Protests, outrage after the arrest judge of the FBI

Milwaukee (AP) – The protesters sang and marched on Saturday outside the FBI after the agents arrested a Milwaukee judge accused of helping a man to evade immigration authorities. The case has intensified a clash between the Trump administration and the local authorities on the broad repression of the Republican President.

The judge of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Hannah Dugan, is accused of escorting the man and her lawyer outside her courtroom through the Jury Gate last week after learning that the immigration authorities were looking for their arrest. The man was arrested outside the court after the agents persecuted him on foot.

On Saturday, protesters sang “immigrants are here to stay” and signs that said “freedom and justice for all” outside the FBI Milwaukee division.

“The Judiciary acts as a check for the Executive Power without control. And the democracies in operation do not enclose the judges,” said Democratic State Representative Ryan Clancy to the crowd before he marched in the area.

Dugan was arrested by the FBI on Friday morning on the courts of the court, according to the spokesman of the US sheriff service. Uu. Brady McCarron. She appeared briefly in a federal court in Milwaukee later on Friday before being released from custody. She faces “hide an individual to avoid their discovery and arrest” and obstruct or prevent a procedure.

“Judge Dugan laments and his arrest with all heart. He declined to comment to a reporter from News after his appearance in the Court.

The Wisconsin Democratic governor, Tony Evers, in a statement about the arrest, accused the Trump administration of repeatedly using “dangerous rhetoric to attack and try to undermine our judiciary at all levels.”

“I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation develops in the Court of Justice,” he said.

The judicial documents suggest that Dugan was alerted about the presence of immigration and customs compliance with the United States in court for his employee, who was informed by a lawyer who seemed to be in the hall.

The Affidavit of the FBI describes Dugan as “visibly angry” for the arrival of immigration agents to La Palace. She says that she and another judge later approached the members of the arrest team within the court, showing what the witnesses described as “confrontational and angry behavior.”

After a return to the officers with the officers about the order of the man, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, demanded that the arrest team talk to the main judge and move them away from the courtroom, says the affidavit.

After directing the arrest team to the office of the main judge, the investigators say, Dugan returned to the courtroom and he was heard saying words in the effect of “wait, come with me” before marking Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer through a jury door in a non-public area of ​​the Palace of Justice. The action was unusual, says the affidavit, because “only the deputies, jurors, court personnel and accused in custody escorted by the deputies used the jury door.

A signal that was published at the door of the Court of the Court of Dugan on Friday informed that if any lawyer or other court official “knows or believes that a person feels insecure that comes to court to court 615”, they must notify the employee and request an appearance through Zoom.

Flores-Ruiz, 30, was in the court of Dugan for an audience after being accused of three charges of minor crime of domestic aggression. Confronted by a roommate for playing music at full volume on March 12, Flores-Ruiz supposedly fought with him in the kitchen and hit a woman who tried to break them, according to the affidavit of the police in the case.

Another woman who tried to break the fight and called the police allegedly was rubbed shoulder in her arm by Flores-Ruiz.

Flores-Ruiz faces up to nine months in prison and a fine of $ 10,000 in each charge if it is convicted. His public defender, Alexander Kostal, did not immediately return a telephone message on Friday in search of comments.

A federal judge, Dugan himself would appear before a day later, had ordered Thursday that Flores-Ruiz remains imprisoned waiting for trial. Flores-Ruiz had been in the USA since he returned to the country after being deported in 2013, according to judicial documents.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the victims were sitting in the courtroom with state prosecutors when the judge helped him escape the arrest by immigration.

“The rule of law is very simple,” he said in a video posted in X. “It doesn’t matter in which line of work is. If the law violates, we will follow the facts and process it.”

Anna Moneymaker through Getty Images

White House officials echoed the feeling that no one was above the law.

Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin, described the arrest of a feeling judge a “severely serious and drastic movement” that “threatens to violate” the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.

Emilio de Torre, executive director of Milwaukee Turners, said during a previous protest on Friday afternoon outside the federal court that Decan was a former member of the Board of the local Civic Group who “was certainly trying to ensure that due process is not interrupted and that the holiness of the courts is confirmed.”

“Send armed FBI and ICE agents to buildings such as this will intimidate people who appear to the Court to pay fines, to treat any judicial procedure they may have,” added De Torre.

The case is similar to the one brought during Trump’s first administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak up from a rear door of a court to evade an immigration application agent he expects.

This prosecution caused the outrage of many in the legal community, which criticized the case as politically motivated. The prosecutors withdrew the case against Newton’s district judge, Shelley Joseph, in 2022 under the Democratic Biden administration after she agreed to refer to a state agency that investigates the accusations of misconduct by members of the bench.

The Department of Justice had previously indicated that it was going to take energetic measures against local officials who frustrated federal immigration efforts.

In January, the Department ordered prosecutors to investigate possible criminal charges to any state and local officials who obstruct or prevent federal functions. As potential ways for prosecution, a memorandum cited a crime of conspiracy, as well as a law that illegally prohibits the concentration of people in the country.

Dugan was elected in 2016 to branch 31 of the County Court. It has also served in the Succession and Civil Divisions of the Court, according to its biography of judicial candidates.

Before being elected to a public office, Dugan practiced in Wisconsin legal actions and the Legal Aid Society. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 with a degree in Arts and obtained his doctorate in juris in 1987 from the school.

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Richer reported from Washington. News Eric Tucker reporters in Washington, Corey Williams in Detroit and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.