MILWAUKEE (AP) — Protesters chanted and marched Saturday exterior the FBI after brokers arrested a Milwaukee choose accused of serving to a person evade immigration authorities. The case has escalated a conflict between the Trump administration and native authorities over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Milwaukee County Circuit Courtroom Choose Hannah Dugan is accused of escorting the person and his lawyer out of her courtroom by means of the jury door final week after studying that immigration authorities have been searching for his arrest. The person was taken into custody exterior the courthouse after brokers chased him on foot.
President Donald Trump’s administration has accused state and native officers of interfering together with his immigration enforcement priorities. The arrest additionally comes amid a rising battle between the administration and the federal judiciary over the president’s executive actions over deportations and other matters.
On Saturday, protesters chanted “Immigrants are right here to remain” and held up indicators saying, “Liberty and Justice for All” exterior the FBI’s Milwaukee division.
“The judiciary acts as a verify to unchecked government energy. And functioning democracies don’t lock up judges,” Democratic state Rep. Ryan Clancy informed the group earlier than it marched across the space.
Dugan was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday morning on the courthouse grounds, in line with U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Brady McCarron. She appeared briefly in federal court docket in Milwaukee later Friday earlier than being launched from custody. She faces expenses of “concealing a person to forestall his discovery and arrest” and obstructing or impeding a continuing.
“Choose Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made within the curiosity of public security,” her legal professional, Craig Mastantuono, stated in the course of the listening to. He declined to remark to an Related Press reporter following her court docket look.
Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, in a press release on the arrest, accused the Trump administration of repeatedly utilizing “harmful rhetoric to assault and try and undermine our judiciary at each stage.”
“I’ll proceed to place my religion in our justice system as this example performs out within the court docket of legislation,” he stated.
Courtroom papers recommend Dugan was alerted to the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers within the courthouse by her clerk, who was knowledgeable by an legal professional that they seemed to be within the hallway.
The FBI affidavit describes Dugan as “visibly indignant” over the arrival of immigration brokers within the courthouse and says that she pronounced the scenario “absurd” earlier than leaving the bench and retreating to her chambers. It says she and one other choose later approached members of the arrest staff contained in the courthouse, displaying what witnesses described as a “confrontational, indignant demeanor.”
After a back-and-forth with officers over the warrant for the person, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, she demanded that the arrest staff communicate with the chief choose and led them away from the courtroom, the affidavit says.
After directing the arrest staff to the chief choose’s workplace, investigators say, Dugan returned to the courtroom and was heard saying phrases to the impact of “wait, include me” earlier than ushering Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer by means of a jury door right into a personal space of the courthouse. The motion was uncommon, the affidavit says, as a result of “solely deputies, juries, court docket workers, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the again jury door. Protection attorneys and defendants who weren’t in custody by no means used the jury door.”
An indication that remained posted on Dugan’s courtroom door Friday suggested that if any legal professional or different court docket official “is aware of or believes that an individual feels unsafe coming to the courthouse to courtroom 615,” they need to notify the clerk and request an look by way of Zoom.
Flores-Ruiz, 30, was in Dugan’s court docket for a listening to after being charged with three counts of misdemeanor home battery. Confronted by a roommate for enjoying loud music on March 12, Flores-Ruiz allegedly fought with him within the kitchen and struck a lady who tried to interrupt them up, in line with the police affidavit within the case.
One other girl who tried to interrupt up the struggle and known as police allegedly bought elbowed within the arm by Flores-Ruiz.
Flores-Ruiz faces as much as 9 months in jail and a $10,000 superb on every rely if convicted. His public defender, Alexander Kostal, didn’t instantly return a cellphone message Friday searching for remark.
A federal choose, the identical one Dugan would seem earlier than a day later, had ordered Thursday that Flores-Ruiz stay jailed pending trial. Flores-Ruiz had been within the U.S. since reentering the nation after he was deported in 2013, in line with court docket paperwork.
Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi stated victims have been sitting within the courtroom with state prosecutors when the choose helped him escape immigration arrest.
“The rule of legislation could be very easy,” she stated in a video posted on X. “It doesn’t matter what line of labor you’re in. If you happen to break the legislation, we’ll comply with the info and we’ll prosecute you.”
Anna Moneymaker by way of Getty Photographs
White Home officers echoed the sentiment of nobody being above the legislation.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Wisconsin, known as the arrest of a sitting choose a “gravely critical and drastic transfer” that “threatens to breach” the separation of energy between the manager and judicial branches.
Emilio De Torre, government director of Milwaukee Turners, stated throughout an earlier protest Friday afternoon exterior the federal courthouse that Dugan was a former board member for the native civic group who “was definitely attempting to be sure that due course of will not be disrupted and that the sanctity of the courts is upheld.”
“Sending armed FBI and ICE brokers into buildings like this can intimidate people displaying as much as court docket to pay fines, to take care of no matter court docket proceedings they could have,” De Torre added.
The case is just like one introduced in the course of the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of serving to a person sneak out a again door of a courthouse to evade a ready immigration enforcement agent.
That prosecution sparked outrage from many within the authorized neighborhood, who slammed the case as politically motivated. Prosecutors dropped the case towards Newton District Choose Shelley Joseph in 2022 underneath the Democratic Biden administration after she agreed to refer herself to a state company that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.
The Justice Division had beforehand signaled that it was going to crack down on native officers who thwart federal immigration efforts.
The division in January ordered prosecutors to investigate for potential criminal charges any state and native officers who impede or impede federal capabilities. As potential avenues for prosecution, a memo cited a conspiracy offense in addition to a legislation prohibiting the harboring of individuals within the nation illegally.
Dugan was elected in 2016 to the county court docket Department 31. She additionally has served within the court docket’s probate and civil divisions, in line with her judicial candidate biography.
Earlier than being elected to public workplace, Dugan practiced at Authorized Motion of Wisconsin and the Authorized Help Society. She graduated from the College of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 with a bachelor of arts diploma and earned her Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the college.
Richer reported from Washington. Related Press reporters Eric Tucker in Washington, Corey Williams in Detroit and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
