By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The arrest of a Wisconsin state court judge for allegedly helping a migrant evade U.S. authorities marks another salvo in a long-brewing debate about the presence of immigration agents in local courthouses.
The judge, Hannah Dugan of Milwaukee County’s circuit court, is due in federal court on Thursday to face charges of obstruction and harboring an individual due to face arrest. Dugan’s legal team argues she will be exonerated.
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has broadened the ability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out courthouse arrests as it ramps up deportations and cracks down on illegal immigration.
ICE courthouse operations have drawn fierce resistance from immigration advocates and some state courts, who have argued since Trump’s first term that they risk disrupting court operations and dissuading millions of people from accessing the legal system.
The case against Dugan sits at the center of two themes of Trump’s second term: boundary-pushing immigration enforcement and forceful pushback against judges the administration sees as standing in the way of its authority.
“All of this adds to a sense of the judiciary being under attack,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former judge in California who now runs the Berkeley Judicial Institute. “Whether or not it’s going to be successful, it’s seen as part of a broader attempt to weaken or delegitimize the judiciary.”
Dugan is accused of helping an immigrant in the U.S. illegally who was due to appear on assault-related charges evade immigration authorities on April 18 by escorting him into a non-public hallway, according to a criminal complaint and local police documents. The migrant, identified as Eduardo Flores Ruiz, was arrested outside after a foot chase.
As of May 6, ICE had conducted 189 courthouse arrests since Trump returned to office in January, more than doubling its pace from the prior full year under Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, according to a Reuters analysis of ICE data.
CHANGING POLICIES
ICE early in Trump’s second term rescinded a Biden administration policy narrowing the circumstances under which it can make arrests at courthouses as part of a broader effort to open up more sensitive locations to immigration authorities.
The new policy prioritizes migrants with criminal records, alleged gang members and those who have returned to the U.S. after previously being removed, but also allows relatives of criminal defendants or witnesses to be targeted.
State courthouses are an attractive venue for immigration authorities, given people reliably appear for court dates and are typically screened by security.
“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement.
The practice has raised thorny issues over the divide between state and federal authority.
“When litigants stop feeling like they can access justice through the courts, and when the federal government starts taking time away from states administering justice to further their immigration enforcement agenda, it gets tricky under the law,” said Sarah Rogerson, a professor at Albany Law School.
Some Democratic-run states, including New York, have passed laws to restrict ICE’s ability to carry out immigration enforcement in or near courthouses.
A Massachusetts judge was charged during Trump’s first term with impeding a federal immigration arrest of a defendant in her courtroom. That criminal case was dropped under the Biden administration, but state disciplinary authorities have since accused her of misconduct.
The Trump administration has escalated its rhetoric against federal judges, which have issued dozens of rulings constraining Trump’s aggressive use of presidential power on immigration, slashing the federal government and exacting retribution on perceived adversaries.
Trump-nominated FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media a photo of a handcuffed Dugan being led toward a police vehicle with the caption, “No one is above the law.”
FBI guidelines generally bar the agency from releasing photos of criminal defendants without a clear law enforcement purpose.
Pressed on the photo during a Senate hearing last week, Patel said the purpose was “to show America that we investigate any individual who commits a crime, especially those in positions of public trust.”
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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