How deportation broke the courts

Today, Explained

Vox

News, Daily News, Politics

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The number of immigration cases has risen sharply since President Donald Trump took office, and DOJ lawyers are crashing out. This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Dustin DeSoto and Andrea Lopez-Cruzado, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Federal agents arresting a man in Minneapolis. Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Lawyers for the Department of Justice are crashing out.
0:03.7	The Dow, the Dow right now is over, the Dow is over $50,000.
0:10.3	I don't know why you're laughing.
0:11.6	You're a great...
0:11.9	Not Pam Bondi. That's a separate issue.
0:13.5	No, the lawyers tasked with prosecuting immigration cases for the Trump administration are quitting, saying they have too much work.
0:20.5	One DOJ lawyer in
0:21.7	Minnesota got a lot of attention last week when she told a judge, quote, this job sucks.
0:27.0	A former DOJ chief of staff tweeted in desperation, if you're interested in being a assistant
0:33.3	U.S. attorney, DM me. To which someone replied,
0:37.7	Your DMs aren't open.
0:40.4	When President Trump sent ICE into Minneapolis to run amok,
0:43.9	his administration was bound to get sued, a bunch.
0:47.4	The problem is he's running out of lawyers.
0:50.0	That's coming up on Today Explained.
0:59.7	Okay. That's coming up on Today Explained. Support for this show comes from the Working Forest Initiative.
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	...

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