“This job sucks”: Those were the words of federal attorney Julie Le, who told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell in a Tuesday hearing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) was overwhelmed with the number of legal challenges filed by people detained as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis area.
Le said she wouldn’t mind being held in contempt of court so that she could get some sleep, reports local news outlet Fox 9.
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Le has since been fired from her temporary job at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It’s unclear if she’s still employed in her former, permanent role as an ICE attorney.
While federal attorneys are clearly the real victims of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, Blackwell had called the Tuesday hearing to focus on the secondary victims of the operation: migrants detained by ICE in violation of court orders requiring their release.
“When court orders are not followed, it’s not just the court’s authority that’s at issue. It is the rights of individuals in custody and the integrity of the constitutional system itself,” Blackwell said during that hearing, per The New York Times.
This is not the first time that a federal judge has excoriated ICE for failing to follow court orders.
Last month, Patrick J. Schiltz, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Minnesota, published a list of nearly 100 court orders regarding immigrant detention that ICE had violated since the start of the New Year.
This count, wrote Schlitz, “almost certainly substantially understated” ICE’s record of noncompliance. Reason reporter C.J. Ciaramella compiled a list of all the orders, which you can read here.
The White House bragged yesterday that over 4,000 “criminal illegal aliens” had been detained during the administration’s Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. Border Czar Tom Homan said on Wednesday that another 158 people have been arrested for interfering with ICE operations.
In addition to the people immigration authorities have illegally detained, immigration agents fatally shot two people, Renne Good and Alex Pretti, during the Metro Surge operation. Their deaths are a reminder that it’s not only Department of Justice attorneys who are suffering at the moment.
Partial drawdown: Yesterday, Homan said that 700 federal agents would be pulled out of Minnesota, following “unprecedented cooperation” from county officials in Minnesota.
.@RealTomHoman in Minnesota: “We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens BEFORE they hit the streets.”pic.twitter.com/Ec7pQaiMWk
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 4, 2026
“I learned maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough,” said President Donald Trump during an interview with NBC.
Homan said the partial drawdown follows some Minnesota counties agreeing to give ICE more access to inmates in county jails and to hold inmates for an additional 48 hours at ICE’s request. Allowing ICE to arrest immigrants at jail instead of in the community requires fewer officers, said Homan.
The White House has not said which counties have inked agreements with ICE. A representative for the Minnesota County Attorneys Association told CBS Minnesota that the model agreements offered by ICE to the counties violate state law. The attorney for Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, has said that its relationship with ICE has not changed.
The removal of 700 federal agents from Minnesota represents only a partial wind down of the federal government’s immigration operation. Another 2,000 agents will remain in the state. Homan said that a complete drawdown of the surge of immigration agents would only happen “upon the end of the illegal and threatening activities against ICE and its federal partners that we’re seeing in the community.”
Turning Tide? Immigration and border security have long been Trump’s best polling issues. He won the 2024 election, in part, on his promise to significantly step up deportations.
Following the shooting death of Pretti last month, however, support for the president’s immigration policies has started to ebb.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted before and after Pretti’s death found that 39 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing on immigration, down from 41 percent earlier this month. In February 2025, Trump’s approval on immigration was at 50 percent.
A more recent Quinnipiac University poll similarly finds that 38 percent of voters approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 59 percent disapprove.
ICE’s tactics and the administration’s handling of the Pretti shooting were even more underwater. Some 62 percent of respondents in the Quinnipiac poll said the shooting was unjustified, and a similar 64 percent say that they disapprove of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws.
Large majorities of voters also support requiring ICE agents to wear body cameras and forbidding them from wearing masks.
The anti-ICE shift in public opinion gives Congressional Democrats additional leverage as they prepare for a fight over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding.
The spending bill signed by Trump on Tuesday funds the DHS for another two weeks. This sets up a funding battle over immigration enforcement funding specifically, in which Democrats can hold out for reforms to ICE without needing to shut down the entire federal government.
Yesterday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) sent a letter to Republican Congressional leaders laying out 10 demands they want included in any DHS funding bill.
The list includes demands that ICE agents stop wearing masks, that DHS officers get a judicial warrant before entering private property, and that DHS adopt a “reasonable” use of force policy. They also want federal officials to cooperate with state and local investigations into federal agents’ use of force.
Per the Quinnipiac poll, those are all incredibly popular positions.
Scenes from D.C.: While barely above-freezing temperatures have caused some merciful melting, the nation’s capital is still buried in “snowcrete” that is blocking roadways, alleys, and, especially, sidewalks. Occasional Reason contributor Joe-Bishop Henchman offers some thoughts on what went wrong.
QUICK LINKS
- An Oregon theater loses the right to screen Melania after lampooning the movie on its marquee.
- The Trump administration prepares to make it easier to fire some 50,000 federal workers.
- SpaceX prepares to go public.
- It’s come to this. The White House is making Sopranos:
Jesus fucking Christ https://t.co/PV3YmmFV1p
— Sopranos World (@SopranosWorld) February 4, 2026
- The Venezuelan opposition is optimistic that the country will hold elections within the year.
