Wisconsin, Apr 26 (UNI) A Milwaukee County Circuit judge was arrested by the FBI and charged in a federal court on Friday for allegedly aiding an undocumented immigrant in evading arrest, media reports said.
Judge Hannah Dugan is facing two charges for obstruction and concealing the individual from arrest. She made an initial appearance in court and was released, the CNN reported.
The arrest on federal charges is an escalation in the Trump administration’s focus on judges’ conduct, particularly as it relates to immigration enforcement.
According to reports, the Justice Department has stated that it will investigate local officials who fail to assist federal authorities in immigration matters.
“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,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on X in a post Friday morning.
“Thankfully our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
In court on Friday, Dugan’s attorney said that “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety".
In charging documents, investigators said that plainclothes federal agents went to Dugan’s courtroom on April 18 with the intention of arresting Flores-Ruiz.
According to reports, a Mexican immigrant, Flores-Ruiz had been removed from the United States in 2013, but immigration officials learned he was back in the country illegally because of his arrest in a local domestic abuse case.
After being informed of the agents’ presence by her courtroom deputy, the judge “became visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd,’ left the bench, and entered chambers,” court documents say.
Witnesses told investigators that Dugan confronted the federal agents in a public hallway, where she repeatedly demanded they leave, saying they needed a different kind of warrant to make the arrest. Dugan ordered the agents to speak with the chief judge of the courthouse.
Several witnesses – including Dugan’s courtroom deputy and both the prosecutor and the Victim Witness Specialist on Flores-Ruiz’s case – allegedly recounted seeing Dugan then direct Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to leave through a “jury door,” which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse, according to the court documents.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an interview on Fox News after the arrest was executed that “if you are destroying evidence and you are obstructing justice, when you have victims sitting in a courtroom of domestic violence and you are escorting a criminal defendant out the back door, it will not be tolerated.”
“I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law, and they are not,” Bondi added.
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan similarly said in a post on X that “nobody should be surprised by the arrest of two judges.” The second judge he is referring to is former magistrate Judge Joel Cano, who is charged with harboring three alleged gang members on his property.
UNI ARN RN