Marathon County Sheriff’s Dept. investigated over cooperation with ICE

The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office is getting sued over their cooperation with ICE. 

They’re being sued by the ACLU of Wisconsin for complying with requests from immigration officials to hold people longer than they should so ICE can come and deport them.

Those requests are called ICE detainers, and they allow sheriffs to detain people for an extra 48 hours.

Hannah Schwarz is a staff attorney with the ACLU of Wisconsin. She said being unlawfully present in the U.S. isn’t a crime. It’s a civil violation.

“So continuing to detain someone is, under Wisconsin law, this is something we argue, is an arrest, and by arresting someone for being unlawfully present in the United States, you are arresting them for a civil violation”

People can only be arrested for civil violations under specific circumstances…none of which include being undocumented. 

The ACLU argues that honoring an ICE detainer is not an arrest that Wisconsin law enforcement has the authority to make.

Schwarz said they’re waiting for the state Supreme Court to take up the case. The lawsuit was filed in September. 

“So if we won this lawsuit, it would mean that local sheriffs wouldn’t be able to detain immigrant detainees on behalf of ICE,” Schwarz said.

The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit.

The ACLU of Wisconsin also put out a statement denouncing a potential partnership between the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office and ICE. 

The 287-G partnership, which follows a Jail Enforcement Model, would allow Marathon County sheriffs to use jail facilities as an ICE detention center.

That means local jails could detain people for longer periods of time than an ICE detainer requests. 

According to an ACLU report, 13 Wisconsin sheriff’s departments have a partnership with ICE.