Jury selection is complete and a federal trial began Monday for Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, who is accused of helping a man avoid arrest by immigration authorities at the county courthouse last April.
A grand jury indicted Dugan the month after the incident. She faces one felony count of obstructing a proceeding and a misdemeanor count of concealing an individual to prevent an arrest. Dugan has pleaded not guilty and could face up to six years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors say Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went to the courthouse to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national, after determining he was in the U.S. unlawfully. Flores-Ruiz was scheduled to appear before Dugan on misdemeanor domestic assault charges on April 18.
According to the criminal complaint, when agents arrived Dugan falsely told them they needed a judicial warrant and directed them to leave the hallway and go to the chief judge’s office. Prosecutors allege she addressed Flores-Ruiz’s case off the record while the ICE agents were in the chief judge’s office, then directed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to exit through a nonpublic jury door and told the attorney the defendant could appear by Zoom at his next court date.
The court papers say Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer ultimately ended up in a public hallway, where ICE agents saw them. Agents chased and caught Flores-Ruiz outside the courthouse and arrested him; he has since been deported.
Dugan and her attorneys declined to comment to NPR. Before her arraignment, her defense team issued a statement saying Dugan “asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court.”
In court filings, Dugan’s lawyers contend courthouse policy on immigration enforcement was unsettled at the time and that she was following draft protocols from the chief judge that required referring ICE agents to a supervisor. Tony Cotton, a Wisconsin criminal defense attorney not involved in the case, said that if Dugan was explaining a different protocol and seeking to reduce confrontation in the courtroom, that would be relevant to her intent.
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and law professor, framed the case as hinging on the judge’s intent: whether Dugan sought to conceal someone and impede a proceeding, or was trying to manage her courtroom and prevent Department of Homeland Security interference.
Legal experts note a shifting context around courthouse arrests. Levenson said that before President Trump’s first term, courthouses were largely treated as off-limits to immigration arrests to avoid deterring people from attending proceedings. She and others say the Trump administration’s increase in immigration enforcement has changed that practice.
Top Trump administration officials and the president himself praised the prosecution, and the Department of Homeland Security called Dugan an “activist judge” on X. Dugan retained prominent attorneys, including former Republican solicitor general Paul Clement, likely with an eye toward appeal.
This is not the first time a judge has faced prosecution over alleged assistance to someone avoiding ICE. In 2018 a Massachusetts judge was charged in a similar case; the Justice Department later dropped the felony charges and referred the matter to a judicial conduct commission.