Immigrant sentenced to time served after Wisconsin judge allegedly helped him evade federal agents

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.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper sentenced 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz on Wednesday in Milwaukee after he reached a deal with prosecutors to not contest deportation. Flores-Ruiz has spent nearly seven months in jail since he was arrested in April. Pepper warned him that he would face harsher penalties if he ever returns to the country.

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

Speaking through a translator, 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.

According to a presentencing memo from Flores-Ruiz’s attorney, he grew up near Michoacan, Mexico, and worked as a fisherman and frog catcher with his father. 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. Judge Hannah Dugan, who was presiding over the case, 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, according to an FBI affidavit.

Agents captured Flores-Ruiz following a foot chase and Dugan was arrested at the courthouse a week later. 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. She has denied any wrong-doing.

Dugan’s arrest and indictment has intensified a clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Democrats have accused the administration of trying to make an example of Dugan to quell judicial opposition.

Federal prosecutors charged Flores-Ruiz with reentering the country illegally five days after he was apprehended outside the courthouse. He’s spent almost seven months in the Ozaukee County Jail on an immigration hold.

He pleaded guilty in September to the federal charge and agreed not to fight deportation in a deal with federal prosecutors. In exchange they agreed to recommend a time-served sentence. He could have gotten up to two years in prison.

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

Martin Pruhs, Flores-Ruiz’s attorney in the federal case, 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. Pruhs declined to comment beyond what he wrote in his presentencing memo.