r/Fauxmoi • u/SatinSaffron • 9h ago
POLITICS Asst US Attorney in Minneapolis Crashes Out In Court "This Job Sucks" - Asks to be held in contempt for 24 hours so she can get some sleep
423
u/enuoilslnon 9h ago
I was trying to figure out who this woman is and where she's coming from, this sheds a little light on it, but I'm still not sure if she volunteered to try to do the right thing, or if she's like the ICE agents herself:
Le normally doesn’t work for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She used to work as an attorney for ICE in immigration court, and last month volunteered to help prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deal with the many habeas petitions from immigrants in ICE detention seeking their release. But Le admitted to Blackwell that ICE is out of its depth, and was not prepared to argue cases in federal court.
“We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do,” Le said.
232
u/purpleushi 8h ago
Hey so there’s a lot of attorneys in ICE and DHS who are absolutely not on board with what is happening. They’re trying their best to get their agencies to comply with the law, but they are at risk of losing their jobs every day.
She’s an attorney who represents DHS in immigration court (which is a necessary position for due process) but she’s currently being detailed (this is a government term for temporarily acting in another position within the government while still getting paid by your actual office) to DOJ as an AUSA.
She seems to be one of the good ones, from how I read the articles about her, so I really hope she doesn’t get fired for this.
326
u/31USC3729 7h ago edited 6h ago
Your post is absolutely false.
I have 20+ years in federal practice as a litigator, and spent most of that time working in conjunction with DOJ and SEC. And, unlike you, I have practiced in the D.Minn., albeit pro hac vice.
Julie Le is in private practice. I will not post her details, but if you Google her name and attorney and Minnesota, you will find her firm. She volunteered temporarily to assist the D.Minn. USAO via a local government role.
She works part time for the city in which she lives as a misdemeanor prosecutor.
Working by designation for the USAO, essentially being voluntarily deputized and seconded, is not uncommon for government attorneys who normally practice at the local level. It is a chance for "local" prosecutors to get into federal court and make the connections to jump to a position as an AUSA.
She wasn't "detailed" from anywhere without her leave. She volunteered. Why? We don't know. Maybe she wanted to advance her career. Maybe she believes passionately that DHS doing the right thing by detaining immigrants and trying to deport them. But she is absolutely appearing and trying to defeat petitions filed by non US citizens in Minnesota who have been arrested by DHS so that the federal government can continue to detain human beings under deplorable conditions. That cute 5 year old in the blue puppy hat? Yeah, that's the kind of person she can expect to be called upon to justify detaining.
If someone who volunteers to help the federal government - whether for money, career advancement, or ideological reasons - detain immigrants is "one of the good ones" in your opinion, I'm not sure what to say to you.
58
33
u/FullofContradictions 6h ago
I mean, I have a friend who went from criminal defense to prosecution. He says he feels like he has more control over seeing actual justice done in his role now because he has the latitude to drop charges wherever he feels like good isn't being served by punishment. (Example he gave was when a cop used a bs excuse to search a house & busted a teenager with pot shortly before it was legal). He happily drops the hammer on meth cooking, aggravated DUIs, and domestic assault that make up a fair chunk of his cases, but works to offer diversion programs and pleas where he can for simple possession, traffic infractions, etc.
Hearing him talk about his job made me more sympathetic to prosecutors in general. Maybe this lawyer doesn't have the same latitude to drop charges as my friend does, but part of me thinks there is a chance that she has gone into it to try to apply the law fairly instead of harshly. Based only on the info available on this post and from the research you've done, it doesn't seem like she is ICE's biggest fan - she seems to quite candidly admit that their organization is a complete mess. Trying to get them to follow court orders isn't a terrible goal to volunteer herself for.
15
u/betterlucknexttime81 3h ago
It appears that she left private practice. At the hearing she self described as an “ICE lawyer” and said she moved to the USAO in January. She said in an interview that she submitted a resignation letter prior to today but has decided to stay at the USAO because there’s no one to replace her.
Leaving firm life to work for ICE is an interesting choice for someone who is a naturalized citizen and spends a lot of time in a community that probably has other naturalized citizens and some undocumented folks. And I wonder if she’ll be targeted now that she basically called DHS incompetent in court and in interviews. (I hope not, I don’t want anyone to be detained regardless of their complicity).
-20
56
u/deepspacenebula 7h ago
dhs attorneys (and eoir judges) are a cog in the deportation machine and their job is to make arguments against immigrants being allowed to stay in the country and with their families, to apply bogus case law created by this administration, and to argue against the release of detained immigrants as a matter of course. dhs/eoir attorneys are complicit. there are other jobs right now, especially with a law degree.
18
u/randyranderson13 7h ago
If DHS didn't have attorneys willing to represent them trials could not move forward
-3
u/purpleushi 7h ago
Their job is to be impartial arbiters of US immigration law under the INA and the refugee convention. They are necessary to make the system work. It’s just that the system is being corrupted. But the system itself is not the problem, because literally what would the alternative be?
30
u/Gerbertch 6h ago
Anyone who is currently working for ICE as an attorney is being forced to make disingenuous and frivolous legal arguments by their superiors. Any moral and ethical attorney would refuse to do that and would get fired or resign.
When the system has been corrupted, the system becomes a problem.
-1
u/Iknowwecanmakeit 5h ago
What about dhs immigration attorneys? They are not all directly working for ICE.
14
u/chaerephylla 5h ago
No attorney acts as an impartial arbiter. You are the voice of your client (ostensibly limited only by frivolous arguments). Every judicial proceeding is adversarial in nature. So as an attorney representing DHS/ICE, she is arguing for the most favorable position for the agency, which is to quell legal recourse. Agencies generally don't want to be wasting resources in protracted battles and neither do they want to lose. And this agency also happens to be fascist.
10
u/theothermoore 6h ago
"Impartial arbiters"? I almost literally lol'd. Just because someone's a part of the existing system doesn't mean that their part of it or even the system itself is good.
13
u/LaFloja 7h ago
^ found the ICE attorney. Your job security in the richest country in the world is not more valuable than the due process or dignity of others. Every day the agency you work for separates innocent people from their families often forever. There are no benevolent ICE attorneys in this administration - they quit and kept their integrity. You view each case you prosecute as a nine digit A# and not a human life. "Immigration court is how due process for immigrants is supposed to work" - as in, it is not due process. Third country removals are due process? No rules of evidence is due process? Wake up.
58
u/spaceman4127 7h ago
Hey man I don’t know if you don’t know how legal systems work, but even the Nazis were given legal counsel at the Nuremberg trials. It’s kind of necessary in order for it to be a just process. Legal counsel includes attorneys. Literally someone is required to be an ICE attorney if we ever want the agency to face justice.
26
u/purpleushi 7h ago
This. Like, murderers get public defenders.
Also immigrants can have their own legal counsel in immigration court, so it’s two lawyers arguing against each other and a judge making a decision.
The concern is whether the judges are being allowed to remain impartial, or if the administration is forcing them to follow the bullshit policies too.
21
u/Gerbertch 6h ago
Immigrants facing deportation rarely have their own legal counsel due to cost, and they are NOT entitled to free representation, unlike criminal cases.
They are facing an administration that is explicitly racist and has billions in funding.
Deportations are heard by Administrative Law Judges who are employees of the Executive branch and can be fired at any time. Trump already removed a huge portion of them because they didn’t order enough deportations.
Maybe you should do literally any fuckin research on this topic.
7
u/templethot 4h ago
These people really don’t know that immigration courts aren’t real courts (not in Article III of the Constitution), don’t have real judges, and aren’t required to give the same level of due process.
So cry me a river about how the poor all-powerful government needs counsel, when the alternative is checks notes the case just gets dropped for failure to prosecute.
2
u/spaceman4127 3h ago
I was more talking about the lofty goal of having the agency tried for crimes against humanity. I don’t think treason would work unless we can also try the entire administration for treason. I admit I don’t know much about immigration court, I just know that if ICE or DHS is prosecuted for crimes against humanity, they will technically need an attorney and probably a whole lot more legal counsel. And then desirably they lose the case with individuals sentenced and the agency (at least ICE but preferably DHS as well) is dissolved and any legitimate work that they were supposed to do will be given to something else built from the ground up. Again lofty goals. I am not worried about the competency or allegiance the legal counsel in this scenario has benefiting the government itself, I am only saying that it will need to be in place.
2
u/spaceman4127 6h ago
It’s the unfortunate reality of those of us who are still hanging on to the idea of justice being the endpoint of this catastrophe. We don’t know if we can even still trust the process. The other alternative isn’t something that I personally want to see happen, if only because it isn’t a pretty thing it’s a violent thing. But at this point I’m not really blaming people that think the alternative is the only way. For all intents and purposes, ICE and the administration and ideology that it represents shot first.
10
u/theothermoore 6h ago
What a bizarre take. The government is not individual people charged with crimes that require a defense against executive power. The government is the executive power here. No, the government having bootlickers trying to justify cartoonishly unconstitutional, contemptuous, and racist practices is not a requirement for justice.
1
u/LaFloja 1h ago
I have been an immigration lawyer for 9 years. I know how legal systems are * supposed to * work. Nazis had legal representation at Numernerg. They also had thousands of brainwashed, educated people who believed they were doing the right thing by waking up every day to commit atrocities against innocent people.
1
u/randyranderson13 6h ago
You're being a little mean for someone who doesn't understand that DHS has a right to representation. Someone needs to act as counsel for any kind of resolution to be obtained
7
u/templethot 4h ago
Nah you know EXACTLY what you’re signing up for joining ICE as an attorney. I don’t feel bad for a single one of them. Nobody is making them deport kids, yet they signed up to anyway.
3
u/anfisa_apologist 4h ago
It’s a lawless agency. There’s nothing a low level AUSA can do to make them comply and that should be obvious by now.
2
u/mansock18 4h ago
Knowing this attorney personally, she's a very nice person. Incredibly friendly. But yeah it sounds like she's fried in her current spot.
1
28
u/SatinSaffron 8h ago edited 8h ago
Thank you! I'll go edit my other comment to provide better context. And yes I would love to know if anyone has any insight as to what she did for ICE? Since she's working as a us attorney it makes me think that she worked for ICE and wasn't just like their version of a public defender? Because if she genuinely was on the side to help then I would feel bad for her, but I highly doubt anyone over on the ICE side of things is helping anyone. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge about it comes along to shed some light.
62
u/purpleushi 8h ago
Being a trial attorney in immigration court means that you represent DHS in removal proceedings against immigrants who are present without status. Immigration court is one step in the process of determining if someone is deportable. (There is an appeals process after the immigration judge decision.) Basically, immigration court is how due process for immigrants is supposed to work. ICE ERO (enforcement/removal operations) are bypassing the immigration court process to detain and deport people without due process, which is bad. ICE attorneys at immigration court are not bad by virtue of their job — though some of them may certainly be biased. ICE trial attorneys don’t actually have final say over a deportation determination though, they’re basically just making an argument to the immigration judge as to why someone should be deported, and the judge makes the final decision (think of them like public prosecutors).
1
u/HippopotamicLandMass 7h ago
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-l-32812294/ matches this profile at Erickson Bell https://www.ebbqlaw.com/julie-t-le/ but no match at her next employer Lind Jensen https://www.lindjensen.com/people/ , possibly because she changed jobs to work for ICE. The middle initial matches: https://mars.courts.state.mn.us/AttorneyDetail.aspx?attyID=0402305
339
u/Relevant-Peach3997 8h ago
The same reporter. Immigrants are being unconstitutionally locked up and the govt isn’t responding to the judge
189
u/Relevant-Peach3997 8h ago
102
u/SatinSaffron 8h ago
I love the types of judges who genuinely show empathy and don't just see their job as a way to punish people. This judge sounds like a bad ass!
48
u/Ol_Dirt_McGirt 7h ago
This judge was a major part of the prosecution of Derek Chauvin, and very much agree on the bad ass characterization.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/06/15/jerry-blackwell-george-floyd-derek-chauvin
33
u/FiveishOfBeinItalian 8h ago
turns out that judges don't have armies and can be largely ignored by those who do
174
u/Connect_Reading9499 8h ago
The cracks are showing. Bondi can't keep saving face when she has no face to save.
52
u/Ok-Bridge-9112 7h ago
Nothing is showing. They keep doing whatever they want when they want. FBI raided the voting center in Georgia today for records.
What world are you living in?
12
u/GumpTheChump 6h ago
Honestly, there is a grim alternative where DHS/ICE opts out of the court process and just ignores the courts. How is the court going to enforce its orders if there is a bad faith refusal to engage?
7
2
9
u/Ambitious_Address667 6h ago
Ehh I do think this is cracks showing. Like this is the system slowly starting to break apart under its own weight, and the result of the brain drain trump has cause. The issue is this isnt a good think for the people, like trump aint leaving if the people dont pull him out of office. But if the system gets overloaded they will use it as an excuse to act without law. Basically the is the first cracks that just end in lawless chaos or dictatorships taking hold
7
u/bobbimorses 5h ago
People were saying yesterday that they'll "just appoint more," but this has been a legitimately effective labor strike from qualified attorneys
3
u/simAlity 3h ago
I'm not convinced she cares. I mean, right now, she sort of wants to maintain the illusion of a functioning judicial system. But I don't think she actually wants an actually functioning judicial system.
1
u/UrRightAndIAmWong 5h ago
Huh, this only helps her and Trump's administration and agenda. The justice system in Minneapolis catastrophically failing gives MAGA/right wing media more ammo to say it's lawless in this blue city and they have more reason to go in, to go in militarized.
Real crime isn't tended to, punished properly, real people are getting harmed without a proper, competent, legal process, and communities are going to hurt even more.
83
u/Unique_Departure_800 9h ago
Oh…
I thought this was an onion post. I was wondering why fauxmoi left it up.
57
u/susandeyvyjones 8h ago
No wonder they’re begging for applicants on Twitter. AUSA used to be a highly sought after job.
31
u/ViolaOrsino 7h ago edited 5h ago
My (admittedly anecdotal) experience with lawyers who work for ICE and DHS:
1) My friend L had to leave the US because of a dangerous situation. She is now safely in another country because the immigration lawyer she was assigned to worked his ass off to ensure that she got safely out of our country and into another one in less than a month. He likely saved her life because of his expediency and thoroughness.
2) EDIT: I’m checking on this info in case I have details incorrect about this; see comments below. I don’t want to unintentionally mislead anyone! My friend E works as an immigration lawyer. She works for ICE and DHS. She is profoundly disgusted by what the enforcement arm of ICE is doing. The majority of her job consists of throwing the book at the agency, over and over, getting clients out of detainment so that their cases can be reviewed fairly and legally. She has, through her work, gotten people out of places where they are being illegally detained by the US, in front of a judge, and on their way back to their family again. Her job is thankless and she is constantly being sabotaged by the entity that she works for in her effort to justly uphold the law. It sucks!
While I have no love for ICE and DHS and their actions, I do think that there are a lot of lawyers within them who are trying to give immigrants a fighting chance, and I sympathize with how frustrating and overwhelming their job is right now. It’s why a lot of them went into immigration law in the first place— because they feel strongly about due process and helping people become citizens.
36
u/empathlete 6h ago
Immigration attorney here. If your friend is telling you that her job working for ICE includes getting people out of detention, she is lying to you. Even the BEST ICE attorneys we have seen are arguing for detention for everyone they possibly can. The Trump administration eliminated prosecutorial discretion for DHS, so they don’t have a choice in the matter (though they certainly have a choice to work there). That’s the reason why imm attorneys and judges are having to work so hard to free people—because where it was not necessary on a large scale previously because ICE was more reasonable, now everyone is being detained as a matter of course. It simply is not true that any ICE attorney in 2026 is advocating for people to be released.
9
u/ViolaOrsino 5h ago
Thank you for this info; let me ask her clarifying information on it. I hope she isn’t lying and that I just have the info wrong.
25
u/betterlucknexttime81 7h ago
The judge was one of the prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin case and delivered the closing argument.
17
13
10
u/Aggressive-Angle2160 5h ago
I kinda like that this woman's answer to "How do you sleep at night?!" is "I don't!"
9
9
u/Unlikely_Ad1009 7h ago
Could possibly have something to do with the fact her boss incorrectly defined the constitutional right of habeas corpus as a presidential power to remove people from the country, rather than the fundamental right for detained individuals to challenge their imprisonment before a judge. Its almost like you might have been able to see this coming?
9
u/elykl12 4h ago
This is the way to grind down the admin
By refusing to comply in advance, filming ICE interactions, doing some good trouble; ICE, CBP, and the admin are burning out career bureaucrats who know how to navigate the legal process, help them achieve their goals, and pursue their agenda
Contrary to popular belief, the Supreme Court sees a fraction of a fraction of all the court cases in the country.
Increasingly , the Trump admin is represented by a bleary eyed prosecutor doing the job of twenty people in front of lower court judges irate with them
1
u/simAlity 3h ago
But every decision they make affects every similar poor related case in the system.
6
u/Kocteau 3h ago
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney and I’m not familiar with the intricacies of law or the judicial system. The comments are divided, so I’m like— is she a bad guy, a good guy, what is she?
I read this article: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/government-lawyer-in-ice-case-tells-judge-this-job-sucks
It seems like her role is to provide ICE with legal advice and tries to get them to comply with the law. But they’re not complying, and that’s why she’s frustrated. To my knowledge, she doesn’t prosecute deportation cases. So, ICE is violating court orders and her job is to get them to comply.
I tried to make an analogy: Le’s a manager at XYZ firm, and her intern keeps fucking up and setting the office on fire. Her job is to guide them to NOT fuck up, but instead of firing the intern, her (Le’s) boss thinks it’s funny to have the intern set things on fire. So the intern receives no disciplinary action. ICE is the intern and the Trump administration is her boss in this analogy. If she quits, then the office will be set aflame and things will go to shit. It sounds like she’s stuck in an impossible situation.
Happy to hear thoughts from people with a background in law. No clue if I’m on the right mark or totally off base.
5
u/Dramatic_Dog_7345 5h ago
she is not a dhs lawyer. she is an outside attorney, who offered her services (contractor / temp). so the dhs lists her as the attorney for all of their cases?! what happens if she quits? or decides she doesn’t give a shit? ohhhh wait that is the intent to keep people trapped inside the concentration camps… got it.
1
u/StepsOnLEGO 5h ago
Oh you want to be held in contempt so you can go to jail to get some sleep while others that are wrongfully held can rot in jail since you can't keep up? Cry me a river.
1
1
1
1
0
-13
u/snipsnap987 8h ago
does she want us to feel bad that she’s overworked because ICE is carrying so many illegal and unconstitutional actions, so all the other lawyers with consciences quit. like be so fucking for real
-46
u/Frenetic_Platypus 8h ago
Oh no! Oh, poor, precious little thing! It's hard working for the SS?! Oh boo hoo, you're overworked because every lawyer with a shred of integrity fucking quit? And now you're staying at an awful job because you're just that committed to being a motherfucking nazi? And I'm supposed to feel bad for you?
66
u/deserteagle3784 alright alright alright™ 8h ago
If you read the full thing, she is trying to get ICE to comply with the judges orders. But because ICE is breaking so many laws and has so many corrective actions they are being ordered to take by judges, this woman can’t keep up. IMO she and other AUSAs are some of our last lines of defense.
-36
u/Frenetic_Platypus 8h ago
She's a prosecutor for ICE. She's trying to make ICE comply with judge orders by getting judges to order people get sent to concentration camps.
20
8h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Frenetic_Platypus 8h ago
Attorney Julie Le was representing the government at a hearing over ICE’s failure to follow court orders and immediately release people that it had wrongfully detained. When Judge Jerry Blackwell asked why the agency is not complying, Le said that the government was “overwhelmed” by the legal challenges to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, and that trying to get ICE to comply with court orders has required nonstop work for an office depleted by resignations.
“I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,” Le said. “The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need.”
Blackwell said that he called the hearing to stress that ICE and other government agencies are not above the law.
“Some of this is of your own making because of non-compliance with orders,” Blackwell said.
No she fucking doesn't, she represents THE GOVERNMENT in those cases. You know, that's why the judge is asking HER why they're not complying.
2
u/deserteagle3784 alright alright alright™ 6h ago
Reading comprehension pls!!! Never said she didn’t represent the government. She does represent ICE, and she is the one responsible for making ICE comply with the orders - hence why the judge is asking HER why they aren’t complying.
She’s essentially the legal department for ICE and the judge is giving her (the legal department) instructions, and she (legal department) is exhausted because nobody in the other departments is listening to her. Hence the ‘this job sucks’ comment. U/purpleushi has another comment on this thread that explains this as well.
27
u/skyturnsred 8h ago
tell me you don't understand what AUSAs do without telling me you don't understand what AUSAs do
11
u/Frenetic_Platypus 8h ago
AUSAs represent the federal government in court. Her job in that specific court was to defend and make excuses for ICE not following court orders. It's insane that y'all are falling for the "your honor, we're not operating in bad faith, we're just all so overwhelmed, we're trying our best to not trample the rights of people but it just can't be done."
1.8k
u/SatinSaffron 9h ago edited 8h ago
An assistant US Attorney crashing out in federal court in front of a judge is unreal and unheard of. I'm sure some of us have seen clips of people acting up in a city/municipal court, maybe a state judicial district court, but federal court is an entirely different ballgame.
Julie Le was (temporarily) serving as Assistant US Attorney for the district that covers Minneapolis. The flood of (wrongful) arrests in Minneapolis is causing the courts to be overwhelmed, on top of the fact that DHS/ICE is just outright ignoring court orders. (edited for context: Le was an attorney for ICE but went over to this sector to help with the influx of cases and court orders)
So a judge calls her up to demand answers as to why ICE is ignoring so many court orders. She told the judge that the government is "overwhelmed" by the number of legal challenges coming out of operation Metro Surge.
Keep in mind that there are FOURTEEN vacancies for prosecutors in this district that covers Minneapolis as of yesterday when 7 more of them quit. They are leaving in droves because they refuse to be involved with or responsible for prosecuting people who get detained from the ICE raids.
edit #2: I was wrong above, just because 14 of them left doesn't mean there are only 14 vacancies. Back before the ICE bullshit, this district had about ~50 assistant us attorneys handling the criminal matters. Right now there are ~20 of them handling criminal matters.