Wisconsin judge was charged with allegedly helping an immigration suspect flee the courthouse

Judge Hannah Dugan is being charged with obstruction because she is said to have helped a Mexican guy avoid arrest while the case was going on.

Some say that a judge in the US state of Wisconsin helped a Mexican man get away from immigration officials by using a back door while they were trying to arrest him.

In April, Hannah Dugan, a judge for Milwaukee County, was jailed. A federal grand jury has now agreed to bring the two charges against her. The judge could go to prison for these crimes.

It’s a bigger step in Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, and Democrats are furious about it because they think the Trump administration is hitting the courts.

Judge Dugan’s lawyers replied with a one-sentence statement saying that she is still innocent and is looking forward to being proven right in court.

Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican citizen charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, went to court in Milwaukee on April 18 for a planned hearing.

Six people from the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Ice were at the court to arrest him.

An FBI affidavit says that when Judge Dugan found out they were there, she “became visibly angry and said the situation was ‘absurd.’ She then left the bench and went into chambers.”

Judge Dugan told the officers to report to the chief judge after a fight in the hallway over the type of arrest warrant that had been issued. While they were there, the statement says, she led Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to a side door for jury members.

But two agents saw them.

Authorities say Flores-Ruiz was deported from the US in 2013. He was able to get out of the building, but he was quickly caught after a short foot chase.

When she was arrested, FBI director Kash Patel said that the judge had “intentionally misdirected” immigration agents away from Flores-Ruiz, which put the public in “greater danger.”

The fact that immigration officials are in US courthouses has caused a lot of heated discussion, mostly between political parties.

Most Republicans have supported the change, saying that no one should be above the law.

Democrats, on the other hand, were against arresting the judge. Democrat Tony Evers, governor of Wisconsin, called it a “attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level” by the Trump administration.

Late in April, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court removed Judge Dugan from the bench, saying that the action was needed to keep the public’s trust in the courts.

She is being charged with obstruction and hiding someone to avoid arrest. If found guilty on both counts, she could spend up to six years in jail.

Judge Dugan was let go on her own recognizance until Thursday, when she is expected to enter a plea.

The day before she was arrested, a former judge in New Mexico was arrested on charges that he kept a suspected member of a Venezuelan gang in his home.

In the United States, a federal grand jury is generally made up of 16 to 23 regular people. A lawyer sets it up to decide if there is enough evidence to bring charges. In this case, it decided that the charges should go forward.