Wisconsin Republican legislators introduced a bill Feb. 4 requiring county sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in identifying and deporting illegal aliens arrested for felonies.
“Many local law enforcement departments across Wisconsin are already cooperating with federal agencies to enforce the law,” said Rep. Brent Jacobson, R-Mosinee. “However, a minority of sheriffs and Gov. (Tony) Evers have decided to stand in the way.”
In 2024, ICE issued nearly 150,000 detainers for noncitizen criminals.
An ICE detainer is a written request that a local jail or other law enforcement agency detain an individual for an additional 48 hours after his or her release date to provide ICE agents extra time to decide whether to take the individual into federal custody for removal purposes.
Under the proposal, sheriffs must verify citizenship status when they make an arrest. If the individual is not a citizen, they would have to report to ICE. If a detainer has been issued for that individual, the sheriff would have to hold them.
Sheriffs that do not comply would risk losing some of their shared revenue funding. Before this bill had even been introduced, Evers announced he would veto it.
“Enforcing the law and keeping our communities safe is not a partisan issue,” said Jacobson. “If someone is committing felonies while they are in our state illegally, they should be deported. Now that the bill has been introduced, I hope Gov. Evers will reconsider his impulsive decision.”
Troy Beyer, Shawano County Jail administrator, told county public safety committee members Feb. 5 the county recently received a $3,900 grant from the Department of Justice to be used for staffing and overtime costs when working with illegal immigrants.
“What would happen if you had an illegal alien in the jail?” asked Shawano County Supervisor Tess Serrano, the committee chairperson. “What would you have to do to get rid of them?”
Beyer said the first step would be for ICE to issue a detainer.
Sheriff George Lenzner said he had a briefing with ICE officials the previous week.
“They’re only targeting criminals and gang members. We currently don’t have any ICE in Wisconsin,” Lenzner said. “I think what people are perceiving is roundups – they’re rounding up criminals and gang members, and people that are hiding and housing these (criminals). If somebody hides them or houses them, and they’re illegal, they’re going to go, also, but they’re not doing the roundups. They’re not going to the farms in Wisconsin and rounding up people.”
Serrano said she received an email from a school superintendent who said that if ICE showed up at the school, officials would not simply turn over any children to them.
“They were some rumors starting down in Milwaukee and some of the bigger cities here that there were ICE agents,” Lenzner said about the stories of roundups at schools. “It turned out they weren’t ICE agents.
“ICE will notify us if they come. They’re really good with working with the jail, too. If there is a detainer, they will have them out before that detainer express.”
He said that, as of Jan. 31, there were no ICE agents in Wisconsin.
Serrano asked about agriculture workers, many of whom are undocumented.
“In Wisconsin, they had that problem (the last week of January). You had a lot of these big farms where people didn’t show up for work, because they were afraid,” Lenzner said. “There’s only so many ICE agents in the United States. You wouldn’t be able to have them target every state.”
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
Sheriff: Don’t expect ICE roundups in Shawano County
