Sitting Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly aiding an immigrant man evade arrest by federal agents. This latest move by the federal government is a major escalation of the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary, on the right to due process and on immigrants.
The FBI’s criminal complaint charges Judge Dugan with two counts of felony obstruction and “concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.”
On April 17, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies entered the Milwaukee County Courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was attending his court hearing in Judge Dugan’s courtroom. ICE targeted Flores-Ruiz for arrest and deportation for being “not lawfully in the United States.”
When questioned outside of the courtroom by Judge Dugan regarding their the complaint, the federal agents could not present the judicial warrant needed to enter the courtroom, but only had an administrative warrant. Dugan then directed the agents to talk to her boss, Chief Judge Carl Ashley, and Flores-Ruiz was allowed to leave the courtroom. Flores-Ruiz was arrested by ICE on the street.
William Sulton, President of of the ACLU of Wisconsin and a civil rights attorney told Liberation News, that the charges against Dugan “should be dismissed immediately. I don’t think she committed any crime.” Sulton continued, “Judge Dugan was trying to figure out what the policy is, and when there was not one readily available, she reached out to her superior, Judge Ashley. ”
On the allegation that Dugan aided Flores-Ruiz avoid arrest by granting him access to a restricted hallway, Sulton said that the media writes about it ” to give the false impression she was doing something sneaky. She was not. She was running a courtroom that had dozens of cases, and she was trying to get on with her calendar.”
Judges are part of the U.S. carcarel system that has wrongly imprisoned so many working class people and people of color. In this case, however, Dugan was arrested by Trump forces for not doing that. The due process rights that she defended in her encounter with ICE were hard won by working people, as was birthright citizenship, which is also under attack. Many judicial officials around the country, including those who have supported Trump, are now defending these rights, and backing some lower courts which have stopped Trump deportations. Dugan’s arrest is meant to intimidate there officials.
ICE stalks courthouse
Flores-Ruiz’s arrest continues a trend of ICE stalking immigrants and detaining them as they attend their court hearings in Milwaukee. In late March, ICE arrested two allegedly undocumented men in the hallways of the Milwaukee County Courthouse and the County Safety building. One man was arrested after an injunction hearing in the County Courthouse, while the other was arrested before his hearing.
Community members and elected officials met the arrests with outrage, labeling them an attack on due process and an attempt to create an atmosphere of fear. “Charges do not mean guilt right away. Due process is non-negotiable in this country,” stated Milwaukee Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez at a press conference at the County Courthouse in response to the two arrests.
On the compounding chilling effect that ICE’s courthouse stalking has on immigrants, the founding Executive Director of the immigrants rights organization Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, stated, “Immigrants have a lot of fear going to the courthouse…What happened escalates that situation.”
ICE activity Increases in Milwaukee
Judge Dugan’s arrest tops off a month of increased ICE activity. The agency has made its presence much more visible in Milwaukee over April, with multiple instances of arrests and raids videoed by the public. Most of the activity has targeted Milwaukee’s southside, where thousands of immigrants live.
In early April, a passesrby videoed federal agents from ICE, DHS, and the FBI arresting an undocumented man on a southside street as he returned home from a court hearing. Another video shows federal agents raiding an IHOP restaurant to make an arrest. Numerous federal agents were filmed searching an apartment building allegedly for an undocumented immigrant.
The mass movement fights back
Working class Milwaukeeans and organizations mobilized immediately following the news of Judge Dugan’s arrest. A rally took place on the front steps of the federal courthouse hours after Judge Dugan made her appearance.
“What she did was right,” exclaimed Neumann-Ortiz of Dugan while speaking at the rally. “She was defending the rights of immigrants in her courtroom, and thus the rights of all of us in the courtroom.”
Her case connects with the cases of Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mohsen Mahdawi, students persecuted for using their right to speak out against genocide in Palestine. It connects with the situations of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Merwil Gutiérrez, immigrants wrongly deported without a hearing. It connects to most recent the deportation of 3 children who are American citizens, one of which has cancer, in volation of birthright citizenship.
Trump’s desire is to more deeply entrench the rule of the rich by assaulting democratic rights. Theses rights were won by the mass movement of the working class. Continued mobilizations are needed in Milwaukee and around the country to protect democratic rights and to defend student activists, immigrants, U.S. citizens, and all under attack by the Trump administration and the billionaires he represents.
Main photo: Rally in response to Judge Dugan’s arrest in the front of the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee. Liberation News photo.
