Julie Le, a former attorney for the US Department of Homeland Security, has made headlines once again, this time by announcing her candidacy for Congress with plans to challenge Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar. Le first gained public attention after a courtroom incident where she candidly expressed dissatisfaction with her job.
Following her outspoken comments in court last month, Le was dismissed from her position. In a recent interview with The New York Times, she described herself as a more moderate alternative to Omar, who is known for her advocacy to dismantle ICE.
Le is set to compete as a Democrat in the primary scheduled for August 11. Prior to her dismissal, she served as an assistant chief counsel at DHS, where she represented ICE, and had a brief stint at the US attorney’s office in Minnesota earlier this year.
Her courtroom remarks occurred during Operation Metro Surge in the Twin Cities, where she went viral for asking a judge to hold her in contempt so she could get much-needed rest. “I need a full 24 hours of sleep,” she told US District Judge Jerry Blackwell in St. Paul.
In a moment of raw honesty, Le declared, “What do you want me to do? The system sucks,” and continued, “This job sucks. And I am trying with every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.”
“This job sucks. And I am trying [with] every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need,” she railed.
Le, 47, told The Washington Post that she was fired hours later.
Now, she’s looking to try her hand in a new sector: politics. Le launched a bid on Saturday to challenge Omar.
She told the Washington Post that, after airing her grievances in the courtroom, she realized she couldn’t do anything to fix the broken legal system as an attorney.
“Legislators are the only ones that can change the law, or update the laws, or do something, so that we can have this under control,” she told the newspaper.
Le also told the Times that she was challenging Omar “for what I could bring to the table,” not “because she’s not doing the job.”
She cited immigration reform, education funding and healthcare access as the primary issues of her campaign.
Le is an immigrant from communist Vietnam. She was partially raised in the Philippines and arrived in the US with her family as refugees in 1993.
