MILWAUKEE– Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested Friday morning by the FBI and now faces federal obstruction charges following an alleged attempt to interfere with an immigration arrest at the Milwaukee County Courthouse.
According to now-deleted post from FBI Director Kash Patel, the charges stem from an April 18 incident involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Federal agents were attempting to detain Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a Mexican citizen, after a court appearance. Authorities say Judge Dugan mislead agents during the operation, allowing Ruiz to briefly evade custody. He was later apprehended nearby.
Judge Dugan, who has served on the Milwaukee County bench for nine years, is charged with obstruction of a federal proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest.
In response to her arrest, a group of protestors gathered outside the Federal Courthouse in Downtown Milwaukee. The demonstration drew several local leaders, including State Senator Chris Larson, State Representative Christine Sinicki, Alderwomen Mariana Dimitrijevic & JoCasta Zamarripa, and Maxwell Love, Political Director for the Wisconsin Working Families Party.
Maxwell Love spoke to the public outside of the Federal Courthouse raising concerns for justice and equality. Love’s view of the Trump Administration‘s actions are deemed as an “intimidation tactic” that he believes will spread not only in Wisconsin, but a message to the entire country.
Maxwell Love says, “Judge Dugan is the first local elected who’s been targeted by the Trump administration. And what happened this morning was direct. FBI Director Kash Patel put up a tweet saying that they were going after her, and he immediately took it down because he knows that people are going to show up and protest this. Trump administration is trying to strike fear in the heart of local elected officials who are defending our immigrant communities. And that’s absolutely not okay. So we’re here today to say that we will not rest until Judge Dugan these charges are dropped and that the Trump administration admits the mistake that they made. Just like Kash Patel took that tweet down this morning…. I think these charges are going to get dropped. Absolutely. I think she’s got the best lawyers. She’s a judge, she’s a reputable person. And these charges are going to get dropped.”
State Representative Christine Sinicki, Alderwomen Mariana Dimitrijevic & JoCasta Zamarripa arrived shortly after to spread their concerns as well.
Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic explains her concern for Judge Dugan:
“Elected leaders, friends, labor organizations, you name it. The city of Milwaukee will not run business like this. Everyone is welcome in the city of Milwaukee at all times. We will create safe spaces, and we will not be intimidated. We will not rest until she has seen full due process, the right that everyone is entitled to all the time. Not just sometimes, all the time. So once again, she deserves due process. So do the people that she might have been protecting. Everyone. It’s a human right, is due process. Number two. We will not be intimidated. Not now, not ever. Your intimidation tactics do not work in the city of Milwaukee. They don’t work now, and they won’t work later. So you have elected officials saying that we have your back today, tomorrow, and the next day. We are very concerned. It does not make the city or county safer when people don’t feel safe and they have to hide in the shadows. We need people to be able to seek justice, to be able to go to the library, the Health department, school, church, live their lives not in shadows. That is not how a democratic society is run. And it does not make a safer city for anyone.”
State Representative Christine Sinicki:
“This is clearly intimidation trying to scare people. And my question is, if they can walk into a courthouse and arrest a sitting judge, what can happen to the rest of us that are pushing back on the Trump agenda? People are scared. People are really scared. And this just makes things worse. Hannah Dugan did what was morally right, protecting somebody. To have her arrested is unprecedented.”
Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa:
“This is clearly an intimidation tactic. This is to send a message to elected leaders, to community leaders that they better not stick their neck out and help an immigrant neighbor of theirs. They had better keep their head down and let President Trump pick off immigrants indiscriminately. We are here today to implore our elected leader colleagues to implore community leaders to stand with us and stand in with Wisconsinites, with immigrant Wisconsinites, with all immigrants across Milwaukee and beyond, because this is unbelievable. I cannot. I’m shocked that we would, that the federal government would do this unprecedented movement of going into the judicial branch and basically giving Judge Dugan no due process.
State Senator Chris Larson was also among those who showed up to the protest to voice concern. Senator Larson showed extreme disappointment when discussing his thoughts on the Judge Dugan arrest.
“You are supposed to have independence between how the FBI operates in our country,” Senator Chris Larson explains.
“It is something that has clearly been understood. It’s been tested by presidents in the past, famously the Nixon administration, where he declared that if the President does it, it’s not illegal. Where they would use the law and use the FBI to try to,or frankly, to try to erase that line, to try and intimidate citizens and try to be able to use it for their own political good. Even hints at that. You can remember years ago where there was worry,that even during the administration that, planes were parked close to each other and Bill Clinton talked to the, Attorney General and there was a question. Oh, my gosh, they talked. In this case, the fact that Kash Patel, the sitting FBI Director, decreed via, Twitter, that this arrest had happened. And that is the first alert that most people found out about this. Not from the Wisconsin division of the FBI, not from a branch office which we have right here, not from somebody who is administering the law and putting out, frankly, a press release to update exactly what is going on. But the FBI director himself. It clearly shows that this is something that was directed by the inner circle of Donald Trump. I think if you’re looking for more evidence on it, the fact that he deleted it pretty damn quickly. And then another statement came up from Pam Bondi, who is the Attorney General, saying just as much. It’s very clear they want to use this. They want to use Hannah Dugan and her arrest as a flag to wave to everybody, to be able to say, we are going to intimidate and we are going to bully our way into our version of justice, which is one that is xenophobic, which is one that does not follow the same protocols of the law and equal justice for all. It is one that is whatever Donald Trump says, and anybody in the way, we’re going to arrest and intimidate and bully.”
The speakers condemned federal immigration enforcement in local courts and defended Judge Dugan’s action, calling the arrest politically charges and dangerous to judicial independence.
