THE WASHINGTON POST: Wisconsin judge arrested by FBI, charged with obstructing immigrant arrest

MILWAUKEE - The Justice Department has charged a Wisconsin judge with obstructing an immigration arrest operation - a significant escalation of Trump administration threats to target local officials accused of interfering with immigration enforcement.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on the social media platform X, accusing her of “intentionally misdirecting” federal agents as they sought to detain an immigrant who was set to appear for an unrelated proceeding last week.

In court filings Friday, the government said the judge sent the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents away from that hearing, and then escorted the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a private exit.

“Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since,” Patel wrote. “But the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”

Dugan was charged with obstruction and concealing a person from arrest, and was released on her own recognisance pending additional court proceedings.

“Ms. Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest,” one of her attorneys, Craig Mastantuono, told US Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries during a brief appearance Friday in federal court in Milwaukee. “It was not made in the interest of public safety.”

Steven M. Biskupic, another attorney representing the judge, said in a statement that she “will defend herself vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated.”

Dugan’s supporters gathered outside the federal courthouse in protest, including Susan Bietila, a retired school nurse who held a handmade “Free Judge Dugan!” sign and said she was “chilled to the bone” by the judge’s arrest.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (D) described the case against Dugan as a “large performative showing of law enforcement officials” and accused the Trump administration of trying to “instill fear and hostility across our community.”

Meanwhile, administration officials took to social media and the airwaves to trumpet the prosecution as a significant step in their efforts to strike back against judges they’ve labeled activists.

“She’s protecting a criminal defendant over victims of crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a Fox News interview. “She put the lives of our law enforcement officers at risk.”

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said on social media: “No. One. Is. Above. The. Law.”

Justice Department officials have directed federal prosecutors nationwide to investigate and potentially charge state and local officials who impede the president’s immigration crackdown. The Trump administration has also openly clashed with state and federal judges who have sought to restrain some of the government’s most aggressive deportation and enforcement efforts.

ICE’s use of local courthouses as a venue to locate and detain migrants has drawn criticism from judges in some jurisdictions, who say the practice makes it more difficult to ensure undocumented immigrants will show up for court proceedings in which they are victims, defendants or witnesses.

“Even if you are an undocumented immigrant, we need you to be able to understand that this is a safe space for us,” Crowley said at a news conference Friday afternoon. “They may be a witness in a crime. They may be a victim in a crime. And if they’re a witness, for example, we need them to be able to come into this building and feel safe to be able to talk, to actually be a witness.”

But immigration authorities say courthouses provide a unique setting where they can be certain their targets are scheduled to show up at a specific time and date, and will have already undergone security screening.

Milwaukee’s ICE office, which has made other arrests at Dugan’s courthouse this year, has adopted a policy to only detain undocumented immigrants who are due in court for alleged crimes and not to pursue those who may be in court as witnesses or victims, according to the affidavit filed in Dugan’s case.

A Milwaukee-based FBI agent said in the criminal complaint that multiple witnesses described the judge as “visibly upset” when she learned on April 18 that federal agents were waiting outside her courtroom to arrest Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a 30-year-old Mexican national set to appear before her on misdemeanor state battery charges.

Dugan allegedly confronted the agents in the hallway, according to the complaint. When they told her they had an administrative warrant to detain Flores Ruiz, she instructed them to speak to the court’s chief judge. While the agents were away, the affidavit says, Dugan postponed Flores Ruiz’s hearing and directed him and his lawyer to leave through a private jury room exit instead of the public entryway. The agents later spotted Flores Ruiz outside the building.

“A foot chase ensued,” the complaint said. “The agents pursued Flores-Ruiz for the entire length of the courthouse.”

Immigration officials said Flores Ruiz had previously been deported to Mexico in 2013. The date he reentered the country was not included in court records. Bondi, on Fox, said the state domestic violence case he was facing involved an alleged assault on a man and a woman, both of whom were injured and taken to the hospital.

“This judge’s actions to shield an accused violent criminal illegal alien from justice is shocking and shameful,” Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We are thankful for our partners at the FBI for helping remove this accused criminal from America’s streets.”

During Mr Trump’s first term, in 2018, the Justice Department charged a judge and court officer in Massachusetts with helping an undocumented immigrant escape from a courthouse in Newton. Prosecutors said then that as ICE agents arrived to detain the man, Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph directed him to leave through the courthouse basement, where he was let out a back door as the agents waited for him in the lobby.

The federal charges were dropped in 2022 as part of an agreement that required Joseph to refer herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, the body in charge of judicial discipline in the state.

Within days of Mr Trump’s return to the White House in January, a top Justice Department official directed federal prosecutors nationwide to investigate and potentially charge state and local officials who impede the president’s immigration enforcement agenda.

“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands,” wrote Emil Bove, then acting deputy attorney general.

Dugan won her seat on the Milwaukee County bench in 2016, defeating a judge who had been appointed in the heavily Democratic county by then-Gov. Scott Walker (R).

Before she was a judge, Dugan worked as a poverty attorney and executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Friday afternoon, hours after her arrest, a sign remained hung on the door to her courtroom. It instructed anyone who “feels unsafe coming to courtroom 615” to contact a court clerk to request an online hearing.

Marianne LeVine and Perry Stein in Washington contributed to this report.

© 2025 , The Washington Post