A prominent Milwaukee County judge was arrested April 25 after being accused of helping U.S. immigration and customs law enforcement officers inside the court for arresting undocumented immigrants evading arrest.
On Friday (April 25), a report from the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel showed that Judge Hannah Dugan, 65, faced multiple felony charges, including obstructing federal agencies and covering up a arrest. The allegations stem from an incident on April 18, when Dugan presided over a pretrial hearing for Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a 35-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico. Flores-Ruiz, who has lived in Milwaukee for more than a decade and served as a chef, faces three misdemeanor battery charges in connection with a family incident involving two roommates.
Cracked: The FBI arrested Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan, allegedly helping immigrants avoid arrest.
History lesson: In 1944, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman were arrested and sent to concentration camps to cover up the “crime” of Anne Frank and her family.
Maybe if…pic.twitter.com/4hlnskspce
— Brian Krassenstein (@Krassenstein) April 25, 2025
According to a 13-page federal complaint, the ICE agent arrested Flores-Ruiz the day before appearing in court. On the morning of the hearing, six plainclothes members joined by the FBI and DEA agents informed the Dugan court that they would arrest Flores Ruiz after the lawsuit.
What followed was an unusual court dispute. The complaint said that Judge Dugan, upon learning of the agent’s existence, called the situation “absurd” leaving the bench and returning apparently. She reportedly told the federal team that their administrative warrant was not enough and insisted that they brought the matter to Chief Justice Carl Ashley.
Witnesses said Dugan then expedited the hearing and “forceful gesture” for Flores-Ruiz and his lawyers to exit from the side doors leading to the corridor and the common areas of the court. A few minutes later, federal agents chased Flores-Ruiz and arrested him at the intersection of West State and North 10th Street. He has since been charged by the federal government with illegal re-entry and remains in Ice custody at Dodge Detention Center.
Judge Dugan’s lawyer Steve Biskupic said the judge would “strongly defend himself” to avoid what he said was unfair arrest. He noted Dugan’s long-term commitment to due process and said she was expecting to be exempted.
Her arrest sparked national attention and political anger. Critics of Trump-era immigration policy, including Senator Tammy Baldwin and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, say the arrest was overly and politically motivated.
“If a judge is arrested in court, imagine it would be sent to other people who would be in judicial proceedings in our court, not just in Milwaukee County courts, but in court buildings in courts in Wisconsin and across the U.S.,” Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Conservative MPs appreciated the action and used it as information provided to public officials to avoid hindering immigration enforcement.
Check out the report above for more details.
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