Federal brokers arrested a Milwaukee decide Friday on obstruction expenses for allegedly interfering with an immigration arrest. Decide Hannah Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court docket was arrested within the county courthouse and stays 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 publish.
Dugan’s arrest comes sooner or later after federal brokers arrested a former New Mexico county judge and his spouse of their dwelling. Former Doña Ana County Justice of the Peace Decide Joel Cano and his spouse, Nancy Cano, have been charged with proof tampering and harboring an alleged member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. (The administration has used spurious proof, together with innocuous tattoos, to accuse Venezuelan migrants of being Tren de Aragua members so as to exile them to a infamous jail in El Salvador.)
The main points of those arrests up to now are scant, however counsel that the Trump administration is escalating its crackdown on immigration — and more and more going after anybody who helps undocumented immigrants in any way. Extra broadly, Trump’s Division of Justice seems to be utilizing the legislation as a cudgel to punish Trump’s critics and reward his cronies, as evidenced by the drama surrounding the DOJ’s resolution to drop the corruption case in opposition to New York Metropolis mayor Eric Adams, in addition to yesterday’s order demanding Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi examine Democratic donation platform ActBlue.
The administration has additionally gone after non secular organizations like Catholic Charities and the Lutheran group International Refuge, which give providers to immigrant and refugee teams. Elon Musk baselessly accused International Refuge — previously often called Lutheran Immigration and Refuge Service Inc. — of cash laundering and stated his Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) would shut down all “unlawful funds” to the group.
The Journal Sentinel reviews that federal officers haven’t but recognized the particular person Dugan is accused of serving to evade immigration authorities, however indicators level to Eduardo Flores Ruiz, a Mexican immigrant who was in her courtroom on April 18th. When brokers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrived within the courthouse, Dugan reportedly informed Flores Ruiz — who was going through three misdemeanor battery counts — and his legal professional to exit via a facet door and directed them down a non-public hallway so they might get away from immigration authorities.
“Simply NOW, the FBI arrested Decide Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on expenses of obstruction — after proof of Decide Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation final week,” Patel wrote within the since-deleted X publish. “We imagine Decide Dugan deliberately misdirected federal brokers away from the topic to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, permitting the topic — an unlawful alien — to evade arrest.”
Below earlier administrations, ICE brokers have been usually not allowed to hold out arrests in courthouses and different “delicate areas” like hospitals, faculties, and church buildings. Trump rescinded steering prohibiting courthouse arrests throughout his first time period, although it was later reinstated by Biden. Upon taking workplace once more in 2025, Trump overturned ICE’s sensitive locations policy altogether.
Throughout Trump’s first time period, federal prosecutors additionally charged a sitting decide with obstruction of justice for allegedly serving to an immigrant evade immigration authorities. In keeping with the Journal Sentinel, Massachusetts decide Shelley Joseph was charged with obstruction of justice in 2019 for allegedly letting an immigrant depart her courtroom via a facet door to get away from ICE brokers. Joseph confronted as much as 25 years in jail, however the expenses have been dropped in opposition to her in 2022.