DOJ removes attorney who complained about overwhelming ICE caseload in Minnesota court

JTJulie T. Le was a Department of Homeland Security attorney, not a federal prosecutor. She worked for ICE and was temporarily detailed to the 🦆Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office starting in early January 2026. She told Judge Blackwell she had "stupidly" volunteered for the assignment.

Le was assigned 88 immigration cases in less than a month, according to court records. During a Feb. 4 hearing, she told U.S. District Judge JBJerry Blackwell: "This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep."

Judge Blackwell called the hearing after ICE failed to comply with multiple court orders, including orders to release five detainees he ruled were illegally held. Blackwell warned: "A court order is not advisory and it is not conditional."

The U.S. Attorney's Office ended Le's detail on Feb. 5, 2026. A DHS spokesperson confirmed she was also terminated from her DHS position. The DOJ blamed "rogue judges" for the overwhelming caseload.

Operation Metro Surge deployed 2,700 federal agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in January 2026—what DHS called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. In January alone, 427 immigration cases were filed in 🦆Minnesota federal court.

Six veteran prosecutors in the 🦆Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office resigned in mid-January over DOJ directives related to Operation Metro Surge. Another eight attorneys have left or plan to leave, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Chief Federal Judge PSPatrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, documented 96 instances of ICE defying court orders in 74 different cases. He said the problem wasn't DOJ prosecutors, who were struggling to keep up, but ICE ignoring release orders.

Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney DRDaniel Rosen told the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals his office canceled all civil enforcement work and "other affirmative priorities" and is "operating in a reactive mode" due to the immigration caseload.

In the first three weeks of January 2026, the number of habeas petitions filed in 🦆Minnesota federal court was twice the number brought in all of 2025. Habeas petitions are legal challenges by detained immigrants seeking release.