A US government lawyer who vented to a court hearing about how much her job sucked has lost her job.
A US government lawyer who vented to a court hearing about how much her job sucked has lost her job.
Department of Homeland Security attorney Julie Le was called to the US District Court of Minnesota to explain why detainees ordered released by the judge were not being set free.
Judge Jerry Blackwell was demanding answers after he had repeatedly asked for immigrants incorrectly detained by the department to be released, only to have his orders seemingly ignored.
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In a remarkable admission made to the court, Le opened up on what she really felt.
"What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks," she said.
"And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need."
The exasperated lawyer made a stunning remark.
"Sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, Your Honour, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep," Le said.
"I work days and nights just because people (are) still in there."
Le told the court her team of lawyers had been swamped after sweeping raids in the city in Minneapolis.
Thousands of agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are in the city to arrest immigrants.
Earlier today, it was announced 700 agents would be withdrawn from the city "effective immediately".
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The judge was responsive to Le's remarks but ultimately showed greater sympathy to those detained.
"What we really want is simply compliance," Blackwell said.
"Because on the other side of this is somebody who should not have been arrested in some instances in the first place who is being held in jail or put in shackles for days, if not a week-plus, after they've been ordered released."
Blackwell decried the government for taking unlawfully detained people from their homes in Minneapolis to detention facilities across the country and then releasing them without returning them.
"We learn that somebody is put out on the street with just the clothes on their backs and have to figure out how to get back here when they should not have been arrested here in the first place, let alone flown halfway across the continent of North America," he said.
"We have to now say, bring them back."
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Blackwell was also sharply critical of unlawfully detained people being forced to wear ankle monitors so the government could track their whereabouts.
He also criticised the government releasing people onto the streets when it was -25 degrees outside.
Le spoke of her own concern about how Border Patrol and ICE were targeting people in Minnesota who were not white.
"I am not white, as you can see. And my family's at risk as any other people that might get picked up too," she said.
"Again, fixing a system, a broken system, I don't have a magic button to do it."
NBC News reported that Le "is no longer detailed to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota".
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Blackwell rose to prominence as the prosecutor who handled the infamous Derek Chauvin trial over the death of George Floyd.
He was appointed as a judge during the Biden administration.
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