American officials arrested a Wisconsin judge on Friday and accused him of helping a man in his court to briefly evade immigration authorities in an intensive dispute between the administration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and local officials on the application of immigration.
In a criminal complaint, the United States Department of Justice said that Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee County Circuit Judge, hindered immigration agents who presented themselves to arrest the man without a court order outside his courtroom on April 18, and who tried to help him evade the arrest by allowing him to leave through a jury door.
The agents arrested the man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, outside the court after he left with his lawyer.
Dugan appeared briefly in a federal court in Milwaukee to face charges to obstruct a government procedure and hide an individual to avoid arrest, according to records. It was released and is scheduled to appear on May 15. A crowd formed outside the Palace of Justice, singing: “Release the judge now.”
Dugan left the court through a side door without comments.
“Judge Dugan will defend himself vigorously and hopes to be exonerated,” said an advertising firm in his name.
Trump, a Republican, launched a broad immigration repression after assuming the position in January, and the Department of Justice has ordered federal prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against local officials who interfere with the effort. Such resistance was widespread during the first period of Trump 2017-2021 in office.
“No one, except a judge, should obstruct the operations of application of the law,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement.
The Trump administration has been locked in a growing confrontation with federal judges, since several have issued failures that limit their aggressive use of presidential power in immigration and other issues. The state courts have played a less important role in that dispute.
The director of the Federal Research Office (FBI), Kash Patel, said on social networks that the agents had arrested Dugen for interfering with the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, whom he described as an “illegal foreigner.” He later eliminated that position, presented before the case against Dugan was revealed in a federal court in a possible violation of the secret rules.
The American senator Dick Durbin, the most important Democrat in the Judicial Committee of the Senate, said the Trump administration “continues to prove the limits of our Constitution”, and that when immigration officials “interfere” with the criminal justice system, prevents witnesses and victims from presenting.
“How to arrest a acting judge makes the United States safer?” Diurbin said in his statement.
Second accused judge
The federal authorities this week also arrested a former judge from New Mexico and accused him of manipulation of evidence, as shown by the judicial records, after a man that the authorities claim that he was linked to a Venezuelan street gang, he found that he lived in his property.
The former judge, Joel Cano, was accused with his wife Nancy after they supposedly helped the man, who faces illegal charges of possession of weapons, destroys a cell phone that is believed to contain evidence that he holds firearms, according to a criminal complaint.
Joel Cano was prohibited on Tuesday by the Supreme Court of the State to serve as a judge in the State.
Joel and Nancy Cano’s lawyers did not immediately respond to comments requests.
In the case of Wisconsin, a criminal complaint claimed that Dugan became “visibly angry” and said it was “absurd” when the plain immigration agents arrived on April 18, saying that they wanted to arrest Flores-Ruiz after he left his court, where he faced charges of despair batteries related to domestic abuse.
Speaking in the corridor outside, he asked the agents if they had a court order for their arrest, and they told him no, only an administrative order issued by a colleague in the Department of National Security.
Dugan told agents that they needed a court order to arrest someone inside the court and told them to talk to the main judge, according to the complaint.
Then he returned to his courtroom and, after postponing the hearing, he ordered Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to go through a door that led to a non-public area of the court, according to the complaint. The outside agents approached Flores-Ruiz when he left the Palace of Justice, and arrested him after a foot persecution, approximately 22 minutes after they saw him for the first time to reach the court.
Carl Ashley, main judge of the Milwaukee court, declined to comment.
The complaint said that Flores-Ruiz had been previously deported to Mexico.
“Since President Trump was inaugurated, the activist judges have tried to obstruct President Trump and the mandate of the American people to make the United States safe and ensure our homeland,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement. “But the actions of this judge to protect a violent and violent criminal foreigner of justice are shocking and shameful.”
Dugan was first chosen as a County Judge in 2016 and before that he served as head of the local Catholic Charities branch, which provides refugee resettlement programs among other services. He spent a large part of his early career as a lawyer in Milwaukee’s legal aid society, which serves poor people.
During the first period of Trump 2017-2021, federal prosecutors presented criminal charges against a Massachusetts judge accused of preventing a federal immigration arrest of a defendant in his courtroom. Those charges retired in 2022, when Trump was out of charge.
Barbara Mcquade, former Federal Prosecutor now at the Law School of the University of Michigan, said that the judges do not have a special immunity, but prosecutors must consider the impact on the Federal System of the United States, which allows States to enforce their own laws.
“This seems like a very aggressive exercise of fiscal discretion,” he said.
