{"id":447548,"date":"2026-02-04T00:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447548\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T00:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T00:45:14","slug":"federal-attorney-on-ice-cases-the-system-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447548\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal attorney on ICE cases: \u2018The system sucks\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) &#8211; A federal judge in Minnesota demanded to know why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/series\/investigators\/investigating-ice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)<\/a> is not complying with court orders and failing to immediately release immigrants who are being wrongfully detained as part of Operation Metro Surge. A government attorney responded that the federal government\u2019s system &#8220;sucks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Julie Le, an attorney working on behalf of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office, admitted in court Tuesday that the government is &#8220;overwhelmed&#8221; by the number of legal challenges coming out of Operation Metro Surge.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Le appeared in court to explain why ICE has repeatedly failed to comply with court orders during the ongoing immigration operation in Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;I am here to make sure the agency understands how important it is to comply with court orders,&#8221; said Le, who became visibly emotional during the court hearing.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">While Le said procedures are being implemented to ensure ICE complies with court orders moving forward, she admitted it has been like pulling teeth and has required non-stop work in an already depleted office.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,&#8221; Le said. &#8220;The system sucks, this job sucks, I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell said he called Tuesday\u2019s hearing to remind ICE and other federal agencies they are not above the law.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">Big picture view:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;Some of this is of your own making because of non-compliance with orders,&#8221; Blackwell said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Blackwell expressed frustration that people with no criminal records are being wrongfully detained even after judges have ordered their immediate release.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">He said there are too many detainees and too many cases in the ongoing immigration operation that is clearly outpacing the logistics.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Le volunteered to help the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office last month as habeas petitions started to flood into federal court.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">She previously worked as an attorney for ICE in immigration court.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">ICE has its own court policies and procedures and was not prepared to argue cases in federal court, according to Le.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">&#8220;We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do,&#8221; Le said.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/series\/investigators\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investigators<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/series\/investigators\/investigating-ice\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investigating ICE<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) &#8211; A federal judge in Minnesota demanded to know why Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,210266,78808,3,562,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-447548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-investigating-ice","10":"tag-investigators","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-series","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}