In a victory for Donald Trump and his administration's crackdown on immigration, a Wisconsin judge was found guilty on Thursday of helping a migrant evade a planned immigration arrest outside her courtroom, a US Justice Department official said.
According to a report by Reuters, Hannah Dugan, 66 – an elected judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court – was convicted of obstructing a federal proceeding and cleared of a lesser charge accusing her of concealing a person from arrest.
The prosecution stemmed from a directive by the Justice Department ordering prosecutors to pursue cases of alleged obstruction of ICE enforcement by local activists and officials resisting Trump’s drive for mass deportations.
What are the charges against Dugan?
Prosecutors alleged that Dugan intended to help a migrant from Mexico, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, escape an immigration arrest when he was scheduled to appear before her on domestic violence charges. They said she diverted federal agents and escorted the man and his attorney out of a non-public exit of her courtroom.
"She was focused on orchestrating Flores-Ruiz's escape," prosecutor Keith Alexander said in court. "She knew what she was doing. She did it anyway."
What Dugan's lawyers said?
Dugan's lawyers had argued that she was following a policy directing staff to alert a supervisor to the presence of ICE in the courthouse. They argued that the incident took place at a time of confusion and uncertainty following two prior ICE arrests in the courthouse.
"All she did was send him out into the hallway with his lawyer," Dugan's lawyer Steven Biskupic told the jury during the trial.
Dugan had pleaded not guilty, as per Reuters.
She was first elected as a county judge in 2016, and before that served as head of the local branch of Catholic Charities, which provides refugee resettlement programs, among other services.
Prosecutors say Dugan diverted ICE agents
Agents from ICE and other agencies, dressed in plainclothes, planned to arrest Flores Ruiz in a hallway outside Dugan's courtroom following his hearing.
Dugan angrily confronted the agents and directed them to the chief judge's office after learning that ICE was present, according to witness testimony in the case. She then dealt privately with Flores-Ruiz's case and directed the man and his attorney through a private "jury door," prosecutors alleged.
Flores-Ruiz walked through a public hallway and was arrested outside the courthouse following a brief foot chase.
