Midwest
Milwaukee judge not immune from charges after allegedly helping illegal immigrant evade ICE, prosecutors say
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Federal prosecutors are pushing back against Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan’s motion to dismiss an indictment filed against her for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the Milwaukee County Courthouse last month.
Dugan, 65, was indicted last month on federal charges of obstruction of proceedings before a U.S. agency and unlawful concealment of an individual subject to arrest.
Her attorneys say she is entitled to judicial immunity and that the federal government overstepped its authority by arresting and charging her, violating her 10th Amendment rights and the principle of separation of powers, according to court documents filed in late May.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a response to her motion to dismiss, noting that “the Supreme Court has made clear that judges are not immune from criminal liability.”
WISCONSIN JUDGE CLAIMS ‘ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY,’ CALLS DOJ INDICTMENT AN ‘UGLY INNOVATION’
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan leaves the federal courthouse after a hearing on Thursday, May 15, 2025 in Milwaukee. (Andy Manis, File)
“In the end, Dugan asks for this Court to develop a novel doctrine of judicial immunity from criminal prosecution, and to apply it to the facts alleged in the indictment, all without reasonable basis—directly or indirectly—in the Constitution, statutes, or case law,” prosecutors wrote.
“In her lengthy memorandum, Dugan concedes that ‘[j]udges, like legislators and executive officials, are not above the law,’” they said.
“Dugan’s desired ruling would, in essence, say that judges are ‘above the law,’ and uniquely entitled to interfere with federal law enforcement,” prosecutors added.
Federal prosecutors allege that the Milwaukee Circuit Court judge personally escorted Mexican illegal immigrant and domestic battery suspect Eduardo Flores-Ruiz out of the courthouse on April 18 while ICE agents were attempting to serve a warrant.
NEW FOOTAGE SHOWS MILWAUKEE JUDGE CONFRONTING ICE BEFORE ALLEGEDLY HELPING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT EXIT
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. (DHS/Milwaukee Independent via AP)
The surveillance footage recently released by Milwaukee County in response to an open records request appears to show Dugan, wearing her black robe, confronting ICE agents in the courthouse hallway.
MILWAUKEE JUDGE HANNAH DUGAN TO ENTER PLEA IN FEDERAL COURT
Federal prosecutors say members of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), along with federal partners from the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, were preparing to serve Flores-Ruiz with a warrant in a public courthouse hallway on April 18 before his scheduled court appearance with Dugan.
WATCH THE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE:
After becoming aware of what federal officials described as a valid immigration arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz, Dugan allegedly told agents that they needed a judicial warrant and told them to go to the chief judge’s office.
The agents then left their place in the hallway, at which point Dugan allegedly chose not to hold a hearing for Flores-Ruiz and “personally escorted” the suspect and his attorney through a private exit while the victims of his alleged crimes were in the courthouse at the time, the Justice Department said in a press release.
MILWAUKEE COUNTY JUDGE HANNAH DUGAN INDICTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY HELPING ILLEGAL ALIEN EVADE ICE
Supporters of Judge Hannah Dugan protest outside the United States Federal Building and Courthouse in Milwaukee on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP/Todd Richmond)
While Dugan argues that ICE agents interrupted goings-on in the courthouse on April 18, prosecutors say it was Dugan who disrupted proceedings.
“The evidence also will show that agents were not in the courtroom when Dugan took the bench, but that—after being told by a member of her staff that ICE agents were present in the hallway—Dugan chose to pause an unrelated case, leave her courtroom, disrupt proceedings in a colleague’s courtroom to commandeer her assistance, and then confront agents in the public hallway,” the filing says.
WISCONSIN JUDGE ACCUSED OF OBSTRUCTING ICE COULD FACE YEARS IN PRISON, DOJ HAS ‘UPPER HAND’: FORMER PROSECUTOR
Judge Hannah Dugan allegedly told agents that they needed a judicial warrant and told them to go to the Chief Judge’s Office. (Milwaukee County)
Prosecutors say evidence also shows Dugan directing agents to the chief judge’s office even while knowing he was out, then she “quickly returned to her courtroom and, among other things, directed [Florez-Ruiz’s] attorney to ‘take your client out and come back and get a date; and then to go through the jury door and down the stairs’ before physically escorting [Flroes-Ruiz] and his attorney into a non-public hallway with access to a stairwell that led to a courthouse exit,” filings say.
Dugan “did this all just days after thanking a colleague for providing information which explained that ICE could lawfully make arrests in the courthouse hall,” prosecutors stated Wednesday.
The surveillance footage released by Milwaukee County appears to show Judge Hannah Dugan, wearing her black robes, confronting ICE agents in the courthouse hallway. (Milwaukee County)
“Put simply, nothing in the indictment or the anticipated evidence at trial supports Dugan’s assertion that agents ‘disrupted’ the court’s docket; instead, all events arose from Dugan’s unilateral, non-judicial, and unofficial actions in obstructing a federal immigration matter over which she, as a Wisconsin state judge, had no authority,” the document reads. “At the very least, for purposes of deciding this motion, Dugan’s claims to the contrary find no support in the indictment and should be rejected.”
One of Dugan’s defense attorneys, Dean Strang, told Fox News Digital that her counsel has a “good reply” to prosecutors’ Wednesday filing, but her team is waiting until their reply brief, due next Monday, to make it.
The Milwaukee judge has pleaded not guilty to charges filed against her, and a federal judge has set her trial date for July 21.
The FBI is seen arresting Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan on April 25. (Obtained by Fox News)
A federal indictment accuses Dugan of “falsely” telling federal officials in April that they needed a warrant to come into her courtroom during a scheduled appearance by Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented Mexican national facing three misdemeanor battery charges.
Video footage appears to show Flores-Ruiz exiting the courthouse with his attorney, while an ICE agent follows him, and then running alongside the building for about a block before agents capture and arrest him.
Federal officials arrested Dugan a week after the courthouse incident.
Judge Hannah Dugan appeared in federal court to answer charges that she helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant, elude federal arrest while he was making an appearance in her courtroom on April 18. (Scott Olson)
Dugan could face a maximum sentence of six years. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against her. Fox News Digital has reached out to her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, for comment on the footage.
In April, Dugan’s legal team also filed a motion to dismiss the federal case against her, saying the judge “is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts.”
“Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset,” the motion said.
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
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Inbolt, the Detroit-based robot intelligence company, is launching two new capabilities that complete the company’s AI vision model for robot guidance: Inbolt Robot Programming and an expanded Inbolt Robot Control.
Both technologies will debut at the Automate 2026 trade show at Chicago’s McCormick Place from June 22-25.
“Robot deployment still takes weeks because the digital twin never matches the real factory floor, engineers hand-tune every trajectory during commissioning,” says Rudy Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Inbolt. “With Robot Programming, the Vision Model, and Robot Control on a single platform, that gap closes.
“Engineers build the program from the CAD, our vision model locates the real part, and the robot executes the planned path. One platform from perception to motion, on the robots manufacturers already own. That’s AI perception built for the factory floor.”
With Robot Programming and Robot Control, Inbolt says it covers the full path from virtual commissioning to adaptive robot motion control, for stationary and moving-line applications.
Until now, the company says, deploying a robot on a factory floor took weeks as engineers carefully build digital twins of the production line, then spent the commissioning window touching up trajectories point by point because the virtual environment never fully matches reality. If the robot is anchored 2mm off, or parts arrive in unrepeatable positions, every path gets re-taught and tuned by hand.
With the latest release of Inbolt Robot Programming, the programming capability inside Inbolt Studio removes that step entirely. Engineers build the program directly on the CAD model, in the part’s own reference frame. At runtime, the Inbolt Vision Model locates the real part and adjusts the robot’s motion to execute the planned path exactly.
“No teach pendant. No iterative tuning. No separate workflow for moving lines,” says Cohen. “Weeks of commissioning now works in one shot. The digital twin and the factory floor are the same thing.”
The CAD-based release is available for FANUC, Universal Robots, and Yaskawa on dynamic (moving line) applications, with broader brand coverage on the roadmap. Two of Inbolt’s four Automate 2026 booth demonstrations will run it live, so visitors can watch the system go from CAD to executable robot motion in front of them.
“Automate in Chicago is where we plant our flag in the U.S.,” says Albane Dersy, co-founder and COO of Inbolt. “Four live demos, two product launches, a deep integration with FANUC and NVIDIA on the show floor, and a panel on the future of physical AI. Our U.S. footprint has expanded across Stellantis, GM, and Toyota plants this year, our team has doubled, and the U.S. contingent doubles again by year-end.”
Inbolt’s second product release is an expansion of Robot Control, the real-time robot motion execution component of the platform, now running natively on Yaskawa, joining FANUC, KUKA, ABB, Universal Robots, and Comau.
Robot Control streams corrected joint commands directly into the robot’s servo loop at native control frequency, closing the loop between what the vision model sees and how the robot moves. The Yaskawa expansion brings Inbolt’s native robot brand coverage to six, giving manufacturers a single intelligence layer for real-time execution across the brands they already own.
Inbolt also has released updates to the Inbolt Vision Model with improved global part localization models. The model now tracks a wider variety of parts, and the Inbolt Studio dashboard exposes part position, detection status, and live performance tests for each use case. Robotics engineers can troubleshoot and evaluate Inbolt’s performance on their specific station inside Inbolt Studio.
MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee Common Council Steering & Rules Committee will hold a public hearing on Monday afternoon, June 8, to discuss ongoing crime and safety concerns.
This comes on the heels of an apparent street takeover on Milwaukee’s south side on Sunday night, June 7.
South Side safety
What we know:
Back in April, community leaders and residents on Milwaukee’s south side said crime concerns have left many feeling unsafe, prompting a new effort to address the issue.
Common Ground, a coalition of community members and leaders, launched a South Side Safety Plan after six months of research into crime in the area.
The plan outlines five focus areas: accountability, proactive neighborhoods, police relationships, policy reform and prevention. An action team on the south side is expected to help implement those strategies.
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Common Council President Jose Perez was among the leaders participating in that discussion. He told FOX6 News a public hearing would be held on June 8 to address public safety and what still needs improvement.
On the agenda for Monday’s meeting, Perez sponsored a communication file from Milwaukee police about part two crime data. We are expecting to hear about how the Milwaukee Police Department goes about collecting, assessing and reporting crime data.
“Something is going on that people aren’t reporting crime – and many times we can’t address things if we don’t know about them,” said Common Council President Jose Perez.
The meeting is set for 1:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Apparent street takeover
Dig deeper:
Monday’s meeting comes on the heels of an apparent street takeover on Milwaukee’s south side on Sunday night, June 7.
FOX6 News went to the scene near 13th and Mitchell, where a large crowd gathered – blocking the intersection and stopping traffic in all directions. There were cars speeding and doing donuts and motorcycles swerving. Some cars had people on top of or hanging out of them while in motion.
Several Milwaukee police squads blocked off the area with lights activated as crime scene tape went up across different streets. The scene was active for hours, clearing just before 10 p.m.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – This year, the Fourth of July is on a Saturday as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary of signing the Declaration of Independence.
It’s a time where we celebrate our freedom, get outside in the summer and check out some fireworks. If you want to go see a fireworks display this year, but aren’t sure where to go, here’s a list of some popular displays.
Fourth of July Fireworks displays
Minneapolis – Red, White & Boom
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is thrilled to bring back Red, White & BOOM! returns to the Mississippi Riverfront – bringing a full day of free programming, community celebration, and one of the most anticipated fireworks shows in the state.
With more than 50,000 attendees, this all-day event stretches from morning movement to late-night music, ending with fireworks over the river at 10 p.m.
On Saturday, July 4, fireworks will be on display between 8-10 p.m. at Water Works Park and along West River Parkway.
My St. Paul Fourth of July
Celebrate the holiday at the Fourth of July Parade in the St. Anthony Park Neighborhood. Kick things off with an early morning distance race. Enjoy the colorful parade at 11 a.m., then stake out a patch of grass starting to enjoy the program and live music at the Langford Park bandstand.
Edina Fourth of July
Sponsored by Explore Edina, Independence Day fireworks will be held near dusk July 4 at Rosland Park, 4300 W. 66th St. The First John Philip Sousa Memorial Band will perform at 8:30 p.m. The fireworks will follow.
Bemidji Fourth of July
The Annual Water Carnival is organized by the Bemidji Jaycees. A celebrated feature of this event is the Red, White & BOOM Firework Spectacular, which will illuminate the skies over Lake Bemidji on July 4 at dusk. For optimal viewing, head to the southern end of Lake Bemidji.
Excelsior Fourth of July
Celebrate Independence Day and enjoy the only public fireworks display over Lake Minnetonka. Explore downtown Excelsior, support local businesses, and find a spot in Commons Park or near the water to see the fireworks at dusk on July 4.
Lakeville Fourth of July
Enjoy this year’s fireworks display at dusk on July 4, which helps kick off the PAN-O-PROG (“Panorama of Progress”) festival.
Mankato Fourth of July
On July 4, view the Red, Hot & Boom fireworks display from the Minnesota State University Mankato Athletic Fields (191 Stadium Road). Fireworks will begin around 10 p.m. Choreographed music can be heard on FM stations 93.1 (KATO), 94.1 (KXLP) and 96.7 (KDOG).
Pequot Lakes Fourth of July
The Stars and Stripes Days fireworks display will be held July 3 at dusk at Pequot Lakes High School practice field. Great viewing locations include Trailside Parks, Pequot Lakes School, and the TDS parking lot.
Shakopee – Canterbury Park
Canterbury Park hosts a family-friendly celebration on July 3, featuring live racing, music, face painting, pony rides, and more. Following the races, a spectacular fireworks display will begin at 10 p.m., viewable from the outdoor seating area.
Lake Waconia Fourth of July
The Lake Waconia Fireworks Festival, a cherished July 4 tradition, begins. Ideal viewing spots include Lake Waconia Regional Park, Lola’s Lakehouse, InTowne Marina, Sovereign Estate Winery, Vandy’s Grille, or on a boat out on the lake.
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