MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Federal agents arrested a Milwaukee judge when she showed up for work at the courthouse and took her to jail. The arrest was on orders from President Trump’s FBI director in Washington. The FBI chief, Kash Patel, was perturbed that the judge had intercepted FBI agents from entering her courtroom to arrest a Mexican immigrant who was on the witness stand. The judge, Hannah Dugan, told the federal agents in no uncertain words to leave. They did. The immigrant then fled the courthouse through a back entrance. This was last week. The FBI then drafted a criminal complaint alleging that Judge Dugan facilitated the man’s escape. The arrest of Judge Dugan — at 8:30 a.m. Friday, several days after the confrontation — is being viewed widely as an escalation of President Trump’s roundup of immigrants. Some 40,000 immigrants have been detained. Many arrests have been for flimsy reasons and with detainees being denied the U.S. constitutional right to defend themselves in court. It suggests also that Trump lacks respect for the sovereignty of state judicial systems.
Verbatim
Gwen Moore, who represents Milwaukee in the U.S. House, the arrest of a judge is a serious matter and would require a high legal bar: “The Trump administration’s willingness to weaponize federal law enforcement is shocking. This arrest has all the hallmarks of overreach.”
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the Berkeley Law School, told the Los Angeles Times: “This is an attempt by the Trump administration to send a message with regard to how aggressive they’re going to be in enforcing immigration law. It’s a message to judges that this administration has little respect for the judiciary and isn’t going to let the judiciary get in the way of what it wants to do.”
Cavalier Johnson, Milwaukee mayor, called the judge’s arrest “overly dramatic” and calculated for effect: “They’re just trying to have this show of force, and in the process of doing this in the courthouse where people have to go for court proceedings, they’re scaring people away from participating in the process.”
Peter Burgelis, Milwaukee Common Council member: “Judge Dugan serves the community with integrity, intellect and an unwavering dedication to constitutional values. She is a model of what public service should look like: Fair, principled and rooted in justice.”
Judge’s profile
Dugan was elected as Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge in 2016. She holds a 1987 law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For 20 years she was a litigator with an emphasis on housing, public benefits, civil rights and domestic abuse with Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee. Dugan was in private practice as a civil rights attorney from 2010 until her election as judge.
Courthouse drama
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican citizen, had been arrested March 18 in Milwaukee. The charge was a violation of state law: Domestic abuse with physical assault. Before Judge Dugan, a state court judge, could hear the case, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency decided to arrest Flores-Ruiz. They went to the Milwaukee courthouse to make the arrest. Alerted that feds were in the building, an angry Judge Dugan confronted them and demanded whether they had a judicial arrest warrant. She was aware that hundreds of deportation arrests during the Trump presidency have been made without judge-issued warrants. She insisted that the agents speak with the chief judge elsewhere in the courthouse. Dugan then returned to her courtroom and pointed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to a jury door. They fled. The feds gave chase and caught Flores-Ruiz.