Minneapolis, Minnesota - A federal courtroom in Minnesota has become the latest venue exposing what judges increasingly describe as a breakdown of lawful governance inside the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement apparatus.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jerry R. Blackwell summoned Department of Justice attorneys to explain why Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to disregard court orders requiring the immediate release of individuals wrongfully detained during the administration’s mass deportation surge. What followed was not a legal defense, but an admission of institutional collapse.
A DOJ lawyer, visibly overwhelmed, told the court bluntly: “The system sucks.”
Julie Le, a private attorney who volunteered to assist the U.S. Attorney’s Office and has since been assigned to more than 80 immigration cases tied to “Operation Metro Surge,” went further. She asked the court to hold her in contempt—not out of defiance, but desperation.
“I wish you would just hold me in contempt of court so I can get 24 hours of sleep,” Le told the judge, according to FOX 9. “This job sucks. I am trying with every breath I have to get you what I need.”
Her plea laid bare a reality federal judges have been warning about for months: ICE is executing mass arrests at a scale it cannot lawfully process, supervise, or defend—while federal court orders are treated as optional.
A Pattern of Defiance, Not Isolated Error
Judge Blackwell described the government’s failures as “alarming,” noting that people with no criminal records remain in federal custody despite explicit orders for their release. He warned that the volume of detainees has outpaced the government’s ability to adjudicate cases, creating a system where unlawful detention becomes routine.
“Some of this is of your own making,” Blackwell told government attorneys, citing repeated noncompliance with judicial orders.
This is not an isolated rebuke. Minnesota’s chief federal judge, Patrick J. Schiltz, recently came within days of holding ICE Director Todd Lyons in contempt of court after the agency ignored an order to either hold a bond hearing for a detained Ecuadorian man or release him. ICE missed the deadline. Only after Schiltz ordered Lyons to testify did the agency release the detainee.
Schiltz later documented 96 court orders across 74 cases that ICE allegedly failed to follow in just the opening weeks of the year—a tally he said was “almost certainly substantially understated.”
Courts Sound the Alarm Nationwide
Federal judges across the country—appointed by presidents of both parties—are now openly questioning whether ICE’s street-level operations comply with constitutional standards at all. In recent rulings, judges have described Homeland Security conduct as behavior that “shocks the conscience,” citing indiscriminate arrests, prolonged detention without justification, and systemic disregard for due process.
The government’s response has been to appeal adverse rulings while branding judges as “activists” obstructing the president’s agenda—an argument that has failed to address the growing evidentiary record of noncompliance.
Le acknowledged under oath that ICE was unprepared to litigate these cases in federal court.
“We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do,” she said, despite having previously worked as an immigration court attorney for ICE.
A Justice Department in Retreat
As the caseload grows, so does internal dissent. A reported exodus is underway inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, where career prosecutors are leaving amid mounting frustration with political pressure from Washington.
In the past month alone, at least eight additional prosecutors have resigned. Among them was veteran prosecutor Joseph Thompson, a former Trump appointee who objected to the Justice Department’s refusal to investigate the killing of Renee Good as a civil rights matter, while allegedly pressuring staff to pursue a criminal case against her widow, Becca Good.
The departures mirror a national pattern. According to Justice Connection, roughly 5,500 attorneys and DOJ employees—out of approximately 10,000—have been fired, forced out, or offered buyouts under the Trump administration. At least five Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys have resigned, citing political interference, including in Manhattan and Virginia.
The Constitutional Question
What began as an immigration enforcement initiative has evolved into a constitutional crisis. Federal judges are no longer debating policy preferences; they are confronting whether executive agencies are bound by court orders at all.
When a DOJ lawyer asks to be jailed simply to sleep, and judges openly prepare contempt proceedings against federal officials, the issue is no longer workload or mismanagement. It is a question of lawful authority.
The courts have spoken clearly. The remaining question is whether the executive branch intends to listen.
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