Trump Admin Officials Suggest They May Come for More Judges, Children

Members of the administration continue to suggest that they plan to continue targeting judges and the children of migrants

Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash

On Friday, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hanah Dugan was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on two felony charges. The FBI alleges she helped a noncitizen avoid being taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody after appearing in her courtroom. Dugan is regarded as the first victim of a memo issued by the Department of Justice in January instructing prosecutors to seek criminal charges against “local officials” for allegedly “interfering” with immigration enforcement actions.

Dugan initially refused to honor an ICE administrative warrant (not signed by a judge) as a criminal warrant and asked agents to meet with the Chief Judge, whose office was mere 12 feet away, to proceed with the warrant. Despite the allegations made by agents at the scene, independent journalists have taken the initiative to debunk the claims made in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) press release, by Border Czar Tom Homan, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

“Just NOW, the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on charges of obstruction — after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week,” Said Kash Patel on X. “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. 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.”

A second local official, also a judge, was arrested in New Mexico on Friday. Recently retired in March, Doña Ana County Magistrate Joel Cano and his wife were charged with tampering with evidence surrounding their renting of an apartment space to an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member. The charges stem from Cano’s daughter allowing the tenant, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, to borrow a gun to pose for some pictures that were posted on social media.

“Nobody should be surprised by the arrest of two judges,” Homan said via X. “I have said many times within the past few months, that people can choose to support illegal immigration and not assist ICE in removing criminal illegal aliens from our communities, BUT DON’T CROSS THAT LINE. If you actively impede our enforcement efforts or if you knowingly harbor or conceal illegal aliens from ICE you will be prosecuted,” Homan continued. “These actions are felonies. More to come…”

There is no evidence to suggest they knew that the tenant was a gang member or that he is one.

Meanwhile, DHS acknowledged claims made by the Venezuelan government that the agency “kidnapped” a child as her parents were deported back to Venezuela. While they didn’t call it a kidnapping, a senior official at DHS admitted that they took the child away from the parents as they were being sent back to Venezuela. The official alleges that the parents were Tren de Aragua gang members. However, what we’ve seen from DHS so far makes this hard to believe.

“Thanks to President Trump, these Tren De Aragua gang members have been removed from our country,” said the senior official. “Due to the violent criminal activities of the parents, including operating a torture house, sex trafficking, and kidnapping, the child was removed from their custody. We will not allow this child to be abused and continue to be exposed to criminal activity that endangers her safety. “

If the claims seem outlandish to you, you’re not alone. We are talking about an administration that is sharing manipulated photos of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to prove he’s a gang member, and the vast majority of people deported so far have no gang affiliations, including 75% of those sent to CECOT in El Salvador. Again, DHS and other federal agencies under Trump have made dubious and outright baseless claims about the vast majority of migrants that aren’t true.

In addition to the kidnapping, three children who are U.S. citizens were deported with their parents over the weekend. Despite those children having constitutional rights and the law requiring the U.S. to give parents ample time to make arrangements for their children in cases of deportations, it appears all of those laws were overlooked regarding the children specifically.

Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio jumped in on normalizing and justifying the administration targeting migrants with children in an interview with Kristen Welker on Meet the Press Sunday.

“On the headline, that’s a misleading headline, okay? Three U.S. citizens ages four, seven, and two were not deported,” Rubio said. “Their mothers, who are illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers. Those children are U.S. citizens. They can come back into the United States if there’s their father or someone here who wants to assume them,” Rubio continued.

While DHS claims that the Trump administration’s priority is to care for and protect children, this flies in the face of those claims. The constant duplicity across all areas of social and political issues shows the administration is exhibiting the telltale signs of an autocratic fascist regime, unlike the U.S. has seen in nearly a century. Even then, the Trump administration is taking it to a much different and horrifying level, as history has shown us multiple times.

Administration officials have over and over again taken to the media to express their desire to cause as much harm and inflict as much pain as possible on Latino immigrants. Trump advisor Stephen Miller lost his marbles on Fox News and spewed a ton of debunked misinformation about migrants to justify the arrest of judges who are enforcing the law.

Similarly, Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, also took to Fox News to spread fear and coerce people into consenting to what the administration is doing. Bondi accused judges of acting as if they are above the law, as the Trump administration gets smacked around in court after court for doing just that, pretending the law doesn’t apply to a president. Their hypocrisy alongside the lies and manipulation knows no bounds; propaganda on a level people in the U.S. rarely see.

What is clear from all of the propaganda surrounding the wrongful arrests and deportations of so many is that the Trump administration intends to be as cruel as possible. Republicans who are now seeking half a trillion dollars to bolster Trump’s agenda are participating in the cruelty. They are part of the outright racist and bigoted administration riddled with white Christian nationalists who want to prioritize white males above everyone else.

The strategies they use today will become templates for future administrations to weaponize government agencies against anyone in the U.S., citizen or not. As we continue to see, the escalation is sweeping up citizens at alarming levels, and those sweeps could easily represent what the future holds for marginalized groups and those who speak up for them. If you think this will never touch you, I remind you that the administration is showing us otherwise.

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Arturo is an independent journalist whose work can be found at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. Arturo is also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support his work, become a paid subscriber or donate via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.