Wisconsin sheriffs would have to cooperate with ICE under GOP proposal

Wisconsin Republicans on Tuesday announced they will introduce a bill to require people detained on felony charges to provide proof of legal U.S. residency.

If a person cannot provide that information, the proposal stipulates, local sheriffs — who oversee jails — would have to report the person to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or face a reduction in state aid to their community.

“This is for illegal immigrants that are criminals, that have committed serious acts, that have been arrested and detained by our sheriffs and our local police,” said Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth, who co-authored the proposal. “We need to inform the federal government that they are here and the Trump administration will send them back to the countries in which they came from.”

As written, the bill would also require county sheriffs to comply with federal detainer warrants, in which local jails hold an unauthorized immigrant for longer while Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, investigates them.

Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, said localities could then apply to the federal government for reimbursement for the costs associated with detaining someone being investigated as unlawfully in the country.

“We don’t want Wisconsin on the hook for this,” he said.

Currently, local law enforcement has discretion of whether or not to investigate a person’s immigration status during an arrest, and does not have to comply with federal detainer requests.

Gov. Tony Evers, who has been outspoken in his criticism of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, said immigrants have an important role to play in Wisconsin’s economy.

“I think that’s a decision to be made county-by-county. Sheriffs are public officials or run for election. They should be able to make those choices,” Evers told reporters Tuesday at an event near La Crosse. “We don’t need the Republicans and Madison telling sheriffs what to do.”

Evers previously said he would likely veto the proposal if it passes the Legislature.

The announcement comes as the Dane County’s Sheriff’s Office recently announced it would cut ties with a federal program known as the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP. That program allows local agencies to be partly reimbursed for the costs of jailing some unauthorized immigrants, provided those immigrants have been jailed for at least four days and have convicted of at least one felony or two misdemeanors.

Bradley said there would be consequences for communities whose sheriffs don’t report unauthorized people in their jails to DHS.

“We know from recent media that there are sheriffs in our state that are not interested in complying with federal law,” Bradley said. “Our message to them is, ‘Do not put your personal politics above the safety of the citizens who elected you.’”

Those consequences would include a reduction in state funding to counties whose sheriffs don’t provide annual proof that they’ve complied with the requirements of the bill.

Both Milwaukee and Dane Counties currently do not hold people on immigration detainers. Speaking to WPR, Dane County Executive Melissa Agard said it’s “not the job of county governments to be engaged in immigration enforcement.”

“The sheriff is an elected official,” she said. “I think what we heard is that this program doesn’t match how it is that people in Dane County want their government working for them.”

Trump made the mass deportation of immigrations a cornerstone of his campaign for reelection, and signed several executive orders on the first day of his second term last month aimed at tightening immigration controls. The first bill he signed this term, named for a young woman who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant, requires federal officials to detain immigrants who have been charged with certain crimes.