Wisconsin ICE Arrests Up 20%

ICE arrests in Wisconsin from January to the end of July this year increased 22% compared to the same time period last year and most of that increase has come from federal authorities arresting people who have been charged with but not yet convicted of a crime, according to federal data compiled by the Deportation Data Project.

Advocacy groups say the increase in arrests has sown fear and confusion among the state’s immigrant communities, and the intensity of ICE’s tactics have drawn attention and controversy across the country. But Wisconsin has thus far avoided the full brunt of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown compared to the state’s four midwestern neighbors.

Iowa, which of the five states had the lowest number of ICE arrests last year under President Joe Biden, has seen arrests increase 293% this year under Trump.

Illinois, where Chicago has become a focus of federal law enforcement and ICE activity, has seen ICE arrests increase 46% this year.

Minnesota, despite its similarities to Wisconsin in total population and number of Hispanic residents, has seen ICE arrests increase 95% this year.

Last year, Michigan and Wisconsin had nearly equal amounts of ICE arrests. But under Trump, Michigan ICE arrests increased 152%.

Luis Velasquez, statewide organizing director for Voces de la Frontera, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the administration’s tactics have caused fear to spread through immigrant communities across the state — even if the total number of arrests hasn’t increased as much as in other places. And while the numbers haven’t increased substantially, local law enforcement across the state has shown an increased willingness to devote resources to the federal immigration crackdown. The number of county sheriff’s offices participating in a federal collaboration program with ICE has jumped from nine to 14 this year.

“In many ways it is like a psychological warfare that this administration has launched,” Velasquez said.

Tim Muth, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Wisconsin, said the data can’t be used to predict future ICE activity in the state, but in the first eight months of the Trump administration, ICE is working with local law enforcement in ways that have terrified immigrants.

“We don’t want to speculate on individual statistics or on what the future plans of the Trump regime may be, but we can say that increased collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE is instilling a sense of fear and instability in Wisconsin’s immigrant communities,” Muth said in an email. “We know they are ramping up their deportation agenda, and they are relying on local authorities to make it happen.”

Trump was elected after running on a platform of “mass deportations” and taking advantage of a backlash against a spike in the number of people making claims for asylum at the U.S./Mexico border under President Joe Biden. But Velasquez said it feels like ICE’s increased role is doing nothing to address the real challenges of immigration policy.

“There isn’t this thoughtful, strategic conversation, to really solve these issues,” he said. “It has been very radical, the way that it’s been enforced. So on the ground people have lost that kind of sense of let’s talk about solutions. It feels very reactive. People are not shopping, with school started again, there’s fear about ICE going into schools. It’s charged with anxiety and fear. It’s unnecessary suffering that is being caused statewide.”

He points to instances in which people living in the country without legal authorization have been arrested after showing up for court dates or been accused of bizarre crimes by the federal government.

“What people are sensing in one way is this is a system that doesn’t make sense. It’s not working for us,” he said. “And then, on the other hand there’s people who are saying, ‘Well, I can be accused of any crime, and then I could just be detained.’”

The Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security officials have regularly claimed ICE is targeting “the worst of the worst,” rooting out violent criminals and gang members. But NBC5, a Chicago TV station, reported this week it could find no criminal record for people the department arrested on immigration charges, claiming they were violent offenders.

Across the Midwest the increase in ICE arrests has been driven by targeting people who have been charged but not convicted of crimes — a tactic that experts say violates due process and makes communities less safe.

In Wisconsin, under Biden, 56% of those arrested by ICE were convicted of a crime and 9% had pending criminal charges. This year under Trump, 60% of those arrested have been convicted of a crime and 24% have pending criminal charges.

That data includes cases such as Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the Mexican immigrant who had appeared for a court date in Milwaukee County in a misdemeanor battery case when federal agents from ICE, the FBI and DEA arrived at the courthouse to arrest him. That arrest led to federal authorities charging Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan with a felony for allegedly obstructing the arrest.

Nationally, 70.8% of people in ICE custody have no criminal convictions, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

“ICE will continue to prioritize the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes, ensuring our children are protected and justice is served,” the agency, which did not respond to a request for comment, said in a news release on Wednesday about its arrests of six individuals without legal documentation convicted of sex crimes in six different states.

While the administration emphasizes justice when it says it is targeting dangerous criminals, Muth said arrests of people not yet convicted damages the criminal justice system.

“Picking up persons on ICE detainers while charges are still pending subverts the criminal justice system and deprives persons of their right to trial,” he said. “We also remain deeply concerned about the ongoing erosion of due process, as immigrants across the country have been abruptly rounded up by masked agents, detained and arrested without explanation, all while their families are kept in the dark about what’s happening to them. These horrifying scenes point to the federal government’s willingness to ignore the rights of immigrants and betray fundamental principles of our immigration system.”

Luca Fagundes, a Green Bay-area immigration attorney, says ICE operating in courthouses is the “easy road” for rounding up immigrants because people have little choice to avoid a court date — even if the crime is as simple as driving without a license, which immigrants without legal authorization to live in the country are unable to obtain in Wisconsin.

“People are showing up to traffic court, and when their case is called their identity is confirmed, which makes it very easy for an ICE officer to detain them after leaving the courtroom,” Fagundes said in an email. “That person, who showed up for court (again, for perhaps something as simple as driving without a license) is now being arrested and detained by ICE. They will then be transferred to an ICE facility where they wait weeks or months for a bond hearing with an immigration judge. While in ICE custody waiting to see the immigration judge, they typically then miss the next court appearance they may have on their traffic court matter, and that results in a warrant for their arrest on that simple traffic matter.”

“It’s a domino effect of catastrophe for that individual,” she added, “and, if applicable, their family.”

Velasquez said the modest increase in arrests here in Wisconsin has triggered fear. But he said successful organizing efforts to protect migrant farm workers and prevent more law enforcement from signing agreements with ICE may have helped stave off raids on farms and, for now, helped keep Wisconsin’s immigrant workforce safer than workers in other states.

“There’s people who are being detained, so people are feeling it, regardless of the data,” he said. “But I do agree [about] the power of local communities being able to reject and say that we know what’s best for our local communities. We’re not going to be seduced by money, by this administration. … We know our local communities better, and we don’t want our workers to suffer.”

“I think that there are powerful alliances that are being built across Wisconsin,” he continued. “That may be the reason why we haven’t gotten hit. But who knows — that could dramatically change tomorrow, right? So we do recognize the small victories, and this is good news, right? But at the same time, I think we need more dialogue. We need more common sense policies. We need more conversations of what we agree on.”

Wisconsin ICE arrests up 20%, increase largely from people charged but not convicted of crimes was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.