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. This contradicts a statement the Dane County sheriff posted in a political rant on Facebook.
ICE’s definition of “non-cooperative” institution is, “Non-cooperative: No – Notification prior to release AND No – Adequate hold time to assume DHS custody.” In contrast, ICE defines limited cooperation as, “Limited cooperation: Yes – Notification prior to release AND No – Adequate hold time to assume DHS custody.”
Here’s what ICE says about Dane County in the report (the county is located in the Chicago field office’s jurisdiction):
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin 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 in the wake of the arrest in Prairie du Chien of an accused Venezuelan gang member with 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 the 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 has been 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.
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.”
In other words, once inmates reach their release date (on bail or for another reason), Dane County ignores ICE holds and allows the inmates to be released into the community if they aren’t picked up before 11 a.m. on their release date.
Bizarrely, Barrett then added, “And to save any follow up inquiries, we have not taken reports of people eating cats or dogs,” even though no one has raised any concerns about people eating cats or dogs in Dane County.
Barrett is the sheriff who ordered inmates in his jail to be renamed “residents.”
Van Orden’s spokesman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Barrett is trying to distract from the fact that he issued warrants … and never executed them.”
“To maintain situational awareness of impacts to ICE’s ability to transfer noncitizens from jails/prisons, DHS needs accurate information to identify non-cooperative or limited cooperating Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) or jurisdictions, to include their policies, that either prevent state or local enforcement agencies from releasing noncitizens into ICE custody or from sharing certain information with ICE officials,” ICE noted.
As of June 2024, out of 4,156 institutions, only 551 were listed as non-cooperative, ICE wrote.
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report brought the Madison Police Department into it, although that agency doesn’t run the jail. However, the MPD’s policies show that the agency does not cooperate with ICE in all instances in which illegal immigrants are arrested in its jurisdiction, limiting cooperation to those offenders involved in gangs, violent felonies, and terrorism or espionage or were previously deported. That means MPD won’t cooperate with ICE when it arrests illegal immigrants for non-violent felonies or criminal misdemeanors, like drunk driving and a host of other crimes.
As to the specifics of the case, Schaffer wrote, “I looked into Mr. Coronel Zarate’s current situation. He is being held in Crawford County, therefore it would be up to them to communicate with ICE officials. Although he has a criminal complaint warrant in Dane County (based on a Madison Police case), he has not been in our custody and therefore would not have had an ICE hold placed on him in Dane County.”
We asked her how many ICE detainer holds the Dane County Jail/Sheriff has had this year to date, and she told us to file an open records request, which we have done.
Suspected Venezuelan Gangster Attacked Wisconsin Juvenile, Prairie du Chien PD Says
In 2017, before Barrett was sheriff, Madison365 wrote, “New ICE Detainer Orders Go Into Effect Sunday; Dane County Will Continue to Ignore.” We found cases with immigration holds in the Dane County Jail now, however.
