Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was charged April 25 with two felonies on allegations of trying to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom.
According to a 13-page complaint, Dugan, 65, is accused of obstructing a U.S. agency and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest.
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Specifically, the complaint says Dugan assisted Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, avoid being arrested by federal immigration officials at the Milwaukee County Courthouse after he appeared in her courtroom for a pretrial conference on April 18. Flores-Ruiz is facing three misdemeanor battery counts.
Two federal agents eventually chased Flores-Ruiz down outside the courthouse and apprehended him at West State Street and North 10th Street downtown, according to the complaint.
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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X: "I can confirm that our @FBI agents just arrested Hannah Dugan – a county judge in Milwaukee – for allegedly helping an illegal alien avoid an arrest by @ICEgov."
Earlier, FBI Director Kash Patel posted, deleted and then reposted a tweet about the arrest.
"Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction — after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week," Patel wrote. "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."
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Dugan appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries during a brief hearing in a packed courtroom at the federal courthouse. Dugan made no public comments during the brief hearing.
At the hearing, Dries asked if prosecutors were seeking detention, and they said they were not. He answered that he did not believe that the charges were “eligible” for detention.
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Franklyn Gimbel, a prominent Milwaukee defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, called Dugan’s arrest “outrageous.”
“A person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if you will, like some common criminal,” Gimbel said. “And I'm shocked and surprised that the U.S. Attorney's Office or the FBI would not have invited her to show up and accept process if they're going to charge her with a crime.”
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The complaint says federal officials used biometric fingerprint comparisons to see that Flores-Ruiz, who was set to appear before Dugan on April 18, had been deported from the United States in 2013. ICE officials obtained an arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz on April 17.
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[S]ix members of the Milwaukee ICE task force dressed in plain clothes and went to the county courthouse to arrest Flores-Ruiz at about 8 a.m., the complaint says. They then informed the bailiff in Dugan's courtroom that they were planning the arrest, agreeing to wait to do so until after his court appearance.
A clerk notified Dugan that it appeared ICE agents were waiting in the hallway outside her courtroom.
"Judge DUGAN became visibly angry, commented that the situation was 'absurd,' left the bench, and entered chambers," the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Dugan confronted members of the arrest team while "visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor." She told the group members they needed a judicial warrant, not an administrative one, and directed them to report to Chief Judge Carl Ashley's office.
While this was going on, the bailiff informed the arrest team — which included ICE, FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency officials — that Dugan had expedited Flores-Ruiz's case. Witnesses told federal authorities that she then "forcefully motioned" for the defendant and his attorney to exit through a side door near the jury box that leads to a private hallway and then to the public area outside the courtroom.
A DEA agent then saw Flores-Ruiz and his attorney get on an elevator, and he got on it with them, notifying others on the arrest team what was happening. Flores-Ruiz got off the elevator and was confronted by two agents outside the courthouse.
"A foot chase ensued," the complaint said.
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Records show Flores-Ruiz was charged April 24 by federal authorities with illegal re-entry into the United States.
In an federal court appearance the same day, Flores-Ruiz's federal attorney Marty Pruhs said a judge assisted his client and that Flores-Ruiz was acting on the advice of his state attorney. Minutes from the court hearing said Flores-Ruiz, who has been working as a cook, has been living in Milwaukee for about 12 years.
Flores-Ruiz is listed as being in ICE custody at Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, according to the federal online detainee locator system.
That arrest marked at least the third time in recent months that federal immigration agents have come to the courthouse with arrest warrants. In March and early April, two people were arrested by ICE officials in the hallways of the courthouse.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
That hardly seems like “concealment,” and whether she obstructed would have to establish that she had corrupt intent in letting him exit out of a different door. Which, unless it was unlawful for her to do that, is her prerogative in her courtroom 2/
I think what a judge does within her lawful power within the four corners of her courtroom would be given great deference, and to inquire into motives would raise judicial immunity questions (the same way inquiring into POTUS’ motives for official acts raise immunity questions) 3/
This also raises Tenth Amendment concerns. Of course federal law applies to state officials, but can they be compelled (commandeered) to go above and beyond and “facilitate” (😏) a federal arrest? Case law says no as applied to state law enforcement in other contexts 4/
I find it surprising that this would meet the Justice Manual’s standards for prosecution. Seems more like an attempt to intimidate state judges into caving into federal encroachment into their duties
Precisely the point.
UPDATE 04/26/2025: Andrew Weissman substack...
He gives his opinion that this is a "tenuous" case. That may well be, but I don't think the purpose was to actually convict the judge so much as it was to instill fear in other judges.
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