Attorney General Pam Bondi warned judges on Friday that they would face prosecution if they help illegal immigrants evade law enforcement.
Bondi declared that “no one is above the law” on “America Reports” following the arrests of former New Mexico Democratic Judge Jose “Joel” Cano and his wife on Thursday, and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on Friday. Cano and his wife face accusations of harboring a Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang member in their home, while Dugan faces allegations that she helped hide a migrant charged with violence from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“They’re deranged is all I can think of … I think some of these judges think they are beyond and above the law and they are not,” Bondi said. “And we’re sending a very strong message today if you are harboring a fugitive, we don’t care who you are. If you are helping hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, anyone who is illegally in this country, we will come after you and prosecute you. We will find you.”
“No one is above the law in this country. And if you are destroying evidence, if you are obstructing justice — when you have victims sitting in a courtroom of domestic violence and you’re escorting a criminal defendant out a back door — it will not be tolerated and it is a crime in the United States of America,” she added. “Doesn’t matter who you are, you’re going to be prosecuted.”
Cano resigned from his position in March after 23-year-old Venezuelan national Cristhian Ortega-Lopez was arrested at his home, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Ortega-Lopez had reportedly met his wife Nancy Cano after illegally entering the U.S. in 2023 and subsequently accepted her offer to stay in a “casita” behind their home.
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Leading up to the judge’s resignation, the Department of Justice said federal authorities had executed search warrants pertaining to illegal firearm possession and other offenses involving four illegal migrants, including Ortega-Lopez.
The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that the FBI arrested Dugan on Friday.
ICE agents visited Dugan’s courthouse on April 18 to arrest a migrant slated for a hearing with the judge that day, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Dugan reportedly instructed the man and his attorney to walk down a hallway toward another floor where the ICE agents would not discover him.
A Friday X post by FBI Director Kash Patel — which he inexplicably deleted and then reposted — said Dugan faces charges of “obstruction” of a federal investigation.
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“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject — an illegal alien — to evade arrest,” Patel wrote. “Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
