Prosecutor Fired After Voicing Frustration With Immigration Caseload

A federal prosecutor in Minneapolis, Julie T. Le, was fired from the U.S. attorney’s office after she expressed exasperation about the caseload arising from the White House’s immigration crackdown. In a hearing in Federal District Court in St. Paul, Ms. Le told Judge Jerry W.

Blackwell that she and colleagues were overwhelmed after overseeing about 90 immigration cases and asked, "What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks." The judge had been pressing why prosecutors had not followed his orders in five cases to free immigrants he found were illegally detained.

Ms. Le had volunteered from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in January to help with the deluge of cases; after her remarks, her temporary post at the U.S. attorney’s office was ended, and it remained unclear whether she had also been fired from ICE.

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