Federal agents arrested a Milwaukee judge Friday on obstruction charges for allegedly interfering with an immigration arrest. Judge Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court was arrested in the county courthouse and remains in federal custody, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), posted about Dugan’s arrest on X. He has since deleted the post.
Dugan’s arrest comes one day after federal agents arrested a former New Mexico county judge and his wife in their home. Former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy Cano, were charged with evidence tampering and harboring an alleged member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. (The administration has used spurious evidence, including innocuous tattoos, to accuse Venezuelan migrants of being Tren de Aragua members in order to exile them to a notorious prison in El Salvador.)
The details of these arrests so far are scant, but suggest that the Trump administration is escalating its crackdown on immigration — and increasingly going after anyone who helps undocumented immigrants in any way. More broadly, Trump’s Department of Justice appears to be using the law as a cudgel to punish Trump’s critics and reward his cronies, as evidenced by the drama surrounding the DOJ’s decision to drop the corruption case against New York City mayor Eric Adams, as well as yesterday’s order demanding Attorney General Pam Bondi investigate Democratic donation platform ActBlue.
The administration has also gone after religious organizations like Catholic Charities and the Lutheran group Global Refuge, which provide services to immigrant and refugee groups. Elon Musk baselessly accused Global Refuge — formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refuge Service Inc. — of money laundering and said his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would shut down all “illegal payments” to the organization.
The Journal Sentinel reports that federal officials have not yet identified the person Dugan is accused of helping evade immigration authorities, but signs point to Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant who was in her courtroom on April 18th. When agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived in the courthouse, Dugan reportedly told Flores Ruiz — who was facing three misdemeanor battery counts — and his attorney to exit through a side door and directed them down a private hallway so they could get away from immigration authorities.
“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 in the since-deleted X post. “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.”
Under previous administrations, ICE agents were generally not allowed to carry out arrests in courthouses and other “sensitive locations” like hospitals, schools, and churches. Trump rescinded guidance prohibiting courthouse arrests during his first term, though it was later reinstated by Biden. Upon taking office again in 2025, Trump overturned ICE’s sensitive locations policy altogether.
During Trump’s first term, federal prosecutors also charged a sitting judge with obstruction of justice for allegedly helping an immigrant evade immigration authorities. According to the Journal Sentinel, Massachusetts judge Shelley Joseph was charged with obstruction of justice in 2019 for allegedly letting an immigrant leave her courtroom through a side door to get away from ICE agents. Joseph faced up to 25 years in prison, but the charges were dropped against her in 2022.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
