Ex-U.S. Attorney who said "this job sucks" in Minnesota court amid ICE surge running against Rep. Ilhan Omar
A former U.S. Attorney removed from her post after telling a judge "this job sucks" during a Minnesota immigration hearing is running for U.S. Congress as a Democrat against incumbent Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Julie T. Le, who was taken off her Justice Department assignment in early February after her remarks in a St. Paul courtroom, announced her congressional campaign this week and told the Washington Post she is running against Omar, who was first elected as a U.S. Representative in 2018. She is running on a platform of, among other priorities, immigration reform.
Le had been detailed to the U.S. Attorney's office in Minnesota from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when she made the comments during a hearing for several immigration cases, amid a massive uptick in court proceedings in the wake of Operation Metro Surge.
At the Feb. 3 hearing, Le told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell she wished he could hold her in contempt of court "so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep."
"What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need," Le said, according to a transcript.
Le had been assigned at least 88 cases in less than a month, according to online court records.
During the hearing, Le told the judge she had arrived in Minnesota on Jan. 5 and wasn't properly trained for the assignment.
"We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do," Le said, telling the judge she wanted to resign but couldn't get a replacement. "Fixing a system, a broken system, I don't have a magic button to do it. I don't have the power or the voice to do it."
Several other prosecutors left the U.S. Attorney's office in Minnesota amid frustration with the immigration enforcement surge and the Justice Department's response to fatal shootings of two civilians by federal agents. Those departures included prosecutors who spearheaded the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case.
Le is a former Assistant Chief Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security and a former Special Assistant United States Attorney. She is a Mitchell Hamline School of Law graduate and a former Assistant City Attorney.
