DOJ: New Mexico, Wisconsin Judges Who Helped Illegal Aliens Face Years in Prison

The two judges arrested in connection with harboring or hiding illegal aliens — one of them a dangerous Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang member, authorities allege — face years in prison.

Former Judge Jose Cano and his wife, Nancy, 67 and 68, who permitted the illegal-alien terror gang suspect to reside at their home, could land in federal prison for 20 years.

Judge Hannah Dugan, 65, the jurist in Wisconsin who helped an illegal alien escape arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is looking at a possible sentence of five years.

New details about the cases emerged on Friday in the U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) summary of the criminal complaints.

Cano Connection

The legal perils for Jose and Nancy Cano, as JP reported last week, began in March, when immigration authorities arrested TdA terror suspect Cristhian Ortega-Lopez at Cano’s home.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) received a tip that Ortega-Lopez, an illegal Venezuelan who jumped the border in December 2023 at Eagle Pass, Texas, unlawfully possessed firearms.

Photos and video on social media depicted Ortega-Lopez with myriad weapons, including “a Sig Sauer P365 handgun, an AR-15 rifle equipped with a suppressor, and other high-powered firearms and ammunition,” the Justice Department alleges:

Distinctive tattoos confirmed Ortega-Lopez’s identity in the photos and videos. Further review of his social media activity revealed content suggesting affiliation with Tren de Aragua, including gang-related tattoos, hand gestures, and clothing.

In January, a tipster told HSI that Ortega-Lopez and other illegals were living at a property in Las Cruces owned by Cano and his wife. In February, HSI searched the premises. They bagged Ortega-Lopez with “multiple associates” and seized four firearms.

The Cellphones

Agents also seized three cellphones. Told he could make a phone call, the terror suspect told agents that the phone he wanted to use wasn’t among the three. “Video calls … later showed Nancy Cano holding a black iPhone believed to be Ortega’s fourth phone,” DOJ alleges:

In a March 7 call with Ortega-Lopez, Nancy Cano used the device to contact a person named “Michelle” via WhatsApp, then facilitated a FaceTime conversation between Michelle and Ortega-Lopez using her personal phone. Additionally, in an April 20 call, Nancy Cano and Ortega-Lopez discussed deleting his Facebook account — a platform where he had previously shared incriminating content, including gang affiliations and images with firearms.

On April 24, HSI agents executed a subsequent search warrant at the Cano residence to locate the missing cellphone. During questioning, Jose Cano admitted to destroying Ortega’s cellphone by smashing it with a hammer approximately five weeks prior, believing it contained incriminating photos and videos of Ortega with firearms.

Forensic analysis of the recovered phones revealed messages linked to Ortega’s criminal activities, including affiliations with the Tren de Aragua gang and images of Ortega with firearms.

The Canos could land 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of evidence tampering and conspiracy to tamper with evidence.

Speaking on Fox News, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi offered details about Cano’s destruction of evidence and the images on one of Ortega-Lopez’s phones.

After smashing the phone with a hammer, Cano “walked the pieces to a city dumpster to dispose of it to protect him. As for Ortega-Lopez, “This TdA member … had on a necklace that said ‘kill,’ something about death, he had tattoos all over him,” Bondi explained:

He also had on his cell phone pictures of two decapitated victims. Two victims, decapitated. Gruesome photos. And he was sending them out. And whoever he was sending them to was sending back saying “hey, you need to be careful. You shouldn’t be sending these. You shouldn’t be texting these photos out.”

Bondi also said the judge and his wife gave Ortega-Lopez a rifle that he fitted with a suppressor and used at a firing range.

Jury-door Escape

Dugan’s big mistake was interfering with ICE agents on April 18. With a lawful warrant, they tried to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a previously deported illegal Mexican. He faced multiple counts of domestic abuse. Prosecutors say the thug punched a man 30 times in a fight, then beat the tar out of a woman who tried to stop it.

Agents tried to arrest the desperado “in a public hallway following his court appearance before Judge Dugan,” DOJ alleges. But the far-left Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge was having none of that law-and-order nonsense in her courthouse.

Once Dugan learned the agents were in the hall, she “confronted and ordered federal agents to leave the courthouse,” DOJ alleges, then refused to honor a “valid immigration warrant.” Dugan told the agents they must get a judicial warrant from the circuit court’s chief judge. That’s when she helped the Mexican goon try to lam it.

“Once the agents were no longer in the vicinity of her courtroom, Judge Dugan allegedly elected not to conduct a hearing on Flores-Ruiz’s criminal case, despite the fact that victims of his offense were present, and instead personally escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through a restricted ‘jury door’ exit not typically used by defendants or attorneys,” DOJ alleges:

This doorway led to a non-public hallway through which Flores-Ruiz and his attorney exited her courtroom. According to the affidavit, Judge Dugan’s actions directly resulted in Flores-Ruiz temporarily avoiding federal custody. He was ultimately arrested outside the courthouse, following a brief foot pursuit.

If convicted of obstruction of proceedings and concealing a person to prevent arrest, Dugan could land in federal prison for five years.

Flores-Ruiz

Bondi also spoke about the illegal Mexican, Flores-Ruiz.

“He had beat up two people, a guy and a girl,” she told Fox News. “Hit the guy 30 times, knocked him to the ground, choked him, [and] beat up a woman so badly they both had to go to the hospital.”

Despite that, learning that ICE was waiting to arrest him, Dugan “goes out in the hallway [and] screams at the immigration officers,” Bondi continued:

She’s furious, visibly shaken, upset. Sends them off to talk to the chief judge. She comes back in the courtroom … takes the defendant and the defense attorney back in her chambers, takes them out a private exit and tells them to leave, while a state prosecutor and victims of domestic violence are sitting in the courtroom.