Trump DOJ Removes Lawyer Who Begged Judge to Toss Her in Jail So She Could Rest from Exhausting Caseload: ‘This Job Sucks’

AP Photo/John Locher

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has reportedly removed an attorney who infamously begged a judge to hold her in contempt and throw her in jail so she could “get a full 24 hours sleep” to recover from her office’s crushing caseload handling immigration cases in Minnesota from her post.

The tactics used during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have been loudly criticized and sparked nationwide protests and multiple court challenges, especially after two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis: Renee Good on Jan. 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

Recently, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino was removed from overseeing the operations in Minnesota and sent back to California, with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan sent to replace him. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday that “[e]ffective immediately,” they would be “deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis” — a key demand from protesters and Democratic members of Congress.

On Tuesday, Paul Blume, a reporter with Fox 9 in Minneapolis, reported that Julia Le, an immigration attorney working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who volunteered to assist the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota with its immigration caseload, made a “shocking” admission in court when the judge pressed her on the reason why so many court orders were being ignored and openly defied by the Trump administration.

According to Blume, Le “became visibly emotional” during the hearing, in which U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell, a Biden appointee, “expressed frustration that people with no criminal records are being wrongfully detained even after judges have ordered their immediate release” and demanded answers from Le about the feds’ reasons for the noncompliance, threatening to hold her and other government attorneys in contempt. Particularly aggravating to the judge were the habeas cases where the government had ignored court orders and left detainees with no criminal records languishing behind bars, “unconstitutionally locked up for days.”

Le replied that the government attorneys were “overwhelmed” by the high caseload dumped on an already understaffed and overworked office, reported Blume.

CNN’s reporting described Le’s commentary during the hearing as “extraordinarily candid,” as she “admitted that the government did not have enough lawyers on the ground to adequately keep up with Operation Metro Surge and that trying to get errors fixed is like ‘pulling teeth.'”

“It takes ten emails to get a release condition to be corrected,” Le told the judge. “It takes two escalations and a threat that I will walk out for that to be corrected.”

“They are overwhelmed and they need help,” Le explained, so she had “stupidly” volunteered.

“Sometimes I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep,” she begged the court. “I work days and night just because people [are] still in there.”

“And, yes, procedure in place right now sucks. I’m trying to fix it,” she continued. “I am here with you, your honor. What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.”

Le further complained about the inadequate training and preparation the U.S. Attorney’s Office had provided, leaving them ill-equipped to argue complex cases in the federal courts. “We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do,” she said.

Blackwell acknowledged that Le and her colleagues were “working in good faith and under difficult circumstances,” but still warned them that “a court order is not advisory and it is not conditional” and was “not something that any agency can treat as optional while it decides how or whether to comply.”

“Having what you feel are too many detainees, too many cases, too many deadlines, and not enough infrastructure to keep up with it all, is not a defense to continued detention. If anything, it ought to be a warning sign,” the judge added.

On Wednesday, one day after this infamous hearing, CNN reported that Le “has been removed from her post” and “sent back to her job at ICE, according to a source familiar with the matter.”

NBC News confirmed the report Le was “no longer detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota” with “an official familiar with the matter.” According to NBC News’ review of court files, Le had been assigned “88 cases in less than a month.”

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