How Will County Jail React To Trump’s ‘Mass Deportation’ Policy?

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

As Milwaukee reacts to the news of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans for a new processing office on the city’s northwest side, it is local jails and correctional facilities that are expected to become a focus of incoming President Donald Trump‘s announced policy of “mass deportation.”

Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, told CBS News Face the Nation earlier this month that ICE should be given greater access to county jails to arrest and deport immigrants.

“Let us arrest a bad guy in the jail cell where you chose to arrest somebody and put him in the jail cell because obviously he’s a public safety threat,” Homan said.

Homan has also made inflammatory comments threatening to arrest elected officials that thwart or get in the way of the Trump administration’s deportation policy. Most recently, during a speech in Chicago, he announced he would “prosecute” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson if the mayor “knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien.” 

The primary lever for ICE to take custody of someone in a jail is an immigration detainer. It’s a notice from the federal government asking a local agency to hold someone up to 48 hours longer than they otherwise would o allow ICE to take custody of the individual.

In 2018, then-acting-sheriff Richard Schmidt changed Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO) policy for immigration detainers, no longer holding individuals longer than required by state law to honor an ICE detainer request.

Shortly after taking office Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas announced the agency would no longer share information with ICE or honor detainer requests. The decision was a reversal of the direction set by Lucas’ elected predecessor Sheriff David Clarke, who sought to cooperate with ICE beyond simply complying with immigration detainers. During the first Trump administration, Clarke applied to the 287(g) program, which allows local law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals on suspicion of breaking immigration laws, or to issue immigration detainers in their jail.

Urban Milwaukee has asked the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) if Sheriff Denita Ball and her command staff have discussed how the agency will treat immigration detainers once Trump takes office, but has not heard back.

In 2022 the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin (ACLU) estimated there are more than 150,000 immigrants living in Wisconsin who do not have U.S. citizenship. “Their immigration status runs from permanent resident, DREAMER, refugee, to holders of work and student visas, as well as those who are undocumented… And all of them run the risk of being deported through some contact with the criminal justice system.” the organization reported.

As opposed to being convicted of a crime, merely being booked into a jail can kickstart a process that ends in deportation, according to the civil rights organization.

On immigration detainers, a copy of the MCSO policy manual published by the county in 2022 states:

No individual should be held based solely on a federal immigration detainer under 8 CFR 287.7 unless the person has been charged with a federal crime or the detainer is accompanied by a warrant, affidavit of probable cause, or removal order. Notification to the federal authority issuing the detainer should be made prior to the release.

This exact language, or a variation of it, appears in the policy manuals of law enforcement agencies across the country. It was created by Lexipol, a private, for-profit company that provides policies and manuals for law enforcement agencies. The Wisconsin ACLU has charged that the policy language is not strong enough.

“The problem with this language is that ICE always accompanies its detainers with forms labeled ‘warrant’ or ‘affidavit of probable cause,’ but those boilerplate form documents are normally only signed by immigration officers and rarely, if ever, signed by a judicial officer,” the organization stated in its 2022 report.

The MCSO manual also includes a policy stating the agency will not maintain or aid the creation of a federal register of “individual’s immigration status, citizenship status, country of birth, or based on any other protected characteristics of a victim, witness, or suspect of a crime unless required by law.”

While the sheriff maintains the authority to set policy for detainer requests, in 2011, the Milwaukee County Board adopted a policy for the county of not honoring detainer requests from ICE, except under certain circumstances.

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