LETTER: Judge’s conviction spotlights U.S. immigration inhumanity 

To Ozaukee Press:

Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, who has now stepped down from the bench, was convicted by a federal jury of felony obstruction for directing Eduardo Flores‑Ruiz, an undocumented immigrant, toward a back exit after learning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were waiting in the building. If the conviction is upheld, Dugan faces up to five years in prison.

In her resignation letter, Dugan writes: “As you know, I am the subject of unprecedented federal legal proceedings, which are far from concluded ... I am pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary.”  

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign issued a coalition statement contending that the conviction sets “a dangerous precedent,” and that “this case was never about one individual. It was about whether people can still walk into a courthouse without fear and trust the justice system to protect them.”

Notably, leaked ICE data analyzed by the Cato Institute show that 73% of people booked into ICE detention this fiscal year have no criminal convictions, nearly half lack even pending charges, and only 5% have violent convictions—contradicting claims of targeting “the worst of the worst.”

Current threats of denaturalization against “disloyal” citizens and mass deportations to El Salvador’s mega-prison—often ignoring due process or torture allegations—relegate migrants to a downgraded humanity.

Comprehensive reform has stalled for over two decades, leaving millions in precarious status—the undocumented, Dreamers (DACA), people with temporary protected status, and long-term residents—whose basic life conditions depend on fragile, reversible policies rather than secure legal personhood.

Congress keeps in place a hierarchy where some people are fully recognized humans (citizens), while others are only partially recognized and can be detained, deported, or excluded with fewer protections because their legal status is unresolved or deliberately kept temporary.

While the ideological façade of Trump’s immigration policies is the protection of U.S. citizens, its goals clearly include humiliation and cruelty.

Honoring the dignity of immigrants, including those without legal status, is an act of resistance, an attempt to reclaim humanity from a restrictive, legally imposed form. 

If appellate courts overturn Dugan’s conviction, they will keep open a small, vital space where the law can still be forced, by both judges and movements, to acknowledge a humanity it did not create and has no legitimate authority to erase. 

Terry Hansen

Grafton