Federal judge upholds guilty verdict against Milwaukee judge who helped illegal immigrant dodge ICE

A federal judge has denied former Milwaukee Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan's bid to overturn the jury verdict that found her guilty of helping an illegal immigrant evade arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside a Wisconsin courthouse. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman issued the ruling in an April 6 order, rejecting Dugan's claim that judicial immunity should have shielded her from prosecution.

The decision leaves Dugan's felony obstruction conviction intact and marks another failed attempt by the former judge to escape accountability for conduct captured on courthouse surveillance cameras. Dugan was found guilty in December 2025 after a federal jury concluded she deliberately misdirected ICE agents away from Eduardo Flores Ruiz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico with a violent criminal history who had twice crossed the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully.

The case has become a flashpoint in the broader national fight over immigration enforcement, and over whether public officials who actively obstruct that enforcement will face real consequences.

What Judge Adelman ruled

Dugan's legal team had argued that her actions fell within the scope of her duties as a sitting judge and that she should therefore be immune from criminal charges. Adelman, in his order, dismantled that argument directly:

"After surveying the caselaw, I concluded that there is no general rule of criminal immunity for judges, nor was there a basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment described conduct that could be considered 'part of a judge's job.'"

That language is worth reading twice. Dugan's defense essentially asked a federal court to declare that a judge who obstructs federal law enforcement is protected by the robe she wears. Adelman said no. Wearing a black robe does not place you above the law, a principle that should be obvious but apparently required a written order to establish.

The courthouse incident

The chain of events began in April of last year, when ICE agents arrived at a Milwaukee courthouse to take Flores Ruiz into custody. Courthouse surveillance footage showed Dugan purposefully misdirecting the agents away from Ruiz, giving the illegal immigrant a chance to slip away.

Prosecutors laid out the sequence in detail during the trial. The Washington Times reported that Dugan challenged the ICE civil warrant, sent agents to speak with the chief judge, cut short the court proceeding, and then allowed Flores Ruiz to leave through a non-public door. It was a deliberate, multi-step effort to obstruct a lawful federal operation inside a public building.

Flores Ruiz was no minor offender. He carried charges for strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. He had appeared in court that day on charges related to a violent assault on his roommate, the New York Post noted. He had twice illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. This was the man a sitting judge chose to protect from federal agents.

Ruiz was eventually deported to his native Mexico in November 2025.

Conviction and resignation

In December 2025, a federal jury convicted Dugan on the felony obstruction charge. The jury acquitted her on a separate misdemeanor charge of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, but the felony conviction stood. Her defense team signaled plans to appeal even before the motion to overturn was filed.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin framed the conviction as a warning. "The conviction should warn others against anti-ICE behavior," McLaughlin said.

A month after the December 2025 conviction, Dugan resigned from the Milwaukee Circuit Court. In her resignation letter, she described facing "unprecedented federal legal proceedings." She did not, by the account available, express regret for the conduct that put her in a federal courtroom as a defendant rather than a presiding officer.

The pattern of officials and activists obstructing ICE operations has not been limited to Wisconsin courthouses. Across the country, anti-ICE protests have led to federal arrests, as some communities treat immigration enforcement as an act of aggression rather than a function of law.

A judge who kept collecting a paycheck

One detail that drew particular scrutiny was the fact that Dugan reportedly continued to receive her salary even after her arrest and indictment. Wisconsin courts did not place her on administrative leave, meaning taxpayers kept paying a judge who had been charged with a federal felony for obstructing federal agents.

That arrangement persisted until Dugan eventually resigned on her own terms. For months, a judge under federal indictment for helping a violent illegal immigrant dodge arrest drew a public paycheck. The system that should have held her accountable instead kept signing her checks.

The Dugan case fits into a larger pattern of judicial and political resistance to immigration enforcement. Some state officials have openly called for resistance to federal enforcement actions, treating ICE agents as adversaries rather than officers carrying out the law. When elected judges join that resistance, the rule of law itself is at stake.

Immunity is not a shield for obstruction

Dugan's immunity argument deserved to fail, and it did. The idea that a judge can invoke the authority of the bench to obstruct a lawful federal arrest, and then claim that same authority as a defense, turns judicial independence into a license for lawlessness. Adelman's order makes clear that no such license exists.

The broader question is whether Dugan's case will actually deter other officials from similar conduct. The conviction sends a message. But so does the fact that it took months of legal proceedings, a full federal trial, and a post-conviction motion just to reach the unremarkable conclusion that judges cannot help criminal suspects flee from federal agents.

Other cases have illustrated the same tension. Federal judges have ordered the release of gang members with serious criminal records from ICE custody, and courthouse confrontations between ICE and local officials have become a recurring feature of the immigration enforcement landscape. In some jurisdictions, ICE agents have been forced to apprehend suspects outside courthouses after local officials refused to cooperate inside them.

Dugan's felony conviction stands. Her motion to overturn it has been denied. She has resigned from the bench. Flores Ruiz has been deported. On paper, the system worked, eventually.

But the fact that a sitting American judge thought she could use her courtroom to run interference for a violent illegal immigrant, and then claim immunity for doing it, tells you something about how deep the rot runs in certain corners of the justice system. Accountability arrived late. It should never have been necessary at all.