Immigrant who a judge allegedly helped avoid arrest gets time served, and will soon be deported

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — An immigrant who was arrested after a judge in Wisconsin allegedly helped him dodge federal agents has been sentenced to time served for illegally reentering the United States and will soon be deported, according to his attorney.

Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, has spent nearly seven months in jail since he was arrested outside the Milwaukee County Courthouse. He pleaded guilty in September to illegally reentering the country after he reached a deal with prosecutors to not fight deportation. Prosecutors in exchange agreed to recommend a time-served sentence.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper handed down the sentence during a hearing Wednesday in Milwaukee, warning him that he would face harsher penalties if he ever returns.

“I very much hope you can find a way to make a living back home rather than coming back here,” she told Flores-Ruiz.

Martin Pruhs, Flores-Ruiz’s attorney, said in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday that Flores-Ruiz is currently in custody at the Dodge County Jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, awaiting deportation in “the near future.” The attorney declined further comment.

Speaking through a translator during the sentencing hearing, Flores-Ruiz apologized for entering the United States, said he was grateful that he had a chance to work in the country and promised never to return.

Flores-Ruiz is at the center of allegations that could send Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan to prison. Prosecutors allege Dugan helped Flores-Ruiz evade immigration agents looking to apprehend him as he appeared for a hearing on unrelated state charges in her courtroom in April.

Dugan's ensuing indictment on obstruction and concealment charges has intensified the clash between President Donald Trump and his administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to the crackdown.

Flores-Ruiz grew up near Michoacan, Mexico, and worked as a fisherman and frog catcher with his father, according to a pre-sentencing memo. Frog legs are a delicacy in the region, according to the memo.

He decided to make a better life for himself and crossed into the U.S. from Nogales, Mexico, in 2013 at age 18. The group of migrants he had joined was apprehended and deported immediately after crossing the border.

A few days later, he reentered the country and got lost in the Arizona desert for a month before finding a ride to Milwaukee to join relatives there. He spent about 12 years working at a series of restaurants and food trucks.

State prosecutors charged him in March with three counts of misdemeanor battery after he allegedly got into a fight with his roommate. U.S. immigration agents learned he was in the country illegally after the Milwaukee County Jail submitted his fingerprints to federal databases, according to court documents.

Agents traveled to the county courthouse on April 18, planning to arrest Flores-Ruiz when he appeared for a hearing. Dugan was the presiding judge in that case and, according to an FBI affidavit, learned that agents were in the building looking for Flores-Ruiz and showed him out of her courtroom through a door typically used only by deputies, jurors, court staff and in-custody defendants. He made his way outside but agents captured him following a foot chase.

She was arrested at the courthouse a week later and a federal grand jury indicted her in May on charges of obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. She’s set to stand trial beginning Dec. 15.

Dugan has denied any wrong-doing. Her attorneys have argued that she has the authority conduct her courtroom as she sees fit.

State prosecutors dropped two of the three battery charges against Flores-Ruiz in October after he agreed to plead no contest to the third. He was sentenced to time served in that case as well.