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

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

Feb. 4, 2026, 12:23 AM EST / Updated Feb. 4, 2026, 7:55 AM EST


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.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/attorney-government-tells-judge-ice-case-job-sucks-rcna257349

[AZJonnie]

1. What a refreshing breath of honesty (nt)

[Wednesdays]

2. "...asking to be held in contempt so she 'could get 24 hours of sleep.'"

Well, she got her wish.

[Gore1FL]

10. She might get some sleep, but she wasn't held in contempt. NT

[Bayard]

3. She should just hang a sign around her neck saying--Fire Me

[Torchlight]

4. Between this and eight senior federal prosecutors walking off the job

my guess is more and more people are watching, listening and noting the absurd and irrational demands the feds are making of MN.

[johnnyplankton]

5. Expect this sort of thing to continue until anyone with a shred of dignity or empathy is gone.

Or competence for that matter...

[twodogsbarking]

6. This job sucks. Most do, but you have to eat.

[bronxiteforever]

7. The GOP is destroying DOJ. May Ms. Le find

another better job.

[usaf-vet]

8. Congratulation young lady, you have done what more than half of the country would love to do. NOEM has to go hopefully..

.... to a jail in Hatti!

[progressoid]

9. It's deliberate. Overwhelm the system

Decent people quit from exhaustion. Bad people stay and do bad things.

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

11. Put them in time out.

When I read the article my thought was to wonder if, give the overwork causing serious mistakes on the part of the Regime, the judge could order ICE/CBP to suspend all detentions and removals until such time as certain standards were met – all people currently in custody were tried, personnel numbers were raised to a given level, etc.

It is an easy argument to make that the current processes and procedures for selecting people for detention and removal is flawed as too many US citizens are being swept up or killed and too many court orders are being ignored. I would argue that a single citizen detained without due process or court order ignored is too many. I think non-citizens also deserve due process, but that is a harder argument to make to the conservatives.

This does not mean I think people whom law enforcement has evidence have committed crimes should be left on the street. Other law enforcement agencies can arrest them, and they can make their way through the criminal justice system. Which, for all its problems, is still far better than the broken ICE courts.

I doubt this could happen, but I wish it would.