ICE attorney who said ‘this job sucks’ removed from detail

An ICE attorney who publicly expressed frustrations with her role and told a court “this job sucks” is no longer detailed to the US attorney’s office for the district of Minnesota, according to NBC News.

“The system sucks. This job sucks,” Julie Le, an attorney representing the US attorney’s office in Minnesota, said in response to a federal judge’s questions on why ICE has repeatedly failed to comply with court orders.

“I wish you would hold me in contempt so I would have a full 24 hours sleep,” she added in comments that quickly went viral.

US district judge Jerry Blackwell had ordered Le, as well as assistant US attorney Ana Voss, to appear in his St Paul courtroom on Tuesday to explain why DHS missed multiple deadlines to release five detainees who the judge said never should have been arrested in the first place.

“A court order is not advisory, and it is not conditional,” Blackwell said. “It is not something that any agency can treat as optional as it decides how or whether to comply.”

During the hearing, Le acknowledged that many at DHS do not understand the seriousness of an order from a federal judge.

Le also told the court that she had previously submitted her resignation, after handling more than 88 immigration cases in less than a month. She ultimately ended up staying in the role because there was no one to replace her.

Le’s testimony took place amid intense scrutiny of the ICE operations in Minnesota, which have resulted in the detention of adults and children without criminal records, including Liam Ramos, the five-year-old in the viral photograph being detained by ICE agents in his bunny hat.

Tom Homan, the White House border czar, announced today that about 700 federal agents would leave Minnesota, a large drop in agents on the ground but still leaving about 2,000 agents there, far above typical levels for the state.