FBI arrests Wisconsin judge in immigration obstruction probe

David Voreacos and Zoe Tillman, Bloomberg News on Apr 25, 2025

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A state judge in Wisconsin was arrested Friday by federal agents after an investigation into whether she obstructed an immigration arrest last week.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was taken into custody Friday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post that was later deleted. She was arrested around 8 a.m. at the county courthouse, according to Brady McCarron, a spokesman for the US Marshals Service.

The FBI had been examining whether Dugan helped an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, citing unidentified sources. Dugan’s clerk declined to comment when reached by Bloomberg News.

The Trump administration has clashed repeatedly with judges across the U.S. as it implements plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Two federal judges are considering whether to hold government officials in contempt of court.

On April 18, agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, tried to arrest a Mexican citizen after a hearing in Dugan’s courtroom, the Journal Sentinel reported. Dugan directed ICE agents to another judge’s office and then allowed the defendant to leave her courtroom through a side door, down a private hallway and into a public area, the paper reported.

McCarron did not immediately have details on the charges against Dugan, except that they are federal crimes.

He said he wasn’t sure of Dugan’s location as of midmorning but said she would go through the normal booking process. He didn’t know exactly where in the county courthouse she was arrested or if she had been placed in handcuffs.

As of midmorning there was no public docket available for Dugan’s criminal case in the federal district court in Milwaukee. Representatives of the federal court and the US attorney’s office did not immediately return requests for comment about when she would make her first appearance before a judge as a defendant.