A Milwaukee judge helped a migrant wanted by deportation agents slip out of their sight at the courthouse, federal officials say, as they have now criminally charged her.
Judge Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court was taken into custody Friday based on what FBI Director Kash Patel described as obstruction of justice.
“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,” he said.
A criminal complaint unsealed Friday and obtained by The Independent provides details of her alleged crimes.
It says witnesses on the scene “uniformly reported” that Dugan “was visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor” with ICE agents at the courthouse to arrest a man scheduled for a hearing in her courtroom. She allegedly escorted defendant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national facing deportation, through the “jury door” and into a non-public area of the courthouse.
A team of six plainclothes federal agents from the Milwaukee ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Task Force showed up at the Milwaukee County Courthouse around 8 a.m., and told a security guard that they “were present to make an arrest,” the complaint states.
The guard said she needed to speak with a supervisor, who contacted a shift sergeant with the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. The sergeant asked that the team wait in the hallway outside of Dugan’s courtroom and wait until proceedings were finished before arresting anyone, which the complaint describes as “standard practice.”
While the agents waited in the hallway, a public defender snapped photos of them, then informed Dugan’s clerk that ICE was in the building, the complaint continues. It says Dugan then left the bench and, along with another judge who is not identified by name in the complaint, approached the arrest team and asked if they were “present for a court appearance.” When they said they were there to arrest somebody, Dugan told them they would need a judicial warrant, not the administrative one they had, according to the complaint. When the ICE team pushed back, Dugan told them they would need to speak with the chief judge, and the second judge standing with Dugan escorted them to his office, the complaint goes on.
As agents were speaking with the chief judge, Dugan returned to her courtroom and adjourned Flores-Ruiz’s case, which had not yet been called, according to the complaint. Then, when he and his attorney were preparing to leave, Dugan’s courtroom deputy claimed to hear her “say something like, ‘Wait, come with me,’” according to the complaint. She then led Flores-Ruiz out through the jury door, it says.
A DEA agent on the arrest team who hadn’t been recognized by Dugan and stayed behind in the hallway spotted Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer and got on an elevator with them, the complaint states, noting that the agent alerted the rest of the team that he was in an elevator with their target
“While on the elevator, Flores-Ruiz and his attorney spoke to each other in Spanish, which DEA Agent A did not understand,” according to the complaint. “They exited the elevator on one of the bottom floors of the courthouse and used the Ninth Street public entrance/exit to leave the building.”
The team members “scrambled to locate Flores-Ruiz and arrest him,” the complaint states. It says that when agents approached Flores-Ruiz and identified themselves, he “turned around and sprinted down the street.” Agents caught up with Flores-Ruiz on the corner and cuffed him at 9:05 am, according to the complaint.
Flores-Ruiz was arrested and charged last month in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with three counts of Battery-Domestic Abuse-Infliction of Physical Pain or Injury, the complaint states.
Earlier on Friday, Patel claimed that Judge Dugan had “created increased danger to the public” by what he called her “obstruction.”
The FBI director later deleted the X post for reasons that were not apparently clear. But Attorney General Pam Bondi later confirmed the arrest in a separate post, writing: “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 [ICE].”
“No one is above the law,” she added.
Dugan, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School who practiced at Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Legal Aid Society before seeking and winning public office, appeared in a federal court in Milwaukee shortly after her arrest and was released from custody pending her next scheduled appearance on May 15.
Her attorney, Craig Mastantuono said during the brief hearing that the judge “wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest” and described it as “not made in the interest of public safety.”
The allegations leveled at Dugan, who has served on the Milwaukee County bench since 2016, appear to be based on claims made by a right-wing radio host, Dan O’Donnell, who on Tuesday posted on X that Dugan was under investigation “for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant defendant evade ICE agents who came to arrest him in her courtroom during a hearing” the previous Friday.
In a post on X following Patel’s announcement, O’Donnell took credit for the arrest and said it was based on his “exclusive report” from earlier in the week.
Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement: “While all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation & dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate & impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates.”
The charges against the longtime Milwaukee judge mark a significant escalation in what has been — until now — a war of words between the Trump administration and state and local officials over the extent to which they are required to assist immigration authorities.
Trump White House “border czar” Tom Homan has repeatedly threatened to jail state and local officials if he believes they are impeding lawful deportation efforts by immigration officers. And the Justice Department’s number-three official, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, issued a memorandum earlier this year prioritizing investigations and potential criminal charges against state and local officials who obstruct or impede federal functions. The memo cited a conspiracy offense as well as a law prohibiting the harboring of people in the country illegally as legal avenues for potential prosecutions.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
With additional reporting by agencies
