A Wisconsin judge was arrested on federal charges that she took extraordinary—and allegedly illegal—steps to thwart law enforcement officers from taking into custody a past deportee who was in her court on charges of domestic violence.

The arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan represents a dramatic escalation of tension between some judges and President Donald Trump’s administration over the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.

“No one is above the law,” Bondi said in her statement.

Brady McCarron, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, told The Epoch Times that Dugan was being investigated by the FBI before her arrest.

She was taken into custody on the grounds of the courthouse where she works, the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

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Shortly after her arrest, Dugan appeared in a federal court in Milwaukee to face a count of “obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency.”

She is also accused of “concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.”

Outside the federal court, dozens of protesters rallied on behalf of the accused judge.

During the hearing, her lawyer, Craig Mastantuono, said: “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety.”

Later, Dugan’s lawyer released additional comments to The Epoch Times.

The judge “has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge,” the lawyer said in an emailed message. “Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously, and looks forward to being exonerated.”

She has also retained a former federal prosecutor, attorney Steven Biskupic, to represent her, the lawyer wrote.

The FBI director said investigators believe Dugan “intentionally misdirected federal agents” away from Eduardo Flores Ruiz, as officers were preparing to arrest him in the courthouse where she works.

Patel stated that Dugan’s alleged protection of the illegal immigrant posed “increased danger to the public.”

In her sworn statement, FBI Special Agent Lindsay Schloemer outlined the events leading to Dugan’s arrest and laid out the allegations against the judge.

In mid-March, Flores Ruiz was charged with domestic violence in a case that was assigned to Dugan.

Federal authorities found that the defendant had been deported to his home country, Mexico, in 2013.

After finding no evidence that he reentered the United States legally, an immigration official determined Flores Ruiz to be subject to removal proceedings again.

Immigration officers knew that Flores Ruiz was scheduled to attend a hearing in Dugan’s court on April 18. A team of deportation officers and FBI agents planned to arrest Flores Ruiz after the hearing concluded.

After they informed court officials about their intentions, the team waited outside the courtroom, where a woman took photographs of two team members.

That woman was later identified as an attorney for the state public defender’s office.

That attorney later described these plainclothes officers to Dugan’s clerk; a witness told investigators that someone announced, “ICE is here.”

Dugan left the bench. She and another judge, both wearing judicial robes, approached the team members.

“Witnesses uniformly reported that Dugan was visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor,” the affidavit says.

The affidavit stated that Dugan “ordered” the team to go to the chief judge’s office.

And, according to witnesses, Dugan allegedly “escorted” Flores Ruiz and his lawyer “out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” the affidavit states.

“According to the courtroom deputy, only deputies, juries, court staff, and in-custody defendants being escorted by deputies used the back jury door. Defense attorneys and defendants who were not in custody never used the jury door,” the affidavit states.

Another officer noticed Flores Ruiz and his lawyer on an elevator, and alerted members of the arrest team, who then “scrambled” to find Flores Ruiz.

According to the affidavit, they spotted him near a flagpole outside the courthouse. He then “turned around and sprinted down the street,” the affidavit states. However, officers caught Flores Ruiz and handcuffed and detained him.

These events took place while two members of the arrest team were still talking with the chief judge.

Additionally, she worked for several years with nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal services, including Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee.

Dugan graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and earned her Juris Doctorate in 1987 from the same school.

She also received a Master of Arts in American Studies from Boston College in 1993.

In her post, Dugan said, “Judge Schimel falls short to be elected as an independent jurist.”

She also said she hoped to “underscore the importance of an independent judiciary.”

A case similar to Dugan’s occurred in 2019, during Trump’s first term as president, when the Justice Department indicted a Massachusetts judge on charges of obstructing immigration authorities.

Authorities dropped the charges after the judge agreed to refer herself for potential judicial discipline.

The Wisconsin judge’s arrest, however, represents the most dramatic clash between Trump’s current administration and jurists over illegal-immigrant cases.

Trump officials have continued to fight federal rulings blocking deportations of illegal immigrants, especially those accused of crime or gang affiliations.

Attorney Mike Allen, a legal analyst and former judge in Ohio, said the Dugan case “seems to fit right in line with the ongoing judicial resistance to President Trump’s attempt to deport illegal aliens.”

“The case will proceed normally like any other federal case,” Allen said.

Dugan also could face disciplinary action against her law license and standing as a judge if it is found that she violated any rules of judicial conduct, he said.