The Milwaukee judge immigration trial puts Judge Hannah Dugan at the center of a first-of-its-kind case over ICE arrests inside state courthouses.
A criminal trial in Milwaukee is turning court staff into witnesses in a first-of-its kind case testing the limits over how much a state judge must help—or can hinder—Trump officials seeking to deport migrants.
On Monday, Assistant US Attorney Keith S. Alexander told the jury that Milwaukee County trial judge Hannah Dugan obstructed a federal immigration proceeding and concealed a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement target in April. That action—escorting him out a side door from her courtroom away from awaiting federal officials—is enough to put a judge behind bars, they say.
“‘I’ll do it, I’ll get the heat.’ That’s what the defendant Hannah Dugan said when she was using her role as a judge to help a man accused of battery in her courtroom avoid a lawful federal arrest,” Alexander said to the jury inside the Eastern District of Wisconsin courthouse.
The trial is a rare glimpse into the processes and staff that keep local courts moving, but also the struggle of state officials accommodating aggressive immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
Pretrial motions indicate the government is pushing to keep the issue of intent away from national politics, instead focused narrowly on what happened April 18 when Eduardo Flores-Ruiz appeared in Dugan’s courtroom and was ushered away from authorities who later caught him outside the Milwaukee County courthouse. Dugan was arrested one week later.
‘Above the Law’
Dugan’s legal team is led by former US Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Steven M. Biskupic, a high-profile conservative appointed by George W. Bush. He said shifting federal immigration policy caused widespread confusion among state jurists seeking guidance on ICE arrests in their courts.
“Judges in all cases try to balance the interest of the parties. They’re not here to just serve ICE, they’re not here to serve one side of or the other—they’re here to balance,” said Biskupic at the end of a 20-minute opening statement in Judge Lynn Adelman’s courtroom.
Alexander said the evidence was clear that Dugan altered the way she normally runs her courtroom so Flores-Ruiz, a migrant who had been previously deported, couldn’t again be sent back to Mexico.
“The judicial robe the defendant wore that day did not put her above the law,” Alexander said.
The prosecutors showed video evidence of Dugan speaking with ICE officers in a public hallway who came to the courthouse to apprehend Flores-Ruiz.
The prosecution says that minutes after Dugan confronted officers in her hallway she quickly canceled the defendant’s case. Captured on audio, the jurors heard how she spoke with her court staff, suggesting the defendant could go “down the stairs” away from the agents. When her staffer expressed concern she could get in trouble, Dugan said, “I’ll do it. I’ll get the heat,” and escorted him and his lawyer through a side door normally used by jurors that led to a hallway.
That hallway could have led Flores-Ruiz down stairs and away from the arresting officers. Instead, Alexander said, his inexperienced public defender led him back into the public hallway.
“An arrest that was supposed to happen in the public hallway in a courthouse turned into a footchase,” Alexander said.
‘Anger, Confusion and Paranoia’
The prosecution said they could call more than two dozen witnesses, including staff in and around the massive Milwaukee County Courthouse.
At least one judge, and court staff and lawyers practicing in Dugan’s courtroom will be called, Alexander said, and they will all say Dugan’s actions were not routine.
“She has strong views about immigration enforcement. For none of that is she on trial,” he said. “She’s on trial today because those strongly held views motivated her to make a decision to cross the line.”
