Staff Reports
On December 18, 2025, a federal jury in Milwaukee found Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstructing a federal proceeding after an incident in which she allegedly diverted immigration agents and escorted a previously deported Mexican national out of a secure part of her courtroom. The verdict is a rare and damning rebuke of a public official who swore an oath to uphold the law, not hinder its enforcement.
Prosecutors say Dugan directed Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through a nonpublic jury door while ICE and other agents waited outside, allowing him to briefly evade capture before he was ultimately arrested after a short foot chase. Video and witness testimony presented at trial painted a picture of deliberate interference with federal officers who were executing a planned arrest outside the courtroom.
The jury convicted Dugan of the felony obstruction count while acquitting her on the lesser concealment charge, and the conviction carries real consequences for her career and liberty. She was already suspended from the bench after the arrest, and under Wisconsin law a felony conviction likely ends any hope of returning to the judiciary.
This outcome should serve as a wake-up call: judges who act like lawless political activists must be held to account. The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security made clear that obstruction of immigration enforcement will be prosecuted, and Americans have every right to demand equal application of the law — even when the defendant wears a robe.
Let’s be blunt about what was at stake: the man Dugan allegedly shielded was accused of violent crimes including strangulation, suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse, according to DHS records, and he had been deported previously. This was not a harmless act of compassion; it was interference that risked public safety and undermined the rule of law Americans depend on.
Conservative Americans should demand real consequences, including jail time if the law and the judge’s sentence call for it, and we should press state officials and legislators to ensure judges who flout the law cannot simply be shuffled back into the courthouse. Political theater from the left cannot be allowed to place our communities at risk or to make mockery of law enforcement’s duties.
This verdict is a victory for law and order and for the millions of citizens who expect their government to defend their safety first. If the judicial system means anything, it must punish lawbreaking equally and deter future judges from substituting ideology for justice.
