An attorney for Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice gave a brutally honest response when a federal judge in Minnesota demanded to know why Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were ignoring court orders.
“The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep,” replied Julie Le, who works for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, a reporter with local NBC affiliate KARE 11 reported.
Le previously worked as an attorney representing ICE in immigration court and had recently volunteered to help the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota respond to a flood of habeas corpus petitions stemming from President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operation in the state, Fox 9 reported.
A source familiar with the matter told NBC News she had been removed from her detail following her comments.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota has lost more than a dozen attorneys over the past month due to concerns about how the DOJ is handling the operation, including the department’s failure to investigate the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.
Le and one of the outgoing federal prosecutors, Ana Voss, were called before Judge Jerry Blackwell on Tuesday to explain why ICE had moved around or continued to detain five immigrants whose release Blackwell had previously ordered, according to KARE 11’s Lou Raguse, who was in the courtroom.
At times visibly emotional, Le said that convincing officials at the Department of Homeland Security, DOJ, and ICE to follow court orders was like “pulling teeth.”
“It takes 10 emails from me for a release condition to be corrected,” Le said, referring to the rules an immigrant must follow while their case is pending. “It takes me threatening to walk out for something else to be corrected.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS, the DOJ, and Le for comment.
Voss, who has given notice of her resignation, told Blackwell, a Biden appointee, that his release orders go to the ICE attorney at the federal building in Minneapolis where immigrants are being detained, but that they’re then modified by employees who lack the proper training, according to KARE 11.
During the hearing, Le also said she wasn’t properly trained for the role she is trying to fill.
She was nevertheless assigned 88 cases in less than a month, NBC News reported.
The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office has been overwhelmed by hundreds of wrongful detention cases filed by immigrants who are being held in ICE custody.
The Trump administration is enforcing a mandatory detention policy, despite judges striking down the rule in more than 1,600 cases, Politico reported last month.
Judge Blackwell said he had called Tuesday’s hearing to remind ICE and federal agencies that they are not above the law, according to Fox 9.
He also expressed frustration that people without criminal records are being wrongfully detained even after judges have ordered their immediate release.
