Only One Wisconsin Community Applies To Join ICE Program
Village would see its police officers become authorized immigration agents.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The Palmyra Police Department in Jefferson County could soon be authorized to make immigration arrests and conduct immigration investigations.
It’s part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Task Force Model 287(g) program.
Through ICE training, police officers become immigration agents who can stop, investigate, interrogate and arrest people strictly for immigration-related offenses.
The police department’s application is still pending, according to a statement released by Palmyra’s Director of Public Safety and Interim Police Chief Paul Blount. He said he sees the program as a “tool, not a blanket immigration enforcement program.”
Palmyra is also the only Wisconsin department that has applied for the Task Force Model. About a dozen sheriff’s offices around the state have signed on to aid ICE through a warrant service or jail enforcement models.
Tim Muth, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, said the ACLU is opposed to any expansion of the Task Force Model in Wisconsin.
“It’s really destructive to the relationship between local law enforcement and immigrant communities that they are sworn to serve and protect,” Muth said.
Palmyra is a village with just over 1,700 residents about halfway between Madison and Milwaukee. In January, Jefferson County Sheriff Travis Maze said his department would not get involved in ICE operations.
Muth said more police departments, both large and small, are applying for the task force program due to the Trump administration’s “aggressive recruiting efforts.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE have reached more than 1,000 partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country as of Sept. 17. That’s an increase of 641 percent since President Donald Trump took office.
ICE says it will reimburse participating agencies for salaries and benefits of trained officers, as well as provide monetary compensation based on performance.
In a statement this month, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said their increased efforts for partnerships was necessary to deport the “worst of the worst” including, she said, “murderers, gang members, rapists, terrorists and pedophiles.”
According to ICE data, 65 percent of people arrested by the agency had no convictions. Over 90 percent had no violent convictions.
Blount said the program would allow his officers to work with federal authorities and gain access to more databases and resources. He also believes it would help “combat serious crimes, such as narcotics trafficking and human trafficking.”
“Our focus is on criminals who threaten public safety—not law-abiding residents,” Blount said. “The core mission of our department remains unchanged: responding to emergencies, enforcing traffic safety, and preventing crime in our community.”
A Wisconsin police department may soon be able to perform immigration investigations, arrests was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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