Hannah Dugan’s sentence comes after she helped evade U.S. immigration from ICE agents, who are scheduled to arrest her in 2025.
Published July 8, 2026
A former Wisconsin judge who helped a man evade immigration officials will be spared a prison sentence Wednesday after a U.S. judge ordered her to pay a $5,000 fine.
Hannah Dugan, 67, a former Milwaukee County circuit court judge, told the court in 2025 that she did not act maliciously when she shielded a man in court, but that she was trying to maintain “the decency and safety of the courtroom.”
“I’ve been cast as both the blamer and the hero. I’m neither,” Dugan said. “I’m a public servant and I’m just doing my job as hard as I can.”
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said her decision not to send Dugan to prison took into account his decades of public service.
“This is a few minutes’ act for someone who has dedicated his life to public service,” he said. “This is a marked departure from a law-abiding life.”
The case centers on an April 2025 incident at the Milwaukee County Courthouse, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrived to arrest a Mexican man named Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.
Flores-Ruiz illegally reentered the United States days after being deported in 2013 and was scheduled to appear before Dugan on a misdemeanor charge stemming from an argument with her roommate.
Prosecutors said that when investigators arrived at the courtroom, Duggan directed them to the presiding judge’s office and told them the administrative warrant was not sufficient basis to arrest Flores-Ruiz.
As they left, Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out the private jury door. Agents spotted him and caught him outside the court after a brief foot chase. FBI agents arrested Dugan a week later.
A federal jury in December convicted Dugan of obstructing a federal proceeding, but acquitted him of another lesser charge of concealing from arrest.
Judge Adelman said Wednesday that Mr. Dugan “made the wrong decision at this time,” noting that Mr. Dugan had already lost his job, had been convicted of a felony, and had been threatened with reassignment. He also added that her actions ultimately did not prevent ICE officers from making the arrest.
Federal prosecutors had argued that Dugan “used the authority and prestige of the judiciary to obstruct the lawful performance of federal officers in order to evade individual arrest,” and sentencing guidelines called for 15 to 21 months in prison. They said the heavy sentence was necessary to reflect the wider impact on the justice system.
But Dugan’s lawyer said this was an isolated incident. They said she had already paid a high price, saying she was “handcuffed and shackled during her arrest, systematically photographed in public, and deliberately humiliated by the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI.”
Those officials included FBI Director Kash Patel, who posted a photo of Dugan in handcuffs after his arrest with the caption, “No one is above the law.” Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, an ally of President Donald Trump and running for governor of Wisconsin, also called on authorities to “lock her up.”
Dugan’s lawyers accused the Trump administration of trying to “crush” her to ensure the judiciary complied with its strategy of arresting immigrants inside courtrooms. Similarly, critics argue that prosecutors are using the case to send a message to judges and other local officials who may resist immigration enforcement policies.
