WAUSAU — The ACLU of Wisconsin has learned that the Marathon Sheriff’s Department has a pending agreement with ICE to partner in a Jail Enforcement Model 287(g) program, which delegates certain immigration enforcement duties to jail personnel.
Already, the White House has reached a total of more than one thousand 287(g) agreements – more than any other administration.
The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office has a history of problematic immigration policies, which include notifying ICE every time a foreign-born person is booked into jail, regardless of their immigration status. Marathon County’s Sheriff's Department is one of the five county sheriff offices the ACLU of Wisconsin is suing as part of a lawsuit to terminate their practice of voluntarily holding people in jail for ICE on detainers.
In response to this news, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin issued the following statement:
“By applying to participate in the 287(g) program, the Marathon County Sheriff is offering to have his department be turned into an arm of ICE's deportation machine. The 287(g) program is notorious for leading to racial profiling, unconstitutional policing, and wrongful detention of US citizens – and it makes communities less safe. People are less likely to seek help and report crime when their local law enforcement is seen as a partner with ICE, and going to the authorities could mean that they, a family member or a friend could be deported.
“In recent months, we’ve seen masked ICE agents storm into neighborhoods across the country, pulling people off the street into unmarked vehicles, zip tying children, and using brutal force against protestors and civilians. Local law enforcement has no business partnering in that effort. The sheriff's department has a duty to serve their community, not ICE.”
The ACLU of Wisconsin’s full, statewide report on the jail-to-deportation pipeline, published in July, is available here: www.aclu-wi.org/publications/deportreport
In 2022, the ACLU published a nationwide study of 287(g) agreements titled License to Abuse: How ICE’s 287(g) Program Empowers Racist Sheriffs.
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