Source : the age
By Alanna Durkin Richer, Devi Shastri and Scott Bauer
Milkwaukee: Protesters chanted and marched outside FBI offices at the weekend after agents arrested a Milwaukee judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities. The case has escalated a clash between the Trump administration and local authorities over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest. The man was taken into custody outside the courthouse after agents chased him on foot.
FBI director Kash Patel posts an image on X of what he says is judge Hannah Dugan being arrested.Credit: X/Kash Patel
President Donald Trump’s administration has accused state and local officials of interfering with his immigration enforcement priorities. The arrest also comes amid a growing battle between the administration and the federal judiciary over the president’s executive actions over deportations and other matters.
On Saturday, protesters chanted “Immigrants are here to stay” and held up signs saying, “Liberty and Justice for All” outside the FBI’s Milwaukee division.
“The judiciary acts as a check to unchecked executive power. And functioning democracies do not lock up judges,” Democratic state representative Ryan Clancy told the crowd before it marched around the area.
Dugan was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday morning on the courthouse grounds, according to United States Marshals Service spokesperson Brady McCarron. FBI Diector Kash Patel later posted a photograph of her arrest on social media platform X, with the words: “No one is above the law”.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan speaks during a rally marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Credit: AP
Dugan appeared briefly in federal court in Milwaukee later on Friday before being released from custody. She faces charges of “concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest” and obstructing or impeding a proceeding.
“Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” her lawyer, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing.
Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, in a statement on the arrest, accused the Trump administration of repeatedly using “dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level”.
“I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law,” he said.
Supporters of Judge Hannah Dugan hold a rally at the US Courthouse in Milwaukee on Friday, after her arrest.Credit: AP
Court papers suggest Dugan was alerted to the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the courthouse by her clerk, who was informed by an attorney that they appeared to be in the hallway.
The FBI affidavit describes Dugan as “visibly angry” over the arrival of immigration agents in the courthouse and says that she pronounced the situation “absurd” before leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. It says she and another judge later approached members of the arrest team inside the courthouse, displaying what witnesses described as a “confrontational, angry demeanour”.
After a back-and-forth with officers over the warrant for the man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, she demanded that the arrest team speak with the chief judge and led them away from the courtroom, the FBI affidavit says.
After directing the arrest team to the chief judge’s office, investigators say, Dugan returned to the courtroom and was heard saying words to the effect of “wait, come with me” before ushering Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer through a jury door into a non-public area of the courthouse. The action was unusual, the affidavit says, because “only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defence lawyers and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door.”
A sign is posted outside of county Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom at the Milwaukee County courthouse, on Friday.Credit: AP
A sign that remained posted on Dugan’s courtroom door Friday advised that if any attorney or other court official “knows or believes that a person feels unsafe coming to the courthouse to courtroom 615,” they should notify the clerk and request an appearance via Zoom.
Flores-Ruiz, 30, was in Dugan’s court for a hearing after being charged with three counts of misdemeanour domestic battery. Confronted by a roommate for playing loud music on March 12, Flores-Ruiz allegedly fought with him in the kitchen and struck a woman who tried to break them up, according to the police affidavit in the case.
Another woman who tried to break up the fight and called police allegedly got elbowed in the arm by Flores-Ruiz.
Flores-Ruiz faces up to nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine on each count if convicted. His public defender, Alexander Kostal, did not immediately return a phone message on Friday seeking comment.
A federal judge, the same one Dugan would appear before a day later, had ordered on Thursday that Flores-Ruiz remain jailed pending trial. Flores-Ruiz had been in the US since re-entering the country after he was deported in 2013, according to court documents.
Attorney-General Pam Bondi said victims were sitting in the courtroom with state prosecutors when the judge helped him escape immigration arrest.
“The rule of law is very simple,” she said in a video posted on X. “It doesn’t matter what line of work you’re in. If you break the law, we will follow the facts and we will prosecute you.”
White House officials echoed the sentiment of no one being above the law.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin, called the arrest of a sitting judge a “gravely serious and drastic move” that “threatens to breach” the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.
Emilio De Torre, the executive director of Milwaukee Turners, said during an earlier protest on Friday afternoon outside the federal courthouse that Dugan was a former board member for the local civic group who “was certainly trying to make sure that due process is not disrupted and that the sanctity of the courts is upheld.”
“Sending armed FBI and ICE agents into buildings like this will intimidate individuals showing up to court to pay fines, to deal with whatever court proceedings they may have,” De Torre added.
The case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a back door of a courthouse to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent.
That prosecution sparked outrage from many in the legal community, who slammed the case as politically motivated. Prosecutors dropped the case against Newton District Judge Shelley Joseph in 2022 under the Democratic Biden administration after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.
The Justice Department had previously signalled that it was going to crack down on local officials who thwart federal immigration efforts.
The department in January ordered prosecutors to investigate for potential criminal charges any state and local officials who obstruct or impede federal functions. As potential avenues for prosecution, a memo cited a conspiracy offence as well as a law prohibiting the harbouring of people in the country illegally.
Dugan was elected in 2016 to the county court Branch 31. She also has served in the court’s probate and civil divisions, according to her judicial candidate biography.
Before being elected to public office, Dugan practiced at Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Legal Aid Society. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 with a bachelor of arts degree and earned her Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the school.
AP
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