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WASHINGTON (CN) — As the Senate Judiciary met Thursday to advance President Donald Trump’s latest round of U.S. attorney nominees, Democrats sounded the alarm about reports that federal prosecutors’ offices in some states were bleeding staff thanks to the White House campaign of mass deportations.
And lawmakers warned that the immigration enforcement surge in states such as Minnesota was not only emptying out U.S. attorneys’ offices but also pulling prosecutors off other law enforcement activities — and subjecting those that remain to crushing caseloads.
Since the Trump administration sent hundreds of federal agents into Minnesota in the Homeland Security Department’s latest operation to round up people here illegally, more than a dozen of the state’s U.S. attorneys have resigned.
That’s as much as half of the North Star State’s staff of federal prosecutors, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday morning.
“They have hollowed out the experienced people,” said Klobuchar, who added that the U.S. attorney in charge of the office’s criminal division and the top prosecutor investigating fraud cases were among those who had departed.
The Minnesota Democrat said that the group of U.S. attorneys had resigned because the Trump administration had asked them prosecute cases involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “that they could not ethically do.”
And Klobuchar worried that the swath of departures from the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office would make the job harder for those who remained. “There are still some prosecutors left who I hope will be able to pick up the slack, but they simply don’t have the people,” she said.
The dearth of federal prosecutors available to try cases in Minnesota is already having a visible effect on the Trump administration’s efforts to prosecute people it has detained as part of its immigration enforcement surge across the state.
In one dramatic moment this week, an ICE attorney who volunteered to help with the heavy caseload was fired after she offered an honest rebuke to a federal judge demanding to know why she had not complied with his orders in an immigration case.
“[P]rocedure in place right now sucks — I’m trying to fix it,” attorney Julie Le told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell, a Joe Biden appointee. “The system sucks. This job sucks.”
Le, who Blackwell had threatened to hold in contempt, added that she hoped he would make good on his threat so that she could “have a full 24 hours of sleep.”
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin cited reports about Le’s comments during his own remarks at the Judiciary Committee meeting Thursday, saying her case illustrated the broader problem that courts and prosecutors were “buckling beneath the weight” of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“The same turmoil in the courts has demoralized prosecutors, outraged judges, exhausted defense lawyers and left many immigrants languishing in detention in violation of court orders,” Durbin said, citing media reports. “We have a situation now where, by design, the system is overwhelmed and court orders are being ignored.”
As Democrats warned about the legal fallout from a mass exodus of federal prosecutors, the Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced three more of the White House’s picks to fill existing U.S. attorney vacancies.
Among the federal prosecutors the panel sent on to a final confirmation vote was Thomas Govan, Jr., tapped by Trump to become a U.S. attorney in Alabama. Govan got a glowing review from Alabama Senator Katie Britt, who said she had long known the nominee and that he was “fair and kind.”
“I have complete confidence in him, his character and his integrity, and I urge all of my colleagues to support his nomination on the floor,” said Britt.
Govan’s nomination cleared the Judiciary Committee on a 12-10 vote along party lines.
The panel on Thursday also advanced Zachary Keller, nominated as a U.S. attorney in Louisiana, on a 13-9 vote. Durbin was the sole Democrat to cast his vote in favor of Keller. Ryan Raybould, nominated in Texas, received a similarly bipartisan showing. Delaware Senator Chris Coons, not present but voting by proxy, joined Durbin in supporting the nominee.
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