A Massachusetts judge might face prosecution after a federal appeals court on Feb. 28 declined to dismiss a case in which she’s accused of blocking the arrest of an illegal immigrant. In a criminal case filed during the Trump administration, Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph is accused of impeding a federal immigration arrest of a defendant in her courtroom in 2018. Court papers say the judge blocked a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent from detaining a man who fled the court through a rear door. Her lawyers sought to argue that she should have immunity as a judge to allow the illegal immigrant to leave the courtroom, and that the prosecution was unconstitutional. However, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston rejected an appeal to dismiss the case, saying it was “premature.” The three-judge panel said that absent an explicit statutory or constitutional right to …