A Democrat judge has gone rogue following the arrest of fellow judge Hannah Dugan, threatening not to hold court proceedings as an act of solidarity and leading other judicial officials to condemn her actions and describe them as problematic.
For context, Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested on April 25, 2025, and charged with obstruction and concealing an individual from arrest after she allegedly helped an undocumented immigrant avoid being arrested. Judge Dugan’s arrest reportedly led to an outcry from the left, including from Judge Monica Isham, who, according to press accounts, refused to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and said she would not hold court.
According to Fox News coverage of the incident, Judge Isham wrote an email to judges across the state of Wisconsin with the subject line “Guidane Requested or I Refuse to Hold Court,” in which she said, “If there is no guidance for us and no support for us, I will refuse to hold court in Branch 2 in Sawyer County. I will not put myself or my staff who may feel compelled to help me or my community in harm’s way.”
Continuing, Judge Isham condemned ICE and compared their detention facilities as akin to a “concentration camp,” saying, “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 require. Should I start raising bail money?”
In response to Judge Isham’s email, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon described the judge’s statements as “problematic” in a post shared on X on April 26, 2025. In response, the X account “The Undercurrent” weighed in on the incident, saying, “The collapse of judicial integrity is being dressed up as activism. They are eroding the law by convincing people that loyalty to your personal feelings is more noble than loyalty to the law. Once judges start acting like activists, justice stops being blind and starts picking sides.”
As for Judge Dugan, whose arraignment has reportedly been set for May 15, there is potential for a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to coverage from The New York Post. In addition, press accounts confirmed that Dugan was arrested after Federal agents from multiple agencies — including ICE, the FBI, and the DEA — attempted to arrest a Mexican national named Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and were deterred by Judge Dugan.
In addition, Judge Dugan’s arrest sparked additional outrage from the left, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show on April 25, 2025, and fiercely criticizing the Trump Administration for deporting immigrants and emphasizing his negative opinion of Dugan’s arrest.
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In the interview with Maddow, Rep. Raskin described Judge Dugan’s arrest as putting members of the Trump administration at risk of being jailed, saying, “So, on the logic of this arrest of Judge Dugan, all of the people in the Trump Administration who participated in defying that order by Judge Boasberg themselves could be arrested for interfering with a legal proceeding and perhaps other criminal charges like kidnapping, as you were suggesting before.”
Watch the White House’s response to Judge Dugan’s arrest:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video