Judges Are Not Above the Law

In the United States, no person is above the law, including those specifically tasked with enforcing it.

The nation has been captivated by the case of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, who was recently arrested on charges of helping an illegal alien evade federal law enforcement. Dugan was allegedly protecting an illegal alien accused of domestic abuse who had been scheduled for a hearing in her courtroom, and she’s not the only judge to find herself in legal trouble for assisting illegal aliens. New Mexico-based Judge Jose “Joel” Cano, who abruptly resigned from the bench earlier this year, was also arrested alongside his wife for allegedly hiding an accused Tren de Aragua gang member inside his home. This bad behavior from these judges should appall every American who cares about the rule of law, but some public officials have instead rushed to attack those holding them accountable.

“This is not normal,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote. “The administration’s arrest of a sitting judge in Wisconsin is a drastic move that threatens the rule of law.”

“Trump arrested a judge in Wisconsin and illegally deported U.S. citizens—including children, two of them suffering from cancer,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “It’s sickening.”

“The President’s administration arresting a sitting judge is a gravely serious and drastic move, and it threatens to breach those very separation of powers,” wrote Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

The assumption of all these statements is that judges, by nature of their position, are immune to all criminal law. This is preposterous. These judges have not been arrested for their rulings or for disagreeing with the Trump administration, but for alleged criminal conduct having nothing to do with their duties on the bench. Federal law makes clear that it is a crime for any person to engage in an activity where they “conceal, harbor,” or “attempt to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection,” an illegal alien. Nowhere in the statute does it immunize judges—or anyone else, for that matter—for violating the law.

There’s a reason Cano resigned from the bench before his story even broke, and why Dugan has been suspended from her duties by Wisconsin’s left-leaning Supreme Court. The charges against these two individuals are damning, and if they turn out to be true, then these two judges will have gravely damaged public trust in the judicial system.

If reports are accurate, Cano and his wife not only allowed a suspected Tren de Aragua member to live with them, but also allowed the illegal alien access to their firearms. Not only did Cano allegedly violate his oath to uphold the law, but he and his wife put the rest of their community in danger with their malfeasance. So, why then are anti-border politicians rallying around these two judges?

It is unlikely these politicians truly believe the Trump administration is targeting judges who disagree with their immigration policies. After all, the administration has faced an onslaught of adverse rulings from activist judges, none of whom they have targeted for prosecution. If an ordinary person were charged for the same offenses these judges have been charged for, it is unlikely some of the most powerful people in Washington, D.C., would rally to their defense. This latest cycle of faux outrage from the anti-borders movement at the current administration is an attempt to make up for the failure of their previous one.  

For weeks, the anti-borders movement turned deported illegal alien Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia into their cause célèbre, but as more information was released corroborating Abrego Garcia’s ties to the MS-13 gang, support for him has begun to dry up. Now, Judges Cano and Dugan are the new heroes of the anti-borders movement. Eventually, they will find a new hysteria to foment, because that is their only strategy. They know that President Donald Trump’s immigration policies remain extremely popular with the American people, so their only recourse is to mislead the public by attempting to paint the administration as cruel and authoritarian. It is a strategy that has failed in the past and is once again heading for predictable failure in this instance. The fundamental problem for the anti-borders movement is that the American people firmly reject their worldview, and no amount of victim-searching and fear-mongering can compensate for this reality.

Judges are supposed to be guardians of the law, but they are not above it. The Trump administration is restoring the rule of law to America’s immigration system and has shown it is not afraid to hold the powerful to account in the process.

Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.