Misha G. | Red Phoenix correspondent | New Jersey–

As the Trump administration tightens its grip on state power and continues to purge dissent, it has escalated a pattern that even liberal defenders of bourgeois legality find shocking. His regime demands total obedience from the judicial system, sidelining procedural norms which serve to legitimize it and attacking anyone within the system who resists.

As Lenin described, “the state is an organ of class rule, an organ of the bourgeoisie for the suppression of the proletariat.” The state often likes to present itself as a neutral actor, standing disinterested above society. To maintain this illusion, the ruling class often permits a facade of impartiality in public institutions. History and everyday reality, however, teach us that this is an illusion, and the working class in the United States instinctively knows this. 

“The state is an organ of class rule, an organ for the oppression of one class by another; it is the creation of ‘order,’ which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the conflict between the classes.”

V. I. Lenin, “State and Revolution.”

Trump, the figurehead of the most rapacious, reactionary wing of the ruling class, is obliterating even the thin veil of neutrality maintained by the so-called moderate section of the ruling class as he changes guard from the old “moderately” genocidal Biden regime to his openly fascist one. Liberals wring their hands and file lawsuits, but their protests only slightly slow the march toward a fascist consolidation they helped enable. 

The administration’s open war on the judiciary reached a new level last week when federal prosecutors charged two sitting judges—Hannah Dugan of Wisconsin and Jose Cano of New Mexico—with obstructing immigration enforcement. Trump officials skipped past the pretense of impartial trials and went straight to a media spectacle. FBI Director Kash Patel publicly celebrated the arrest in clear violation of DOJ media protocols, and DHS official Tricia McLaughlin ranted on Fox News about purging “activist judges.” Attorney General Pam Bondi went on a similar deranged rampage on Fox News, screaming: “We will find you!” Trump said the quiet part out loud: “We have hundreds of thousands of people that we want to get out of the country, and the courts are holding us back.”

This isn’t just about two judges—it’s a message to the entire judiciary: comply or be targeted. While the United States makes no such legal designation, these are political prisoners. 

On Apr. 18, 2025, Judge Hannah Dugan of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, was set to hold a hearing for Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. On the day of his hearing, six plain clothes federal officers from ICE, CBP, FBI, and the DEA were at the courthouse waiting to arrest him after seeing his name on the court docket. When they arrived, they identified themselves to the shift sergeant and discussed their plans to kidnap Flores-Ruiz. They were told that they had to wait until after his hearing, so they assembled in the hallway outside of Judge Dugan’s courtroom. One of the local public defenders recognized the officers and informed Judge Dugan that “ICE is here.”

Dugan, along with one other judge, confronted the officers and asked if they had a judicial warrant. When they responded that they only have an administrative warrant, which is not obtained through the legal system and does not require probable cause, and only gives the right to arrest but not to search or seize, thus allowing arrests only in public spaces, the Judge responded that they needed a judicial warrant.  After speaking with the chief judge, it was determined that ICE enforcement actions could not take place in courtrooms or other private locations within the building, but they could take place in hallways. While the officers were speaking with the chief judge in his office, Judge Dugan expedited the proceedings and instructed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to go through the back Jury door instead of the door that led to the main hallway where ICE officers had been waiting. 

Still, this back hallway led to a public hallway where two officers were still waiting. One of the officers recognized him, followed him into the elevator, and alerted his fellow officers, who proceeded to catch up with him in front of the courthouse and arrest him. 

Judge Dugan actually had quite a good reason, even within the bourgeois legal framework, for being angry with ICE’s presence. By arresting “illegal” immigrants who are complying with lawful orders to appear in court, they are disincentivizing people, including not just immigrant defendants but also immigrant witnesses, from appearing in court. Thus, conducting regular sting operations in courts makes judges’ jobs much more difficult.

ICE had already kidnapped two other immigrants in the past month at this courthouse. ICE does similar things when immigrants show up to immigration check-in appointments. Recently, two mothers and their young children, including one diagnosed with cancer, were kidnapped at their regular immigration check-ins and quickly deported to Honduras. Thus, according to bourgeois legal standards, Judge Dugan was well within her right by protecting the integrity of her courtroom. 

Dugan now faces two federal charges: obstruction of a federal proceeding (18 U.S.C. § 1505) and concealing a person to prevent arrest (18 U.S.C. § 1071), the latter carrying a possible five-year sentence and a $250,000 fine. Yet under U.S. law, these charges are weak. Judges have broad discretion to manage their courtrooms, and under Printz v. United States (1997), the federal government cannot compel state officials to enforce federal laws. Legal experts widely believe a conviction would be hard to secure—unless, of course, the courts are bent into compliance, which would not be surprising since that is the whole point of the case to begin with.

Either way, this is meant to tell courts around the country that if the already incredibly vague law, which has been exploited for the interests of the ruling class for all of history, is not interpreted in the most fascistic way, the administration will come after the courts.

Dimitrov defined fascism as the open, terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinistic, and imperialist sections of the bourgeoisie. It drops the mask of democracy, something the liberal wing of the ruling class still clings to, nervously following behind the fascist bloc. 

Liberal pundits now pine for a “return to normal,” but for the masses, “normal” was already a slow, brutal grind of capitalist violence. That status quo—“genocide with a pride flag”—laid the groundwork for fascism. They understand that “democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich—that is the democracy of capitalist society.” The solution is not capitalist reformism. 

As Fred Hampton once said:

“We’re not gonna fight fire with fire, we’re gonna fight fire with water. We’re not gonna fight racism with racism, we’re gonna fight racism with solidarity. We’re not gonna fight capitalism with black capitalism… we’re gonna fight capitalism with socialism.”

Categories: Immigration, Law, U.S. News