The Memo: Wisconsin judge’s arrest opens new front in political war over immigration, courts

The Friday arrest of a Wisconsin judge has ratcheted up the stakes even higher in President Trump’s clash with the judiciary.

To his liberal critics, it is the latest example of Trump’s willingness to traduce norms, demolish democratic guardrails and seek to intimidate ideological opponents.

To his supporters, it is a righteous push to ensure that the immigration laws, in particular, are upheld and to choke off the leeway that liberal-leaning judges have had to impose their own will.

All of this comes in a context of repeated clashes with judges, especially — but not exclusively — over immigration, and polls showing Trump’s position eroding as he nears his 100th day in office.

The specific allegations against Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan are set out in a charging document that is now public. Lawyers for the judge say she will vigorously protest her innocence against the charges.

The offenses alleged are obstructing or impeding a proceeding, and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.

The controversy starts with a Mexican citizen, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who appears to have initially been removed from the United States as an unauthorized migrant back in 2013.

Flores-Ruiz seems to have reentered the country some time after that, again illegally. His path intersected with Dugan this month because he was charged with three counts of battery-domestic abuse.

Immigration officials, becoming aware of the case, issued a warrant for Flores-Ruiz’s address the day before he was to appear in Dugan’s court on the criminal charge. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents then went to the court with the intention of arresting him.

The criminal complaint alleges that when the judge learnt of the presence of the ICE agents, she “became visibly angry, commented that the situation was ‘absurd’” and left the bench for her chambers.

She soon after allegedly approached members of the ICE arrest team with “a confrontational, angry demeanor” asking about various issues including what kind of warrant they possessed.

Ultimately, the judge allegedly “escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door’, which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse.” A foot chase ensued that an FBI agent alleges took place “for the entire length of the courthouse,” before Flores-Ruiz was eventually arrested and detained.

In a Friday social media post, FBI Director Kash Patel, an ardent Trump loyalist, praised the agency for “excellent work” in arresting the judge. Patel also contended that “the Judge’s obstruction created increases danger to the public.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi also praised law enforcement actions, writing on social media that “No-one is above the law.”

Democrats saw the events entirely differently — and far more ominously.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) wrote on social platform X, “This is not normal.”

She added that the arrest was “a drastic move that threatens the rule of law.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the implications of the arrest “chilling.” He contended it was part of “Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates.”

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) contended the case “isn’t just about Judge Dugan in Wisconsin. It’s about the fate of our democracy.”

The political sniping from both sides is continuing to escalate.

After Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) accused Trump and Vice President Vance of thrusting the nation into a “constitutional crisis” with the arrest, Vance shot back on X by citing Khanna’s previous statements that no one is above the law.

All of this is taking place while the Trump administration is in the middle of a seismic clash with the judiciary over the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador, despite a long-standing immigration court order prohibiting the government from doing just that. The Trump administration says Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang. That’s a finding that two immigration judges upheld but which he denies.

An order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that the administration should “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return has so far had no effect — a situation about which she has become increasingly exasperated.

In a separate but related matter, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has threatened to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt, after deportation flights to El Salvador continued to their destination despite his order that they should be stopped.

The underlying issue in the case before Boasberg is whether Trump acted within or outside the law in deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Trump loyalists believe that the legal clashes over deportations reverberate to the president’s political benefit.

It is certainly true that immigration was consistently Trump’s strongest issue in last year’s election campaign against then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

But recent polling presents a much more mixed picture.

A new Fox News poll found that Trump’s actions on deportations earned slightly more disapproval than approval among registered voters, 49 percent to 45 percent.

The same poll found that when voters were asked whether judges were legitimately exercising their power or unlawfully interfering with the president’s prerogatives, they chose the former by a large margin: 58 percent to 33 percent.

The president blasted the Fox pollsters in a social media post.

But findings from other polls also make uneasy reading for the president.

An Economist/YouGov poll asked about the Abrego Garcia case and found that Americans wanted him returned to the United States by a margin of 50 percent to 28 percent.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll that asked whether the president should obey court orders with which he disagrees found respondents answering overwhelmingly in the affirmative — 83 percent to 13 percent.

Seventy-three percent of Republicans in this poll believed Trump should comply with court orders in that scenario.

All of those polls also showed Trump’s overall approval ratings on the slide — a finding that is not a direct consequence of his clashes with the judiciary, but suggests he may have overplayed his hand at the start of his second term.

Trump seems highly unlikely to back down.

The arrest of Dugan keeps him on an accelerating collision course with the judiciary.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.