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 further make up for lost personnel from the mass firings and resignations that have plagued the office, the DOJ has been recruiting government attorneys beyond JAG to spend time as prosecutors at 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 in DC Superior Court, before the first hearing started, multiple court observers documented the musings of an ICE prosecutor detailed to USAO-DC. 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, where 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).

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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.

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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 (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.