The Trump administration significantly ramped up its clash over immigration with officials at the state and local level on Friday after FBI agents arrested a county judge in Milwaukee, accusing her of obstructing an immigration arrest.

“Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction — after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted Friday morning on the social media site known as X.

“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” Patel added. “Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”

Brady McCarron, deputy chief of public affairs for the U.S. Marshals Service, confirmed that Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit judge, was arrested by the FBI at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

The government’s criminal complaint filed against Dugan was not immediately available in online federal court records. But McCarron said the charges were “obstruction or impeding” and “concealing an individual” who was supposed to be deported.

Dugan appeared in federal court on Friday before being released from custody. She’s scheduled to appear in court again May 15.

Since Donald Trump took office in January after campaigning on a platform of clamping down on immigration, his administration has moved swiftly to investigate and prosecute local officials who do not go along with their federal immigration enforcement priorities.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that several judges witnessed the arrest, which took place a week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials visited Dugan’s courtroom. On the morning of April 18, sources told the Journal-Sentinel, ICE agents went to Chief Judge Carl Ashley’s office, where Dugan directed the defendant and his attorney to a side door in the courtroom and then down a private hallway and into the public area on the sixth floor.

In a statement to WisPolitics, a political news service, Ashley said he could not comment on Dugan’s arrest. “The judicial code of conduct restricts judges from commenting on pending or impending matters in any court,” he said. “Judge Dugan’s court calendar will be covered by another judge as needed.”

Several local Milwaukee politicians moved quickly to condemn federal authorities for arresting Dugan, who oversees misdemeanor cases in Milwaukee County.

Milwaukee Common Council Member Peter Burgelis said in a statement Friday that Dugan serves the community with “integrity, intellect and an unwavering dedication to constitutional values,” and is a “model of what public service should look like: fair, principled and rooted in justice.”

He said the arrest was shocking and serious and that the public needs to reflect on Dugan’s reputation for defending due process and upholding the rule of law.

“No one is above the law, but no one is beneath it either,” Burgelis wrote. “Judge Dugan deserves the same fair and impartial treatment that she has long ensured for others.”

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said in a statement that the arrest of a sitting judge is “a gravely serious and drastic move” that threatens to breach the country’s system of checks and balances and separations of power.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a Democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” she wrote. “By relentlessly attacking the judicial system, flouting court orders and arresting a sitting judge, this president is putting those basic Democratic values that Wisconsinites hold dear on the line.”

According to a 2022 judicial candidate biography, Dugan practiced at Legal Action of Wisconsin and the Legal Aid Society as a litigation attorney before she was elected. While in private civil practice, she also led several major local nonprofits. She has also taught law as a clinical supervisor and adjunct professor at Marquette University.

This is not the first time that Trump’s administration has moved to penalize a local judge.

In 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, a Massachusetts District Court judge, Shelley Joseph, was federally indicted by the Justice Department on obstruction of justice charges after preventing an ICE officer from taking custody of a defendant who was undocumented. The charges were dropped in 2022 after the judge agreed to refer herself to a forum designed to investigate and address judicial misconduct.

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