"Sacrificial Lambs": The ICE Attorneys Working as DC Prosecutors
ICE lawyers are now working in DC Superior Court
It has been almost a year since the Make DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force brought a surge of federal agents and National Guard to Washington, DC. As part of this mission, military lawyers were brought on to prosecute crimes in DC Superior Court last August, working as Special Assistant United States Attorneys (SAUSA).
To make up for lost personnel, the DOJ has been recruiting government attorneys beyond JAG to spend time as a prosecutor in USAO-DC. Now, this effort appears to include attorneys who were hired to work for the Department of Homeland Security, representing the state in deportation proceedings.
This morning, multiple court observers reported a conversation an ICE prosecutor detailed to USAO-DC had before proceedings started, where she referred to herself and the other DHS attorneys assigned to USAO-DC as “sacrificial lambs.”
That prosecutor was SAUSA Kimberly Erwin, whose bar information lists Department of Homeland Security as her current firm, and ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) as her contact number.
Erwin asked other attorneys a few questions, saying that she usually does immigration, and the court system is different (based on my experience in immigration, federal, and local courts across the country, immigration courts are run so dramatically different from traditional courts that it feels weird to call them the same thing).
According to observers who documented Erwin’s morning chat, she said there were around three regular AUSAs remaining, with the rest being SAUSAs. Of those SAUSAs, around 10 are from DHS, while the remainder are Marines, Army, Air Force, and Navy JAGs.
I spoke with multiple private immigration attorneys and former immigration judges who told me they were only familiar with ICE lawyers being detailed to prosecutors offices to work on immigration related assignments, like the backlog of habeas cases (the most famous example of this is Julie Le, who told a judge in Minnesota she would be happy if he put her in contempt, because at least then she could get some sleep).
Erwin’s case today was a misdemeanor status hearing for charges of marijuana possession and attempt to distribute.
The DOJ has promoted the detail on their website for the last year, but without the specifics of what branches of government new hires are coming from. The program kicks off with a 3 week training session, and the most recent start date was July 13 — slightly over three weeks ago. FEC records and an archived website show that Erwin was in private practice at least until 2025, but there are no publicly available documents showing a start date for her new role at DHS.
Unlike most places, where courts are a local issue, criminal cases in DC fall under the jurisdiction of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (as loyal readers will remember learning during the reign of Ed Martin). While the focus has been on the national scandals of it all (the reflecting pool, sandwich guy, firing J6 attorneys), the mass firings and resignations from the USAO in DC also mean victims of crime in DC are less likely to see justice.
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