Wisconsin court commissioner resigns after dispute over immigration warrant

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin court commissioner has resigned from his job after he asked to see an immigration arrest warrant, the latest conflict between judges and President Donald Trump's administration over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Peter Navis, who worked as a Walworth County Court Commissioner for four years, resigned from his position last month, county clerk Michelle Jacobs said Thursday. She declined to comment further because it is a personnel matter.

The incident that cost Navis his job happened on July 15. It was first reported on Thursday by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The blowup in Navis' courtroom comes after Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in May with obstructing federal officers and attempting to hide a person to avoid arrest. Authorities said Dugan tried to help a man who is in the country illegally evade U.S. immigration agents who wanted to arrest him in her courthouse.

Dugan is seeking to have the charges against her dropped, arguing that she was acting in her official capacity as a judge and therefore is immune to prosecution. A ruling on that motion by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman is pending.

Navis was presiding in his courtroom that day in the case of Enrrique Onan Zamora Castro, of Milwaukee, who faced a misdemeanor charge of operating a vehicle without a valid driver's license for the second time in three years.

A court transcript shows that Navis objected to sheriff's deputies attempting to detain Castro on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, without a valid federal warrant.

“In my courtroom, a person cannot be detained without lawful authority,” Navis said in the transcript.

The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Herrmann, said Navis had no right to see the warrant, according to the transcript. Herrmann did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

According to the transcript, Navis said, “I’ve been instructed by the judges of this county to require warrants before individuals are detained in my courtroom.”

None of the four Walworth County judges returned emails seeking comment.

Walworth County Clerk of Courts Michele Jacobs said deputies routinely arrest people on warrants in the courthouse.

Walworth County Sheriff Dave Gerber and ICE officials did not respond to email messages seeking comment.

Walworth County, home to about 100,000 people, is in south-central Wisconsin along the Illinois border. Trump won the county with about 60% of the vote in November.