Former judge who helped violent illegal alien escape ICE gets slap on the wrist



A former judge who helped an illegal alien elude federal immigration officials has been given a slap on the wrist, but she says she will still appeal the sentence.

Hannah Dugan resigned from the Milwaukee County Circuit Court bench after she was convicted for obstructing justice when she helped Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien from Mexico, flee from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

'I have been cast as a scofflaw and as a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who was just trying to do my job. Your honor, I will not let those minutes on April 18, 2025, define my life's work.'

Flores-Ruiz had been arrested for charges that included strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. He later pleaded no contest to the charge of battery and guilty to re-entering the U.S.

In Aug. 2025, Dugan was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice and concealing a person from arrest. She was convicted on the felony obstruction charge and found not guilty on the lesser misdemeanor charge.

On Wednesday, nearly a year after Dugan's indictment, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ordered her to pay a fine of $5,000, but she will not serve prison time.

"I think this is a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment," Adelman said.

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Dugan to prison time between 15 and 21 months.

Dugan remained defiant even in the moments just before Adelman issued the relatively lax sentence.

"My acts that day were consistent with community concerns at the courthouse," she said. "My judicial acts were not done with any malicious intent or to advance any personal interests."

She went on to say that she plans to return to public office after being being "forced" to retire.

"In January, I resigned from my office so the constituents would have a judge in my branch to begin the year," Dugan continued. "I have been cast as a scofflaw and as a hero. I am neither. I am a public servant who was just trying to do my job. Your honor, I will not let those minutes on April 18, 2025, define my life's work."

Dugan's attorneys indicated they plan to appeal the sentence.

RELATED: California Democrat calls for ICE to be abolished after Homan announces 'record' illegal alien arrests

Adelman rejected an argument made by Dugan's attorneys that she was shielded from prosecution out of "judicial immunity" from her position as a judge.

Surveillance video from the courthouse showed the former judge confronting the federal officers and instructing them to go to the office of the chief judge before helping Flores-Ruiz exit through a side door.

Despite Dugan's actions, Flores-Ruiz was tracked down by federal authorities and removed from the U.S. in Nov. 2025.

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Democrat NAILED with brutal backlash for posing in Mexico jersey for World Cup



A Democrat is facing fierce blowback for posting his support for the Mexican soccer team in the World Cup.

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona (D) posted photos of himself and his wife in Mexican soccer jerseys along with hundreds of other fans watching the Mexico versus England match on Sunday.

'You are a fcking disgrace to America.'

"Lots of people out in Tucson to watch Mexico take on England. Tucson and La Rosa sure know how to do the World Cup!" he wrote on the X social media platform.

Many critics responded that it was improper for a politician representing Americans to root for another nation's team.

"It’s your country’s 250th birthday. Where’s your USA jersey?" said Tricia McLaughlin, the former spokesperson for Homeland Security.

"What a fcking clown. Move to Mexico, asshat," said former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker.

"Mexico is a huge rival of United States in soccer. Everybody knows this," read another response. "I don't know who advised you to put on a Mexican jersey as an American politician but it's a horrible look."

"Mark, I say this with all due respect... You are a fcking disgrace to America," said another detractor.

"You pandering c**t. You're a US Senator, you can't be seen wearing the national team jersey of any other country," said another critic.

Less than two weeks earlier, Kelly basically characterized himself as a lukewarm soccer fan. "I'll be honest, soccer was never really my thing. But the World Cup is converting me," he posted on June 25, just before USA's unsuccessful match against Turkey.

Other Democrats have also been heavily criticized for supporting teams other than Team USA in the World Cup.

RELATED: Dems hoping to blame Trump for World Cup failures forced to switch strategy after success

Kelly's support didn't appear to help the Mexican team. Mexico lost 3-2 and was knocked out of the competition by England.

The Democrat is considered one of many possible contenders for the Democratic 2028 presidential nomination, but polling shows he is far behind other candidates.

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Why The Trump Admin Shelved His Signature Trade Deal

Needed some 'rebalancing'

Trump Admin Puts Signature Trade Pact On Ice

'The United States did not agree to renew the USMCA in its current form.'

Alleged border-hopping black widow who drugged, robbed, and killed older men she met on dating apps faces extradition: FBI



A Nevada woman jailed in Mexico is expected to be extradited to the United States to face additional charges for allegedly using dating apps to prey on older men. Federal authorities say the woman drugged, robbed, and killed her victims in twisted romance schemes.

The FBI's Las Vegas Division issued a bulletin in February 2025 about 44-year-old Aurora Phelps, who also went by the names of Aurora Alvarez, Aurora Flores, and Aurora Velasco.

'Drop the case, or I will kill you.'

The FBI said Phelps "met individuals online or exploited those known to her in order to steal their personal information" between approximately 2019 and 2022.

"Mrs. Phelps then used this information to fraudulently access their bank, Social Security, or retirement accounts," the statement read.

"It is believed Mrs. Phelps would sometimes drug her victims without their knowledge to obtain this information," the FBI added. "Mrs. Phelps primarily targeted elderly men; however, she was known to target all age groups as well as women."

KTLA-TV reported that Phelps — a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen — targeted at least 11 individuals on both sides of the border.

One of Phelps' alleged victims reportedly was Robert Erbach, a 67-year-old American retiree who lived in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the pair connected on the Tinder dating app — Phelps under the username "Sissy" — and met at a casino that Erbach frequented in Guadalajara, according to his friends.

Friends said Erbach invited Phelps to the Hard Rock Hotel in Guadalajara to see a friend’s rock band perform in December 2021.

The Times said that "it was the last time Erbach was seen alive."

U.S. and Mexican court records revealed that Phelps drove Erbach’s white BMW SUV to Las Vegas, where she used his personal documents to open a Wells Fargo account under his name.

Surveillance video the FBI obtained captured Phelps using a Wells Fargo ATM to make cash withdrawals with Erbach’s debit card. Phelps drained $50,500 from two of his bank accounts, according to the FBI.

In January 2022, Erbach's son received a text message from his father's phone written in broken English, the Times reported.

According to the FBI, one of messages said Erbach was moving to Quito, Ecuador, and ordered the son to tell family and police to halt any searches for him.

Prosecutors said there were attempts to redirect Erbach's pension payments, but they were unsuccessful because a verified signature was required.

Two days after Erbach's rendezvous with Phelps at the casino, the unidentified body of a man with no identification reportedly was found along a road near Guadalajara. Authorities said the man died from asphyxiation.

It was later revealed that the deceased man was Erbach, according to Newsweek.

In addition, the Times reported that Phelps met a 69-year-old divorced expat from the United States who had a "thriving practice" in Guadalajara. She allegedly met the chiropractor on Tinder in May 2022 and called herself "Sisy."

According to court testimony, Phelps and the chiropractor went to a restaurant where he ordered a chocolate milkshake. The pair went to a hotel after the restaurant, according to the Times.

At the hotel, they allegedly had drinks, and the chiropractor passed out.

Phelps testified that the chiropractor had gotten drunk, but police later concluded he had consumed 1,000 milligrams of Valium "most likely added to his drink or the unattended milkshake," the Times reported.

When the chiropractor regained consciousness, he reportedly asked Phelps to take him back to his home.

According to the Times, a surveillance camera at the house showed the chiropractor barely able to walk outside, and he "fell by the front door, cracked his head on the concrete and began bleeding."

The chiropractor's live-in maid reportedly drew a bath to try to help him wake up.

The Times reported that the maid became suspicious after Phelps told her she was the landlord and that the maid "should consider herself fired."

'She truly believes her lies.'

The maid allegedly called Carmen Garduño — a clinic employee who had worked with the chiropractor for 13 years. Court testimony said Garduño grew suspicious when the maid said the chiropractor appeared drunk, as Garduño said she had never seen him drink alcohol.

Garduño rushed to the house where she found the "pale" chiropractor unconscious in the bathtub, breathing heavily and wearing his doctor’s scrubs backward, according to the Times.

"He was practically absorbing his lips into his mouth," Garduño said in court.

Garduño said she began performing CPR on the chiropractor, and then he vomited, and his breathing steadied, but he remained unresponsive.

When police arrived at the home, Phelps told officers she was the chiropractor's fiancée, court records show.

The Times reported that the chiropractor "would remain unconscious for nearly a week."

Once the chiropractor recovered, he reportedly filed a report against Phelps with the Jalisco state police. The chiropractor claimed Phelps stole approximately $25,000 in cash, electronics, and jewelry, including his wedding ring.

A Jalisco state judge issued an arrest warrant for Phelps for aggravated theft.

The Times reported that the chiropractor then received a call — and the voice on the other end of the line was one he did not recognize. The paper said a man speaking in a thick Mexican accent told him, "Drop the case, or I will kill you."

The chiropractor reportedly ceased pressing his case.

An FBI investigation connected the death of Erbach to the alleged drugging of the chiropractor, the Times reported. FBI agents informed the chiropractor that the threatening call was made by Phelps using a voice-altering app.

The chiropractor agreed to cooperate with authorities and file a separate civil lawsuit against Phelps, according to the Times.

RELATED: He led cops to a dismembered body — now he's charged with murder along with two others

The FBI said a month later, Phelps met Miguel Carrillo — a dual Mexican-U.S. citizen — in Chapala, near Guadalajara.

The Times reported Carillo days later was found dead in an abandoned lot, and his car was found outside a bank — and his bank account was drained.

In November 2022, Phelps reportedly used the Plenty of Fish dating app to meet John Wiens — a 78-year-old divorced and retired mechanical engineer living in Las Vegas.

Wiens' son allegedly was unable to connect with his father.

"Stranger still, his Facebook profile now featured a picture of Wiens photoshopped into a city in Brazil," the Times said.

The son told Mexican investigators he received a text message from his father’s phone that said he had moved to Brazil, which was odd since Wiens did not speak Portuguese.

A neighbor purportedly noticed the front door open at Wiens' home, but he was nowhere to be found.

The Times said Wiens’ dog was left alone with no food or water, plus there were "feces everywhere."

The son reportedly traveled from California to his father's house, obtained his dad's laptop, and was able to access his dad's email account.

"The inbox was crammed with orders from Christian Dior, Gucci, and other designer brands for women’s apparel," the Times said. "The purchases were sent to Phelps’ Las Vegas home under the name of her daughter or to 'Abraham Flores,' the name of her brother."

Authorities said they discovered Wiens' minivan at the Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.

FBI agents obtained surveillance video showing Phelps and Wiens boarding a plane bound for San Diego on Nov. 4, 2022 — just one day after their first date.

The pair reportedly then traveled to Mexico City and checked into a hotel.

The Times said Wiens the next day was found dead in a hotel room bathtub, and an autopsy found he died of a heart attack.

Of 11 possible victims identified so far, three of them were found dead shortly after their encounters with Phelps, according to Spencer Evans, who at that time was a special agent for the FBI Las Vegas Division.

One of the victims spent five days in a coma after Phelps drugged him, Evans said. The Times reported that Phelps allegedly liquidated $3.3 million of the man’s Apple stock and tried to transfer the proceeds to a bank account she controlled.

Mexican authorities arrested Phelps at a Guadalajara bank on Feb. 27, 2023, the Times noted.

The Department of Justice released a statement in February 2025 saying Phelps "has been charged in a 21-count superseding indictment for allegedly luring older men she met through online dating services and stealing their monies for her personal benefit."

Phelps was charged with one count of kidnapping resulting in death, one count of kidnapping, three counts of identity theft, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud, and seven counts of wire fraud.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that a Mexican judge last week sentenced Phelps to 37 years, six months in prison on charges related to the disappearance and death of Erbach.

Sandy Breault, a spokesperson for the FBI's Las Vegas field office, told Newsweek that Phelps "will be extradited to the U.S.— but no date has been set yet."

Evans also stated that "once she incapacitated her victims, Phelps stole their cars, accessed their bank and brokerage accounts to withdraw cash, used their credit cards to make a variety of purchases, including luxury retail goods and gold, and even attempted to access their Social Security and retirement accounts."

Christopher Delzotto, FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, said that "the white-collar criminal, especially when it comes to Aurora Phelps, is no different than a violent criminal. They are psychopaths. She truly believes her lies. She visualizes all of this stuff. She believes it. It has become her reality."

Those with information about Phelps’ alleged romance scams are urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI.

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Mexico has been dumping raw sewage into California for decades — Steve Hilton vows to stop it



California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton (R) has pledged to tackle the cross-border toxic waste issue in San Diego County’s Tijuana River Valley if elected.

On Monday, Hilton posted a video from his recent visit to the Tijuana River, explaining that Mexico is still dumping raw sewage into it. He slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for failing to address the ongoing health and safety crisis.

'If this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is.'

If elected California’s next governor, Hilton pledged that he would immediately declare a state of emergency and demand solutions.

“Today, we’re going to show you what’s going on with this unbelievable, disgusting scandal that’s been going on for 35 years here in San Diego, right at the border, the Tijuana River,” Hilton stated in the video.

“The water that’s flowing there,” Hilton said, pointing toward the river, “that is raw sewage, human sewage from Mexico coming into our country, our state. And then it’s flowing out into the ocean.”

RELATED: EPA uproots 455 DEI and 'environmental justice' workers to end Biden's woke initiatives

GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP/Getty Images

Hilton noted that the Navy SEAL training center in Coronado is roughly 13 miles up the coast.

“Our Navy SEALs are swimming in raw sewage from Mexico,” he stated.

Hilton explained that the white foam in the river was from “forever chemicals” and “toxic waste” from Mexican industrial plants.

“It is just an absolute disgrace,” he added.

“If this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is. ... I will, on day one, declare a state of emergency for this outrageous situation.”

RELATED: Toxic gas linked to cross-border sewage sparks public health scare in San Diego — but county rejects researchers' findings

Steve Hilton. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In 2024, researchers at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego reported finding dangerously high levels of toxic gas in the Tijuana River Valley linked to raw sewage flowing from Mexico into the U.S. The findings sparked public health concerns and prompted a group of local Democratic lawmakers to urge Newsom to declare a state of emergency. Newsom has framed the crisis as “a decades-long federal failure.”

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Pregnant mother found brutally raped and murdered in Mexico after fleeing the US with 7 children, police say



A Mexican prosecutor said authorities discovered the naked body of an Indiana woman abandoned in a ditch in the state of Chiapas over the weekend.

Maurica Lambert said 30-year-old Makala Pendley was raped and beaten to death, according to local authorities who informed the family of the woman's death.

'It just never would have crossed my mind that it would have been him. I've never gotten, like, that type of, like, feeling from him or anything.'

Lambert says her sister was over six months pregnant.

"It just still does not feel freaking real," Lambert said to WXIN-TV. "It just doesn't feel real at all."

A local prosecutor said in an online broadcast that she had been dead between eight and 12 hours before her body was found in the ditch in a small village in the municipality of Zinacantán.

"The deceased woman's death was caused by traumatic brain injury secondary to blunt force trauma," the prosecutor said.

Pendley's death led to a frantic search for her seven children. By Tuesday, Mexican officials said they had located the children and arrested the children's father.

WXIN said it was unable to confirm the arrest with the local prosecutor, but other online reports also reported the arrest.

"I thought it was somebody else. I still feel like it's someone else," Lambert said. "It just never would have crossed my mind that it would have been him. I've never gotten, like, that type of, like, feeling from him or anything."

Lambert said her sister had fled from Indianapolis to Mexico with the children and their father out of fear that the children would be taken away.

In February 2026, Pendley and the children were reported missing to Indianapolis authorities. Mexican officials reportedly found the children and returned them to Pendley.

The Mexican prosecutor said the children's father previously had been detained for numerous crimes that included rape, assault, robbery, fraud, illegal possession of weapons, and intimidation to cause bodily harm.

Lambert admitted her sister had a "toxic, on-and-off relationship" with the father.

RELATED: 23-year-old stripper decapitated 55-year-old boyfriend and immediately fled to Mexico, police say

"We will seek the maximum sentence of 100 years for this perpetrator of femicide," the local prosecutor said about the father of the children.

The prosecutor said the children were in good health and that authorities were working with the State Department to return them to the U.S.

Lambert confirmed the children were returning to Indianapolis along with the remains of their mother.

"She was a good mom," she added. "As moms, you know, we have our bad days, you know what I mean? And she was a good mom, though. She put her kids before she put anything."

Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico and includes a large indigenous population that maintains the Mayan language and culture. Indigenous activists accuse Mexican officials of discriminating against them.

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Trump Mulls At Ending His Signature Trade Deal

'We don’t need anything Canada has'

Trump DOJ files to strip Jamaican fraudster, Indian H-1B scammer, Haitian pervert, and 14 others of US citizenship



Federal officials filed a total of 305 denaturalization cases between 1990 and 2017 — an average of 11 per year. Like the first, the second Trump administration appears keen to make those previous numbers look like child's play.

The Trump Justice Department announced on Monday that it filed denaturalization actions in a handful of federal courts against 17 individuals accused of various crimes including child sex abuse and fraud.

'American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly.'

Those now facing the possibility of having their U.S. citizenship revoked hail from various nations including China, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Haiti, India, Jamaica, and Somalia.

"When criminal aliens exploit the naturalization process by breaking the law, there are consequences," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

"Criminal aliens are lying about their past crimes, including drug dealers, sexual predators, and fraudsters," continued Blanche. "Gaining U.S. citizenship is a privilege, and under the steadfast leadership of President Trump, this Department of Justice maintains a zero-tolerance policy for the abuse of this process."

Among those targeted under this leg of the administration's denaturalization campaign is 50-year-old Neeraj Sharma, a native of India who ran a staffing company in New Jersey, where he filed 11fraudulent H-1B visa petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Sharma, who became a U.S. citizen in late 2017, has been convicted of fraud and misuse of visas. The DOJ seeks to strip him of his citizenship for having allegedly "procured his naturalization by: (1) failing to disclose unlawful acts; (2) providing false testimony; and (3) concealment of a material fact and willful misrepresentation."

RELATED: The case for denaturalization

Joshua Lott/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Foreigners who manage to naturalize can have their citizenship revoked in civil proceedings under Section 1451(a) of Title 8 of the U.S. Code if a court finds that the certificate of naturalization and citizenship order were either "illegally procured or were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation."

To establish that an individual illegally procured citizenship, the government must show that "the naturalized citizen must have misrepresented or concealed some fact, the misrepresentation or concealment must have been willful, the fact must have been material, and the naturalized citizen must have procured citizenship as a result of the misrepresentation or concealment," according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

There are other grounds for denaturalization, including affiliation with an organization that is opposed to organized government or favors totalitarian forms of government; conviction of criminal contempt for refusing to testify before Congress on alleged "subversive activities"; and dishonorable discharge from the military, if naturalization was conditional on service in the military, reported the Congressional Research Service.

Jamaican native Talman Harris is also facing possible denaturalization. Harris was found guilty in 2016 of wire fraud and conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and sentenced to prison the following year for his role in a penny-stock fraud scheme that resulted in a $39 million loss to investors. This scheme took place over an eight-year period, including during Harris' naturalization proceedings.

The DOJ alleges that during the period in which Harris was pursuing naturalization, "he was statutorily required to demonstrate good moral character, he committed a crime involving moral turpitude, committed unlawful acts that adversely reflected on his moral character, and falsely testified about his crime."

Armando Medoza, a 39-year-old originally from Mexico, might also be sent packing for claiming during his naturalization application and interview that he had never committed a crime or offense for which he hadn't been arrested when in fact he had been receiving sexually explicit images of children for years — a crime to which he pleaded guilty years later.

Another pair of depraved individuals on the DOJ's denaturalization list are Jean Claude Alfred, a 68-year-old Haitian native convicted in 1996 of sexually abusing his minor daughter at the same time that he was pursuing naturalization, and Tahir Lekaj, a 43-year-old from Yugoslavia who was convicted of sexually abusing a young child the year before he applied to naturalize.

Abdikadir Ali Kadiye's days as an American citizen may also be numbered. The Somali native admitted to a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent that he had used two identities for admission to the country, according to the DOJ. After he was unable to secure immigration benefits under one name, Kadiye tried again, this time with some success.

"American citizenship is a privilege, and it must be earned honestly. If you come here, break our laws, and lie in your immigration proceedings, you forfeit that privilege," said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. "DHS will not stand idly by while Americans are harmed by criminals including sex offenders, perpetrators of fraud, and drug traffickers who have exploited our generosity and gamed our immigration system."

There have been signals in recent months that the Trump administration intends to file far more denaturalization actions in the coming months.

For instance, internal guidance reportedly issued to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices obtained by the New York Times in December asked that they "supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month" throughout the remainder of fiscal year 2026.

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‘Circle of silence’: Why Mexican cartels are targeting Christians



Christian persecution is happening around the world, and in some places that you would never expect — including Mexico.

Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey that his organization has a World Watch List that tracks persecution across the globe, and what’s happening inside America’s southern neighbor is shocking, to say the least.

“One of the very also present realities there are with the cartels and organized crime,” Brown tells Stuckey, explaining that the cartels target Christians because the church is “bad for business.”

Christianity hurts the cartels, as it keeps young men from getting drafted into their ranks as well as stops potential drug or alcohol users from buying what they make their living on.


This is why many cartel leaders view the Christian church as a threat, and sometimes they “strike with violence” in retaliation.

One Christian church, Brown explains, was targeted by the cartel for not doing as they said.

“The cartels came in one night ... with guns ablazing ... and, you know, forced people out with the clothes on their back. They corralled them in a school building and held them captive there, wouldn’t allow them to escape, wanted people to see that they were being held there,” he recalls.

“There was one bucket in the middle of the room to utilize as the bathroom for a period of 10 days. No water provided. They had to drink water from puddles,” he continues.

There’s also an area of several states in Mexico called “the circle of silence.”

Geographically these states form a circle and represent an area where Christianity and Catholicism are not heavily represented.

“So, you know, there is not a strong presence of the church there to vocalize and to make the message of the gospel known. So, that’s one area of silence,” Brown tells Stuckey.

“They want no presence of Christianity there. They want it to be silenced,” he adds.

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