More protests are expected Saturday afternoon at the FBI building in Milwaukee in support of a Wisconsin judge who was arrested Friday and charged with helping an illegal immigrant evade authorities.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through a jury door inaccessible to the public last week after hearing that immigration authorities were outside her courtroom seeking his arrest.
More than 100 protesters and local officials gathered at the federal courthouse in downtown Milwaukee Friday to condemn Dugan’s arrest, chanting “No justice. No peace. Let the judge be released.” Others carried American flags and one protestor, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, held a sign that read: “Only Fascists Arrest Judges.”
At the rally, Christine Neumann Ortiz, executive director of immigrant rights group Voces De La Frontera, told the Wisconsin Examiner the Trump administration was trying to undermine efforts to oppose its immigration policies.
“They basically want to be unleashed to do whatever they want to commit these raids in courtrooms across the country,” she said. “They don’t want any resistance from judges or from the community standing up for people’s due process rights or limiting their policies of mass deportation and racism.”
After being led out of the building, illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was chased down by federal agents on foot and quickly taken into custody outside the courthouse.
FBI agents then arrested Dugan, 65, on suspicion that she “intentionally misdirected federal agents away from” an illegal immigrant being pursued by the authorities. She was charged with two felonies.
The judge is accused of obstructing a U.S. agency and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest. The charges carry a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a hefty $350,000 fine, although the punishment is typically slashed when it involves a nonviolent offense.
Seven Milwaukee legislative representatives wrote in a joint statement that Dugan’s arrest and ICE operating inside the courthouse will “lead to a breakdown of civil society.” A number of national Democratic politicians including Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Greg Landsman (D-OH), as well as Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) also blasted the move.
Durbin questioned how Dugan’s arrest made the country safer.
“The Trump Administration continues to test the limits of our Constitution — this time by arresting a sitting judge for allegedly obstructing an immigration operation at the courthouse,” Durbin said. “When immigration enforcement officials interfere with our criminal justice system, it undermines public safety, prevents victims and witnesses from coming forward, and often prevents those who committed crimes from facing justice in the United States.”
“How does this make America any safer? How does arresting a sitting judge make America any safer? It is imperative that Judge Dugan is afforded due process and the presumption of innocence, as required by our Constitution and her fundamental rights as an American,” he added.
After receiving loud pushback over the arrest, the Department of Homeland Security put out a press release detailing the immigrant Dugan allegedly protected’s “laundry list” of violent charges, including strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ALLEGEDLY PROTECTED BY WISCONSIN JUDGE HAS ‘LAUNDRY LIST’ OF VIOLENT CHARGES: DHS
Voces de la Frontera, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, MKE Turners at Turner Hall, all had members attending Friday’s event. Voces de la Frontera is expected to lead Saturday’s protest scheduled for 4 p.m. The organization is a member of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, which is made up of 38 member organizations in 32 states.
Voces de la Frontera did not respond to multiple requests from the Washington Examiner on Saturday morning for comment.
