The straightforward violation of the law and arrest of a Wisconsin judge on April 26 has elicited hoots of protest from Democrats, illegal immigrant apologists, and much of the mainstream press. Sadly, any action on behalf of the Trump administration to curtail politics from determining judicial rulings produces claims of interference, executive branch overreach, or authoritarian Nazi practices. Judge Hannah Dugan’s choice to abandon her responsibilities and her better judgment makes no impression on the narrative, which comes from most sources in the progressive world.
A survey of the journalistic landscape reveals protestors defending the judge, NPR talking to people who found her to be a lovely human being, and a general belief that any exercise of power against someone in a government office opposed to the Trump administration is an obvious attempt to use authoritarian practices to eclipse an enemy. Once again, the press misses the forest for the trees. One can be sympathetic to immigrants, but the facts must prevail in the courtroom, or chaos ensues. If the facts are correct in this criminal complaint, Dugan obstructed justice and concealed an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.
These are the basic details of the matter. Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with three counts of battery, domestic abuse, and infliction of pain or injury. Having become involved in a dispute about playing music too loudly, Flores-Ruiz allegedly punched another person 30 times. He later struck a woman who tried to interfere with his pummelling. Fingerprints were taken as part of the arrest, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) matched his fingerprints. As Jim Geraghty reported in National Review (April 28), “Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified Flores-Ruiz as an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had already been issued an I-860 Notice and Order of Expedited Removal by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on January 16, 2013, and that Flores-Ruiz was “removed to Mexico through the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry.” Beware the Spin About a Judge’s Arrest for Allegedly Helping an Illegal Immigrant Escape. (National Review). Once an Order of Expedited Removal has been issued, no court hearing is required because the person has been deemed inadmissible to the United States. During the Obama administration, the U.S. government ruled that Flores-Ruiz could not be admitted back into the country under any circumstances.
The chances of the fingerprints that matched Flores-Ruiz’s fingers being a mistake range in the less than a tenth of a percent range. Undoubtedly, this was the man who was in the ICE database. With that in hand, ICE travelled to the Milwaukee Courthouse to arrest Flores-Ruiz. As FBI Special Agent Lindsey Schloemer explained in the criminal complaint, “Law enforcement routinely executes warrants and makes arrests in the public areas of buildings such as the Milwaukee County Courthouse. The reasons for this include not only the fact that law enforcement knows the location at which the wanted individual should be located, but also the fact that the wanted individual would have entered through a security checkpoint and thus unarmed, minimizing the risk of injury to law enforcement, the public, and the wanted individual.”
Geraghty continued, the arresting team included an ICE officer, a Customs and Border Protection officer, two FBI special agents, and two DEA agents. According to the affidavit, “The agents were generally dressed in plain clothes and intended to effectuate the arrest in as low-key and safe of a manner as possible.” There are plenty of precedents for ICE officers making arrests inside the courthouse but outside the courtroom, and a history in Milwaukee of Democratic officials not liking ICE making those arrests at the courthouse. There is no evidence that ICE officers interfered with any courtroom proceedings, but upon their arrival, Dugan’s opposition to ICE arresting Flores-Ruiz surfaced.
Geraghty reported, “Judge DUGAN and Judge A, who were both wearing judicial robes, approached members of the arrest team in the public hallway. Judge A’s courtroom is located adjacent to Judge DUGAN’s courtroom. Witnesses uniformly reported that Judge DUGAN was visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanour. Judge DUGAN addressed Deportation Officer A and asked if Deportation Officer A was present for a court appearance. When Deportation Officer A responded, ‘no,’ Judge DUGAN stated that Deportation Officer A would need to leave the courthouse.” There was no basis for that order. The areas outside a courtroom are public, and Judge Dugan had no jurisdiction to remove the ICE agents. But Dugan interfered with the arrest and sought ways to remove Flores-Ruiz from the courthouse. According to witnesses, Dugan wanted to help Flores-Ruiz escape the ICE agents:
“The courtroom deputy recalled that upon the courtroom deputy’s return to the courtroom, defence counsel for Flores-Ruiz was talking to the clerk, and Flores-Ruiz was seated in the jury box, rather than in the gallery. …The courtroom deputy then saw Judge DUGAN get up and heard Judge DUGAN say something like ‘Wait, come with me.’”
“Despite having been advised of the administrative warrant for the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, Judge DUGAN then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a non-public area of the courthouse. These events were also unusual for two reasons. First, the courtroom deputy had previously heard Judge DUGAN direct people not to sit in the jury box because it was exclusively for the jury’s use. Second, according to the courtroom deputy, only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defence attorneys and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door.”
If these accounts are true, Dugan helped Flores-Ruiz skip out on a court appearance before her, despite his facing three charges of domestic battery. Dugan’s experience as a judge tells us she knew she was committing a crime. If the federal agents had not spotted Flores-Ruiz, he might have fled the scene and been able to avoid detection.
The squabbling on the Left focused on what the Left believed Trump did and not on what Flores-Ruiz and Dugan actually did. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota tried to blame Trump, saying on X, “If Kash Patel and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them.” Did President Donald Trump even know anything about the indictment? What is the Department of Justice supposed to do when an American judge, charged with upholding American law, helps a wanted illegal immigrant escape custody and charges?
Law books that, in 2023-24, Democratic prosecutors across America and the Biden Department of Justice thought were imperative to throw at their number one political enemy, Trump, read as follows: “Obstruction of justice as a federal charge can get you up to 20 years in prison. According to the Department of Justice, ‘Section 1071 makes it an offense to harbor or conceal any person for whose arrest a warrant or process has been issued, so as to prevent the fugitive’s discovery and arrest, after having notice or knowledge that a warrant or process has been issued for the fugitive’s apprehension. An offender is subject to imprisonment for not more than one year, unless the warrant or process was issued on a felony charge, or after conviction of the fugitive of any offense, in which case the offender faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.’”
Unless the eyewitness accounts prove to be fabricated, there is a good chance Dugan will end up in jail. For all the huffing and puffing about Trump’s disrespect for the American Constitution, the Democratic Left’s ability to apply the law hypocritically to their fellow American political enemies while using an entirely different standard for those in America illegally leaves the mind spinning, if not surprised. Illegal immigrants should not be mistaken for fugitive slaves running for their lives any more than comparing Trump to Hitler makes sense. These historical comparisons fail miserably for many reasons. They reflect a laziness many on the Left prefer over accepting responsibility for ignoring laws, prioritizing a voter group, and putting their hunger for power over the nation’s interest.
Rich Lowry of National Review writes, “Needless to say, fugitive slaves (or their forebears) didn’t come here of their own volition to get a better job than the ones they had in their native lands. They were kidnapped, sold, and held in bondage, before taking enormous risks to try to gain their freedom.” (Illegal Aliens Aren’t Fugitive Slaves, NR Plus, May 1, 2025). The progressive left may think open-border policies grant illegal aliens a moral right to be in the United States, but it doesn’t. When judges decide to undermine the application of the law, they become the threat to democracy.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
