By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. officials arrested a Wisconsin judge on Friday in what appeared to be a dispute between President Donald Trump’s administration and local officials over immigration enforcement.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post that federal agents arrested a judge on obstruction charges related to an immigration enforcement operation last week. The post was later deleted.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit judge, was arrested at the courthouse where she works on Friday morning.
A spokesperson for the FBI could not be immediately reached for comment.
The arrest comes after a senior Justice Department official called on federal prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against local government officials who obstructed the administration’s immigration crackdown. The memo said officials could be charged with defrauding the U.S. or harboring immigrants who are in the country unlawfully.
Patel said in his deleted post that immigration officials had been attempting to apprehend Eduardo Flores Ruiz, whom he described as an “illegal alien.”
“Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot, and he’s been in custody since,” Patel added.
Wisconsin court records show that a man by that name appeared in Dugan’s courtroom for a pretrial conference on April 18. Ruiz was facing misdemeanor battery charges related to domestic abuse, court records show.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Jason Lange; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)
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