Hello and welcome to the details of FBI arrests US judge for shielding undocumented migrant, director says ‘no one is above the law’ as debate rages over judicial independence, deportations and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Wisconsin county judge Hannah Dugan is escorted by officials after her arrest, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin April 25, 2025. — Picture via X/@FBIDirectorKash/Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 26 — Federal agents yesterday arrested a US judge for allegedly shielding an undocumented migrant, escalating a struggle between the White House and courts over President Donald Trump’s hardline deportation policies.
Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit judge, allegedly “intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject” whom agents were intending to detain at her courthouse, FBI director Kash Patel said in a post on X.
She was arrested on charges of obstruction, Patel said in his post.
“Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public,” Patel said.
The Trump-appointed director deleted his post minutes after it appeared, but later reposted it.
Later yesterday, Patel wrote “No one is above the law” in another post on X, accompanied with a photo of a handcuffed person being led to an unmarked vehicle with tinted windows. The image is taken from behind, and the only faces in the photo have been blurred out.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash)No one is above the law pic.twitter.com/TSrQ4GNMdA
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 26, 2025
“From the bench to the backseat. This is what accountability looks like,” wrote Donald Trump Jr., who shared the post, suggesting the handcuffed person in the photo was Dugan.
The incident has set off a torrent of criticism by Democrats and applause by some Republicans.
Pam Bondi, who as US attorney general oversees the FBI, defended the arrest of Dugan, and issued a chilling warning to those who may harbour illegal aliens: “We will find you.”
“We’re sending a very strong message today,” Bondi told Fox News. “If you are harbouring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are, if you are helping hide one... anyone who is illegally in this country — we will come after you and we will prosecute you.”
Court appearance
Charging documents described an incident at Dugan’s courthouse last Friday during which the judge was “visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanour” when federal agents came to arrest the migrant — Eduardo Flores-Ruiz from Mexico — who was facing misdemeanour charges.
The complaint alleges Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz out of the courtroom through a door used by jury members in order to keep him from the agents.
Dugan, who was elected to the bench in 2016, appeared in court Friday before a judge in the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee, where she made no public comments, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
According to the paper, her attorney Craig Mastantuono told the court: “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety.”
A number of federal and state judges across the United States have issued rulings that put several of Trump’s executive actions on hold, particularly related to his bid to exercise unprecedented powers in deporting migrants.
The Trump administration has been butting heads with federal judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has trampled or ignored constitutionally enshrined rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing.
House Democrat Darren Soto blasted the Dugan arrest as “third world country dictator type of stuff.”
“Every day they get more desperate,” he posted on X. “This will be bounced out of court as quick as the rest of their illegal actions.”
Speaking to broadcaster MSNBC yesterday night, Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin said the Trump administration has spent the past month waging “an intense assault on judicial independence.”
Several Republicans however rushed to Patel’s defence.
“The corruption and determination of these anti-American activist judges to put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens is appalling,” congresswoman Diana Harshbarger said. “Thankfully, a stand is being taken against them.”
On Thursday, a former county magistrate judge in New Mexico and his wife were taken into custody after federal agents raided their home over their harboring of an alleged undocumented migrant who investigators said was a member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, US media reported.
The Trump administration has dug in its heels over deportation cases in which legal experts and Democrats say residents are being expelled without due process.
The White House has defied the Supreme Court’s ruling that the administration must “facilitate” the return of a Maryland resident who was deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
Bondi said the man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is “not coming back” to the United States. — AFP
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