Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, a Democrat elected in 2016, is charged with two federal felonies, obstruction and “concealing an individual.” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a since-deleted post on X that Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courtroom.” Dugan told the agents to talk to the chief judge in charge of the building, and she reportedly then escorted the immigrant out of the courtroom through a non-public entrance.
Dugan’s arrest came the day before a former New Mexico judge was arrested and charged in federal court with tampering with evidence related to an immigrant allegedly connected to a Venezuelan gang.
Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that these arrests were “sending a very strong message” to judges who think they’re “above the law.” Bondi, however, doesn’t seem as concerned with President Donald Trump and other executive branch officials flouting court rulings against them in immigration cases. Last month, the administration began flying immigrants out of the country, ignoring a court order to halt the deportations while it decided whether they were legal. The U.S. Supreme Court, in an order rushed out in the middle of the night last weekend, instructed the government to halt deportations under the rarely invoked Alien Enemies Act.
These conflicts are playing out as polls show that the worst elements of Trump’s immigration crackdown are increasingly unpopular. Protesters rallied outside the Milwaukee FBI office on Saturday to decry the administration’s immigration actions in general and the Dugan arrest in particular. Democratic state Rep. Ryan Clancy told the protesters, “The judiciary acts as a check to unchecked executive power. And functioning democracies do not lock up judges.”
Commenting on Dugan’s arrest, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, warned that the Trump administration is using “dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor.”
This assault on the judicial branch comes after Trump spent the last four years attacking judges in his criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits. And some of his attacks on judges echo those by Republican state legislators and governors who have lashed out at judges who rule against them. Legislation proposed in Utah this year would have given lawmakers the power to evaluate judges and include their evaluation on voters’ ballots. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have threatened to impeach judges who rule against them, and they targeted a Democratic justice with ethics charges last year for speaking out about abortion. GOP legislators in Wisconsin have hinted that they might impeach Dugan if the charges against her are “confirmed.”
Non-judicial elected officials could be next. Two days after Trump’s inauguration in January, a Department of Justice official sent around a memo suggesting that federal prosecutors could charge local officials in “sanctuary cities” with crimes. “Federal law prohibits state and local actors from … failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests,” the memo said. On Tuesday, Trump ordered Bondi to draw up and publish a list of sanctuary cities.
Courts have upheld sanctuary city laws, which prohibit local law enforcement officers from assisting federal agents in civil immigration enforcement actions. But Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche argued that “sanctuary jurisdictions that shield criminal aliens endanger American communities.”
The administration claims that arresting people at courthouses will keep us safer, but that’s just not true. Courthouse arrests make it harder for people to get justice. If a person is involved in a criminal case as a suspect, victim or witness, the public is safer if those people show up to court. It’s also important that people can settle disputes — a car accident, a divorce, an employer ripping them off — in court. If an immigrant needs a restraining order, they should be able to seek one without worrying that federal agents will arrest them.
Douglas Keith of the Brennan Center for Justice warned that Trump’s courthouse arrest policy will lead to “more chaos … in courthouses around the country.” Federal agents will clash with state and local officials again and again. In Boston last month, when officers arrested an immigrant facing criminal charges in the middle of his trial, the judge held a federal agent in contempt of court.
These issues arose during Trump’s first term, as federal agents began arresting a lot more people in courthouses — and not only defendants. In 2018, Massachusetts Judge Shelley Joseph was charged with helping an immigrant evade immigration agents. But unlike Dugan, Joseph wasn’t arrested. She wasn’t handcuffed by federal agents, taken away and processed at a jail. The charges against Joseph were later dropped by the Biden administration.
That year, 68 former state and federal judges asked the Trump administration to include courthouses on the list of “sensitive locations,” such as schools and hospitals, where agents won’t plan arrests. “We know that judges simply cannot do their jobs — and our justice system cannot function effectively — if victims, defendants, witnesses, and family members do not feel secure,” the former judges wrote. “This sense of security requires that courts remain open to all and, just as important, that courts appear open to all.”
The arrest of Judge Dugan and the Trump regime’s policy on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in courthouses undermines everything that Dugan has fought for in her career. Before joining the bench, she was a Legal Aid lawyer helping people who couldn’t afford an attorney on their own. She worked with people facing the threat of homelessness, domestic violence and other problems — exactly of the kind of experience that’s lacking in state courts in both red and blue states. A sign on the door of her courtroom last week told anyone who “feels unsafe coming to the courthouse” to request a virtual appearance via Zoom.
At least one of Dugan’s colleagues on the bench has stood up in her defense and raised the prospect of shutting down her Sawyer County courtroom. But Dugan will probably not be the last judge or elected official arrested by Trump’s agents.
This is not how democracy works. Anyone concerned about the rule of law should speak out in defense of Judge Dugan and other state or local officials targeted by this anti-democratic regime.
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
