Trump Admin Arrests Judge for Allegedly Helping Migrant

The FBI has arrested a judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they have accused of obstructing the arrest of an undocumented migrant.

According to a now-deleted X post, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote that the FBI has arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan “after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week.” 

“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” Patel wrote, adding that Flores Ruiz had been arrested. U.S. Marshals confirmed Dugan’s arrest to several publications. 

According to a report from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Flores Ruiz, who is from Mexico, appeared for a hearing before Dugan on April 18. According to an email from Chief Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Carl Ashley obtained by the Journal Sentinel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the Milwaukee courthouse and “were asked whether they had a warrant, and the agents presented the warrant as well as their identification […] They were asked to go to Chief Judge’s office. They complied.” According to Ashley’s email, the agents were asked to wait until their suspect’s hearing had concluded before making their arrest. 

In a response to the Journal Sentinel, Dugan wrote that “nearly every fact regarding the ‘tips’ in your email is inaccurate.”

Sources told the Journal Sentinel that Dugan directed Flores Ruiz out of a side door from the courtroom and into another public area of the courthouse when immigration agents left to speak with the Chief Justice. In an email response to Chief Justice Ashley, Dugan wrote that “a warrant was not presented in the hallway on the 6th floor.”

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson criticized the arrest during a press conference on Wednesday. “Typically when something like this happens, an indictment of a potential defendant is ordered, there will be a court appearance. That didn’t happen in this case. I think what happened here is just show-boating. They’re trying to have this show of force,” Johnson said. “In the process of doing this, in a courthouse where people need to go for court proceedings, they’re scaring people away from participating in the process […] which makes our community less safe. 

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The state’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, also sounded off, writing on X that “we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level.”

Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-Md.), ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told CBS News that “while all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation & dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate & impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates.”

The Trump administration has been making clear for months that they want to retaliate against anyone who impedes their anti-immigration efforts.

“We are going to prosecute you, and we are prosecuting you,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News on Friday when asked for her message toward those trying to obstruct their deportation efforts. “I could not believe a judge really did that.” She then suggested Dugan is “deranged” and thinks she’s “above the law.”

It isn’t just Bondi, Patel, and the Justice Department.
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Last month, Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan suggested that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) be investigated for posting advice to undocumented migrants regarding their rights if they are confronted or detained by ICE agents.

Earlier this month, Trump’s personal lawyer turned acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba said she would be launching an investigation into the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, as a “warning for everybody” who sought to protect migrants from the plans of the administration. 
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In February, a lawyer named Clay Jackson was reportedly confronted by two unidentified agents who shut off the WiFi in his home and accused him of “obstructing an ongoing immigration investigation” after he offered to find legal help for a mixed-status family whose relative was in ICE custody.
The FBI and Department of Justice have not released additional details regarding the arrest, but the detention of Judge Dugan takes place after a series of threats by the Trump administration to retaliate against judges who act dis-favorably to the president’s agenda. The president has threatened impeachment and removal against federal judges who have blocked his administration’s efforts to strip migrants of due process rights, and gut large swaths of the federal government.

It’s no surprise that Trump’s FBI might begin arresting judges over disputes regarding undocumented migrants.