Federal authorities arrested Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan Friday morning and charged the leftist judge with obstruction of an official proceeding.
Dugan is accused of helping an illegal immigrant with an order of expedited removal evade arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after he appeared in her courtroom on April 18.
Federal agents attempted to arrest Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz following his scheduled criminal court appearance before Dugan. She was also charged with concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest, Wisconsin Right Now reports.
Flores-Ruiz had been issued an I-860 Notice and Order of Expedited Removal by U.S. Border Patrol Agents on January 16, 2013. Flores-Ruiz was “removed to Mexico through the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry.”
Under an order of expedited removal, an illegal immigrant can be deported without a court hearing, because they have been determined inadmissible to the United States.
On March 18, Flores-Ruiz was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with three counts of battery, domestic abuse, and infliction of physical pain or injury. “Flores-Ruiz was accused of playing music too loudly in the home. The complaint alleges Flores-Ruiz punched another person 30 times, then struck a woman who tried to break up the melee.”
Read Flores-Ruiz’ criminal complaint here:
Criminal Complaint_1 – Flores Ruiz, Eduardo; 2025CM000814; Flores Ruiz, Eduardo_26163591_1-1
After his hearing ended, Dugan reportedly escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a restricted jury door, bypassing the public area where agents were waiting in order to help him avoid arrest, per the complaint.
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on the social media platform X. “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.”
Dugan, who defeated a Gov. Scott Walker appointee to take the bench, was first elected to the Milwaukee bench in 2016. She previously worked as a civil attorney, a litigation attorney for Legal Aid Society and Legal Action of Wisconsin, in-house counsel for Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc., and as an instructor at Marquette University, according to her LinkedIn page. She is a graduate of UW-Madison.
As The Stream reported, Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin is a wealthy, taxpayer-funded nonprofit that has been credibly accused of colluding with Mexican cartels to traffic immigrants into the country.
Elon Musk’s DOGE investigations have cut off government funds to Catholic Charities, which served as the main conduit for some $3 billion funneled into the U.S. Catholic bishops’ coffers over the past 15 years, reimbursing them, almost dollar for dollar, for sex-abuse settlements those bishops racked up.
Fox News reports that after Dugan’s arrest, her colleague Judge Monica Isham threatened not to hold court in protest of federal authorities’ arrest.
Isham sent an email to judges across the state on Saturday. Her email, titled “Guidance Requested or I Refuse to Hold Court,” made clear she had no intention of working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
