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Ilhan Omar primary challenge from anti-ICE lawyer met with skepticism

March 14, 2026 | | Print Article

Islamist Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing a serious primary challenge from a former federal prosecutor who recently went viral.

The now-removed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorney, Julie Le, went viral in February when she was asked by a judge to explain why the Trump administration wasn’t responding to judicial orders concerning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“What do you want me to do? The system sucks,” Le told Judge Jerry Blackwell. “This job sucks. And I am trying [with] every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.”

Blackwell later asked Le why the Trump administration shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for violating court orders.

“Sometimes I wish you would just hold me in contempt, Your Honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep,” she replied. “I work day and night.”

Days after this incident occurred, NBC News confirmed that Le “is no longer detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota.”

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In a statement to ABC News, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin noted that Le had been “a probationary attorney.”

“This conduct is unprofessional and unbecoming of an ICE attorney in abandoning her obligation to act with commitment, dedication, and zeal to the interests of the United States Government,” McLaughlin added.

Soon thereafter, Le threw herself into a primary battle against incumbent Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“Julie T. Le has witnessed firsthand the failures of our broken immigration system,” Le’s campaign website reads. “Now she’s running for Congress to fight for real reform — and to fight for quality education and accessible healthcare for all families.”

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And she’s gunning for Omar’s seat.

“It’s not because she’s not doing the job,” she said to The Washington Post about Omar. “It’s just for what I could bring to the table.”

She likewise told The New York Times that she intends to be more moderate than the Muslim incumbent.

According to the Post, her “top priorities will be comprehensive immigration reform, with a mix of pathways to legal residency and enforcement; expanding financial aid for college, which allowed her to finish school; providing robust funding for arts, music and other programs at public K-12 schools; and improving access to health care.”

Le told the Post she’s been considering public service for many years on account of her family history, which includes her maternal grandfather dying in a communist Vietnam prison, and her family escaping to a refugee camp and eventually making it to the United States.

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“She was 14 when she arrived, the only daughter of seven children to parents who settled in Iowa to work as cutters in meatpacking plants,” according to the paper. “She enrolled in school and learned English with the help of the ABC sitcom ‘Full House.'”

Critics have doubts about Le winning a Democratic primary, given that she’d been an ICE attorney for the Trump administration (*Language warning):

It doesn’t help that Le told the Post that she was proud to work for ICE.

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“That’s the law,” she told the paper. “You apply the law to everyone. Everyone has to follow it.”

Vivek Saxena
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