DOJ Lawyer Breaks Down in Court as Judges Confront Trump-Era Defiance of Federal Orders

In a Minneapolis courtroom, a Justice Department attorney’s emotional plea laid bare a system under strain, as federal judges warned that routine violations of court orders under Trump-era immigration policies are pushing the rule of law to a breaking point.

In a moment that stunned a federal courtroom in Minneapolis, a Department of Justice lawyer asked a judge to jail her — not for contempt, but so she could sleep.

“This job sucks. The system sucks,” the attorney, Julie Lee, told the court, according to local reporting. Fighting back tears, she asked to be held for 24 hours in federal detention, saying exhaustion and chaos had made it impossible to comply with a growing stack of court orders. The remark was not a joke. It was a confession.

Lee’s breakdown came during a hearing before Judge Jerry Blackwell, who has been overseeing a series of habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of migrants held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota. In case after case, Judge Blackwell’s orders — requiring detainees to be released or transferred in compliance with constitutional standards — had been violated.

When pressed to explain why, Lee offered a blunt answer: the Department of Justice had no guidance, no staffing, and no effective control over its client agencies.

The episode has become a vivid symbol of a deeper crisis unfolding quietly inside the federal court system. Judges in Minnesota are increasingly confronting what they describe as systemic defiance by ICE and the Trump administration, particularly in immigration enforcement cases.

Just days earlier, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, the top federal judge in Minnesota, issued an extraordinary order documenting what he called a “staggering” pattern of noncompliance. In January alone, he wrote, federal agencies violated at least 96 court orders across 74 cases — a figure he suggested was likely undercounted.

“I believe that ICE has violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Judge Schiltz wrote.

The warning was unmistakable. Federal agencies are free to challenge judicial rulings, he said, but they are not free to ignore them. Continued defiance, the judge cautioned, could result in contempt proceedings and the forced appearance of senior ICE leadership in court.

That warning now appears to be colliding with reality on the ground.

Julie Lee is not a career federal prosecutor. By her own account, she previously worked as an attorney for ICE in immigration court — a system housed within the executive branch, where judges are employees of the Justice Department, not independent Article III jurists. In that world, compliance with presidential policy is often assumed.

The federal courtroom before Judge Blackwell operates differently. Orders are not suggestions. Violations carry consequences.

According to reporting from Minneapolis, Lee had volunteered or been deputized to assist the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which has been hollowed out by resignations. Most of its senior leadership has departed, leaving a handful of attorneys to manage an explosion of emergency filings tied to mass detentions.

Under questioning, Lee admitted that securing compliance from ICE had been “like pulling teeth.” She described working nonstop in an office with dwindling staff, attempting to enforce orders that her own client agencies were disregarding.

Judge Blackwell was unsympathetic to excuses. The crisis, he made clear, was self-inflicted.

The courtroom exchange resonated far beyond Minnesota. Legal scholars say it exposes a structural failure: when executive agencies act as though court orders are optional, the burden falls on individual lawyers — often junior and overwhelmed — to absorb the institutional fallout.

What makes the moment especially striking is that Lee did not deny the violations. She acknowledged them openly, in front of a federal judge, effectively placing herself between the judiciary and an administration unwilling or unable to comply.

Chief Judge Schiltz’s order suggests patience is wearing thin. He warned that future violations could trigger “show cause” hearings requiring ICE Director Todd Lyons or other senior officials to personally explain themselves to the court — a scenario the Trump administration has sought to avoid.

Behind the legal drama lies a human toll. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of migrants are being detained while their cases grind through an overburdened system. Judges are being forced to handle waves of emergency petitions. And the Justice Department’s credibility as an officer of the court is being tested in real time.

Some observers see Lee not as an outlier, but as a “canary in the coal mine” — a public sign of internal collapse. Others predict she may face professional consequences for her candor.

What is clear is that the confrontation between the federal judiciary and Trump-era immigration enforcement is escalating. Judges are signaling that defiance will no longer be met with warnings alone.

In Minneapolis, the rule of law is no longer an abstract principle. It is a daily struggle — unfolding in packed courtrooms, late-night filings, and, now, in the tearful plea of a government lawyer asking to be locked up, if only for a night of sleep.