As I pointed out here, many on the left have predictably jumped to the side of Judge Hannah Dugan after she was arrested by the FBI for ushering an illegal immigrant out of her courtroom in an attempt to help him avoid arrest by ICE.
Nearly all of Judge Dugan’s defenders are already on the record as having said previously that “no one is above the law.” Why had so many senators repeated that specific phrase? Because when it came to Donald Trump being arrested and charged, they were fine with it.
But that was then and now that it’s a progressive judge being arrested in Milwaukee, there is outrage. Here’s NY Times columnist David Brooks arguing that Judge Dugan’s actions were civil disobedience, i.e. probably illegal but also “heroic.”
🚨NYT’s David Brooks doesn’t “know the specific details” of the Judge Dugan case — but says she was “heroic.”
“If the federal enforcement agencies come to your courtroom and you help a guy escape, that is two things…”
“One, it strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it… pic.twitter.com/1Ia7BaxW7R
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 27, 2025
First of all, Brooks says he doesn’t know the details. How is that possible once the criminal complaint is out there? I think he’s mostly trying to avoid going over those details on air, none of which help Judge Dugan’s case. Better to pretend he doesn’t know the facts than to admit she’s probably guilty on the basis of the facts.
More to the point, what is it that was heroic about her behavior exactly? Eduardo Flores-Ruiz has no pending immigration case. He is not a refugee. He is not waiting on an asylum judge to hear his case. He was deported back to Mexico a decade ago and reentered the country again, which is a felony. That means ICE is well within its wheelhouse to arrest and deport him (again). There’s nothing extra happening here.
But more to the point, Flores-Ruiz was in court that Friday for beating up three people after an argument. His victims were sitting in the courtroom that day waiting for some kind of justice. What’s heroic about ushering a domestic abuser out a side door? I confess I don’t see it.
Brooks isn’t quite arguing that Judge Dugan should be above the law. On the contrary, he says that part of her heroism is that she’s willing to pay the price for her “heroic” actions. But I suspect he’s wrong about that too. I don’t think it ever entered Judge Dugan’s mind that she might be held accountable for what she was doing. She felt secure in her position and confident it would protect her. And I’m sure she’s going to fight this in any way she can rather than accept the consequences. She’s no hero.
Frankly, she’s a lot like Eduardo Flores-Ruiz who was deported, knew it was a crime to return to the US and returned anyway. He also knew that ICE prioritizes the deportation of criminals. He should have been hesitant to beat people up, knowing it might put him back on ICE’s radar. But somehow he felt secure in his position here in the US. He seemed confident that he’d never be deported, and given people like Judge Dugan handling his case, you can see why he believed it.
Are judges and criminal illegal aliens above the law? The shock emanating from elected Democrats makes it pretty clear that many on the left expect them to be. The fact that the Trump administration refuses to play along is blowing their minds. Here’s Tom Homan saying, in so many words, no one is above the law.
🚨Tom Homan hits hostile media with cold reality on Judge Dugan arrest:
“I said from DAY ONE…when you cross that line to impediment, or knowingly harboring concealing an illegal alien, you will be prosecuted.”
“JUDGE, OR NOT.”
No one is above the law. pic.twitter.com/XCyMXjb70c
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 28, 2025
Thanks to Western Lensman on X who pulled these clips. He is really all over this topic in the past few days. One last clip, in which Homan explains why he’s proud of ICE and the job they do.
🚨Tom Homan explains why he gets so emotional talking about his job, recounting horrors he’s seen.
“If they were in my shoes for 40 years, they’d understand why I’m emotional.”
Democrats and their media PR machine slander this man in the most vile ways possible.
The good news… pic.twitter.com/EX3uKBn6l1
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 28, 2025
