Government attorney who told judge in ICE case, ‘This job sucks,’ removed from detail

A government attorney who was representing the Justice Department in court is no longer detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota after telling a judge her job “sucks” and asking to be held in contempt so she “could get 24 hours of sleep.”

Julie Le, who is listed in public records as a Department of Homeland Security attorney, had been detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, but an official familiar with the matter told NBC News early Wednesday that Le’s detail was now over in the wake of the comments.

Le, who according to an NBC News review of court records picked up 88 cases in less than a month, expressed frustration at her job during an immigration hearing Tuesday in Minneapolis, where the Trump administration is carrying out a sweeping immigration enforcement operation.

“The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep,” Le said, according to reporting by Lou Raguse of NBC affiliate KARE.

Raguse, who was in the courtroom, reported that Le said it was like “pulling teeth” to get the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department to follow court orders.

DHS, which oversees ICE, and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Le could not be reached for comment.

She made the remarks after U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell ordered the government to explain why it had not followed court orders in immigration proceedings, including not releasing several immigrant detainees he had ordered be let out.

Blackwell said in an order this week that the government’s “failures” were “alarming” because the government’s “persistent noncompliance with orders in this District was extensively detailed just last week,” pointing to a decision from Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee. Schiltz wrote that his “patience is at an end” and that the government had failed to comply with “dozens of court orders.”

Le told Blackwell during the court hearing on Tuesday that “it takes 10 emails from me for a release condition to be corrected. It takes me threatening to walk out for something else to be corrected,” KARE reported.

Le also said she did not feel properly trained for the role she is trying to fill, KARE reported. Le had been assigned 88 cases in less than a month, according to an NBC News review of federal court records.

Multiple lawyers at the U.S. attorney’s office have departed over ethical concerns in recent weeks, people familiar with the matter told NBC News. Trump administration officials have been trying to surge resources into the district to fill the gaps.

Ana H. Voss, Le’s co-counsel in Minneapolis, is among those who have given their notices of resignation, according to a person familiar with the matter. Voss did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday morning.

Le’s remarks on Tuesday come amid “Operation Metro Surge,” a sweeping immigration crackdown in Minnesota that has led to thousands of arrests since December. The enforcement operation in turn has led to mass protests in the city, where U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot by federal officers.

Their killings and the response by some members of the Trump administration drew widespread condemnation, in addition to many Republicans calling for an independent investigation into Pretti’s death. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday that body cameras would go to immigration agents in Minneapolis.