Julie Lee

This all happened 1 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon at a federal courtroom in St.

Paul, Minnesota.

There were just a handful of people there.

The judge, Judge Jerry Blackwell, ordered the hearing because he was trying to figure out what on earth was going on with the government's lawyers.

We got an actor to read the transcript here for you.

It's been lightly edited, but just for clarity and length.

The judge's issue is with five different immigration cases.

The court had ruled that the people the government had detained had to be released because the government had no reason to hold them.

But then the government was not releasing them or even giving updates.

Hence this hearing.

And you know how in some TV shows or movies there's this moment where someone will give this kind of speech?

And it's good, but you're like, people don't actually do that in real life.

Well, sometimes they do.

It's like Judge Blackwell knew exactly what he wanted to say and it all came out.

The whole judicial system kind of depends on the executive branch doing what the courts say, more or less voluntarily.

He doesn't have a great way to force them to do it.

The judge says, if you don't comply with the court's orders, you've essentially painted the court into a corner.

Because what are we supposed to do?

I can't tell how long, time-wise, this goes on for, because we just have the transcript, but it's like five pages.

He says the court has been having a hard time even getting information about when these people would be released.