith’s deputy J.P. Cooney, who formerly worked at the public corruption division of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, is running for a House seat in Virginia after he was fired in January 2025.
Le has centered her platform around immigration reform, noting that she “witnessed firsthand the complexities of our immigration and legal systems.”
“She knows firsthand how broken they are — and the reforms needed to improve them,” according to her campaign website.
“Through her work representing both the government and working families in immigration cases, Julie has witnessed how the system fails everyday people” and “seen families torn apart by bureaucratic inefficiency and a system that doesn’t work for those who need it most,” the website says.
The nation’s immigration system is “outdated and inefficient,” creating a “humanitarian crisis,” according to her campaign.
A weeks-long surge of federal immigration officers into Minnesota — under the command of Border Patrol official Greg Bovino at the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — led to thousands of arrests, with lawsuits alleging violent and unconstitutional detentions and illegal use of force.
In January, Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, just two weeks after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good. None of the agents involved in either incident have been criminally charged.
State and local officials in Minnesota are now investigating more than a dozen incidents to determine whether federal officers violated any laws during the surge.
Le will enter a primary race to unseat Omar, who has represented Minnesota’s 5th congressional district since 2019 and has handily defeated primary challengers and won re-election in three previous election cycles.
Omar’s campaign also has key endorsements from Democratic members of Congress and more than $1 million on hand as her campaign entered 2026, according to campaign finance records.
“It’s not because she’s not doing the job,” Le told The Washington Post. “It’s just for what I could bring to the table.”
