Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett’s office refused 90% of ICE requests to keep accused deportable criminals in the Dane County Jail so far this year, despite claiming he cooperates with ICE in an unhinged politicized rant timed with a Kamala Harris visit, according to dozens of records obtained by Wisconsin Right Now through an open records request.
In 44 of 49 ICE detainer hold requests, Barrett’s department “declined to hold” the accused illegal criminals for ICE. Most of the few accepted holds involved federal judge’s orders for illegal entry charges. Many of the rejected holds involve extremely serious felonies, including an attempted homicide; a child rape case; a carjacking; violence against women, including strangulation; stalking; and repeat drunk drivers, including one facing a 6th offense.
If you count the 5 cases listed by the Sheriff’s Department as dismissed/dropped, Barrett’s rejected percentage is 81%. Some of the detainers for those cases are also stamped “not served” and the accused were convicted of criminal charges. The Sheriff’s agency says Dismissed/Dropped would mean that ICE “did not want a hold placed on the Resident anymore for whatever reason.”
We found one instance where Barrett’s office rejected 3 ICE holds for the same accused criminal from Mexico, Hermenegildo Zagal Reyes, on different dates for things like battery and bail jumping.
We found cases in which accused criminals were released on bail because Barrett’s office refused ICE holds seeking to keep them in jail, and then they reoffended. For example, Leonel Alen Aranguren, who is a non-citizen from Venezuela, was accused of felony carjacking: possessing a weapon in Dane County on Sept. 9. He was released on $3,000 bail on Sept. 11, court records show. ICE asked Barrett to hold Aranguren on 9/5, but Barrett’s agency rejected the request. On Oct. 22, Aranguren was charged with misdemeanor battery. He was released on a signature bond two days later. He required an interpreter.
Saye Gbalah, a deportable alien from Liberia, was accused of 6th offense drunk driving in Dane County on July 24. A court commissioner, Jason Hanson, gave him a signature bond that same day. Twice, he had violations and appeared for new bail hearings in front of Judges Brian Asmus and Ellen Berz. Neither raised his bail. ICE tried to detain him on July 23 when he was arrested, but Barrett’s office rejected the request.
Asked for comment, Elise Schaffer, spokeswoman for the Sheriff, confirmed that the “Dane County Sheriff’s Office requires judicial authority to hold someone in custody. In cases where we have a person in jail who has not been sentenced, we request that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement provide a court document signed by a judge granting the authority to hold that individual.”
However, that almost never happens, according to the open records response.
“If we have someone in custody who is serving a sentence, we will notify ICE of the release date and inform them that they must pick up that individual by 11:00 am. We do not hold people past their scheduled release date unless there is judicial authority,” she said.
In an even more serious case, Nelson W. Mijango Santos is accused of partially “disemboweling” a man with a silver folding knife in a Madison parking lot after telling him, “Do you want to die?” and “Do you want to see the devil with me?” Santos then led police on a dangerous pursuit that ended when he produced a possibly fake firearm that he pointed at officers and a machete-like sword, stabbing himself repeatedly after demanding that officers shoot him, the complaint says.
On June 27, Santos was freed on a $500 signature bond for 2nd offense OWI and operating after revocation. ICE had requested that Santos be held in jail in April, but Barrett rejected the request, the new records show. In fact, Barrett’s office even rejected a SECOND ICE hold request after Santos was accused of stabbing the man. See records here.
In the case of Santos, he remains in custody because he couldn’t post the now $250,000 bail. That’s true of some other cases too. It’s also possible that some of the accused will end up with lengthy prison sentences, and the Department of Corrections might honor a detainer there.
In another case, Juan Romero-Ramirez is listed as being in the Dane County Jail on charges of felony repeated sexual assault of a child. But those charges were filed in 2022, and he was initially released on a signature bond. It wasn’t until 2024 that he was taken back into custody. An ICE hold was declined, but bail was raised, and he’s still in jail after a judge refused a jury’s verdict in his case and ordered another trial.
But in other serious cases, Dane County’s lenient judiciary contributes to releases, and accused illegal immigrant criminals have been released on low bail or signature bonds and are free to roam the community because Barrett wouldn’t honor ICE’s hold requests.
It appears the sheriff rejects most cases in which there isn’t a judge’s order. That’s true even of rape and other extremely violent cases.
For example, Hernan Alvardo Arahuanaza was charged with felony strangulation and suffocation, domestic abuse on May 15, 2024. Dane County Court Commissioner Karie Cattanach gave him a signature bond, which means he could walk out of the jail without paying any cash. ICE tried to keep him in jail, issuing a detainer request the same day he was charged. But the sheriff stamped it “declined to hold.” A plea hearing is scheduled for December. Arahuanaza is listed as being from Peru.
In a similar case, Julio Portillo Salinas was accused of felony strangulation and suffocation and misdemeanor disorderly conduct on June 18 in Dane County. That same day, he was granted a $500 signature bond. ICE had tried to issue a detainer two days before, but Barrett’s office rejected it. Neither Salinas nor Arahuanaza is in jail.
The ICE hold requests say that the Department of Homeland Security has determined the accused criminal is a “deportable alien.” ICE indicated it wishes to hold the individual for processing and asks the Sheriff’s Department to honor the detainer and give ICE at least 48 hours to pick up the person if they are about to be released (either from a sentence, on bail, or for some other reason.)
Read the detainers here:
2023-Detainers-Residents and Holds_Redacted-1
2024-Detainers-Residents and Holds_Redacted-2
Note: In the 2024 totals, we included one 2024 detainer that wasn’t on the list but was still included in the batch.
The data from his own office contradicts Barrett’s unhinged political rant on Facebook in September, when he falsely claimed he cooperates with ICE while trashing a Republican congressman. The sheriff’s rant was timed with Vice President Kamala Harris coming to his community. She has been under fire from former President Donald Trump for weak border policies.
The media largely took the sheriff’s word, but we took it one step further—we filed an open records request asking for all of the ICE detainers for 2024 to date and for 2023, including detainers rejected by the Sheriff’s Department.
It was previously revealed that ICE listed Dane County, Wisconsin, as a “non-cooperative” jurisdiction when it comes to holding illegal immigrant criminals in its jail, according to a June 21, 2024, report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Dane County Sheriff’s own records now explain why.
“Not served” is stamped on many of the detainers, including those for violent crimes.
ICE’s definition of “non-cooperative” institution is, “Non-cooperative: No – Notification prior to release AND No – Adequate hold time to assume DHS custody.”
WRN asked for comment from Barrett’s office. We will update the story if his office responds.
Barrett posted the lengthy rant on his Facebook campaign page after Wisconsin Right Now ran a story about a letter he received from Wisconsin Congressmen Tom Tiffany and Derrick Van Orden after the arrest in Prairie du Chien of an accused Venezuelan gang member who had a warrant out of Dane County.
“Additionally, statement about being ‘non-cooperative’ is false,” Barrett wrote. “To the authors of this inquiry, please aim your political theatrics in a different direction as you try to recover from the thorough, factual and strategic dismantling of your presidential candidate by VP Kamala Harris on Tuesday. The voters of Wisconsin will not be swayed by such remedial tactics.” He shared a Wisconsin Right Now story that described the congressmen’s letter, which included a list of questions for the Dane County Sheriff.
Tiffany responded to Barrett’s statement on his Facebook comment thread, sharing the ICE report and writing, “The Biden-Harris admin listed you as non-cooperative in June. This means you don’t notify ICE prior to releasing aliens or hold individuals for adequate time for DHS. Why lie?”
The letter was provoked by the Prairie du Chien Police Department revealing that a suspected Venezuelan gang member who is not a U.S. citizen now has an ICE detainer hold after he was accused of sexually assaulting a juvenile female in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
The suspect, Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26 of Venezuela, is believed to be a member of “Tren de Aragua,” a violent Venezuelan gang, the Prairie du Chien wrote in the Sept. 6 press release. That’s the same gang that sparked massive outrage and headlines after a video emerged showing gang members at an Aurora, Colorado, apartment building.
As we previously reported, according to online court records, since 2023, Zarate was wanted on warrants out of Dane County, where he was charged, but never showed up for court, with a slew of violent crimes. Those charges are felony strangulation and suffocation; false imprisonment; battery; and disorderly conduct, court records show.
Wisconsin Right Now previously obtained jail booking records that show that the Hennepin County Jail in Minnesota, where Tim Walz is governor, had him in custody for almost three days but then released him, even though Madison had already established probable cause against Coronel-Zarate in a separate choking case. He crossed the border in 2023, according to Prairie du Chien police.
In a previous email responding to our questions on Colonel-Zarate’ case, the Dane County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Elise Schaffer told us, “We do not have a ‘non-cooperation’ policy regarding communication or coordination with ICE. It is our practice not to hold someone past their scheduled release date for ICE. If there is an ICE hold on someone in our jail, they must be picked up before 11 am on their release date.”
What that statement left out? The Dane County Sheriff’s Department declines almost all holds.
Barrett is the sheriff who ordered inmates in his jail to be renamed “residents.”
As of June 2024, out of 4,156 institutions, only 551 were listed as non-cooperative, ICE wrote.
