Is Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan Above the Law? – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Last week, after their absurd attempt to make a martyr of Salvadoran deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia, some Democrats seemed to realize they had committed a political blunder. As Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) put it, “I don’t know if that’s the right issue that Democrats should be focusing on right now.” Many polls, including a CBS/YouGov survey released Sunday, indicate that most Americans support the deportation of people living in the U.S. illegally. Yet, when a Wisconsin judge was arrested for aiding a “migrant” in his effort to escape immigration officials, the Democrats repeated their error.

If any reader managed to miss this story, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday and charged with two federal crimes involving obstruction of a federal proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent his arrest. The specific “individual” was Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican national living in the country illegally. Judge Dugan foolishly assisted his futile attempt to avoid apprehension at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 18, and her subsequent arrest inspired a number of Democrats to issue irresponsible statements such as this one from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.):

Americans are watching with outrage the stunning news that Trump’s FBI has arrested a sitting judge in Milwaukee for alleged obstruction of an immigration arrest. While all the facts are not yet in, the implications of this arrest are chilling. This is a drastic escalation and dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate, and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates.  We must do whatever we can to defend the independent judiciary in America.

Conspicuously absent from this portentous nonsense is any justification for Dugan’s illegal actions. Raskin is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and often reminds us that no one is above the law. He has never mentioned a county judge exception. Nor has Raskin’s counterpart on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who denounced Dugan’s arrest in an Orwellian statement: “When immigration enforcement officials interfere with our criminal justice system, it undermines public safety, prevents victims and witnesses from coming forward, and often prevents those who committed crimes from facing justice …”

Durbin is clearly a little confused. It was Judge Dugan who “interfered in our criminal justice system” by personally conducting Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through an exit outside of which she knew no federal agents would be waiting. As reported by KKTV.com, “Dugan is accused of escorting the man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door last week after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest.” He was only apprehended because he ran the wrong way after departing the building. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor, Tony Evers, condemned President Trump’s administration as dangerous:

In this country, people who are suspected of criminal wrongdoing are innocent until their guilt is proven beyond reasonable doubt and they are found guilty by a jury … Unfortunately, we have seen in recent months the president and the Trump Administration repeatedly use dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level, including flat-out disobeying the highest court in the land and threatening to impeach and remove judges who do not rule in their favor.

Most of Evers’ statement is hot air and at least one of his claims is an outright lie. The Trump administration hasn’t disobeyed any order from SCOTUS or any other court. His reckless assertions have, however, encouraged another Wisconsin judge to ignore federal immigration law. As reported in Wisconsin Right Now, Sawyer County Circuit Judge Monica Isham sent an email to all her colleagues, part of which reads as follows: “I have no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process, as BOTH of the constitutions we swore to support requires.”

Judges Gone Wild

This kind of lawlessness is not, of course, restricted to Wisconsin. On the same day Judge Dugan was taken into custody, the DOJ arrested a former Doña Ana County judge in New Mexico. Jose Luis Cano and his wife Nancy Ann Cano were charged with “evidence tampering related to the federal investigation and prosecution against Cristhian Ortega-Lopez.” This character is a Venezuelan national living here illegally and has ties to Tren de Aragua. He is charged with “being an unlawful alien in possession of firearms and ammunition.” U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico succinctly summed up the real problem:

Judges are responsible for upholding our country’s laws. It is beyond egregious for a former judge and his wife to engage in evidence tampering on behalf of a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member accused of illegally possessing firearms. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to dismantling this foreign terrorist organization by disrupting its criminal operations in New Mexico. That starts by prosecuting those who support gang members — including judges.

Incredibly, despite obvious evidence that Ortega-Lopez is a flight risk and a serious danger to the community, the local magistrate judge ordered him released on “conditions.” This makes two judges arrested and two judges who, for all intents and purposes, refuse to adhere to their oaths of office. All four, and many more, see themselves as part of “the resistance.” But what are they resisting? It isn’t just President Trump or even the will of the people. It’s the rule of law. The Democrats insist that no one is above the law. But neither Judge Dugan nor her fellow travelers believe it. This, to coin a phrase, is worse than a crime — it’s a blunder.

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