This is an opinion piece.
There are two immediate things that Wisconsin law enforcement and prosecutors can do to help further the public’s knowledge of illegal immigration:
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- Wisconsin sheriffs could start including ICE holds on their daily public jail lists. Some county sheriffs do this already in Wisconsin (and you’d be surprised which ones) but most do not. It would be ideal if they would also note if they refused an ICE hold.
- Tell the public if a suspect is an illegal immigrant when writing a press release or criminal complaint on an arrest or charge involving a crime.
Prairie du Chien police and Fond du Lac County DA Eric Toney have led the way. Prairie du Chien police revealed that a suspect in a sexual assault was a Venezuelan gang member, which sparked a Trump rally and national news coverage of the angle.
Toney has released illegal immigration status to the public.
That sparked headlines like this one on Fox 11 News, “Man in country illegally convicted in knife attack on wife during argument in Fond du Lac.” It’s likely the angle would have been ignored or missed without Toney including it in a press release.
Most agencies do not do this. It’s actually very hard for the media to figure out which inmates are illegal immigrants otherwise.
It requires open records requests or anonymous sources. Most reporters won’t go looking for it. Prairie du Chien and Toney proved the media will report on immigration and crime if you make it easy for them.
Taking the above actions would help educate the public and provoke more balanced news coverage. It’s also more transparent for victims, who have a right to know if a person who victimized them or a loved one was legally in this country or not.
Let’s talk about the jail lists for a second. This should be an easy thing for sheriffs to do with minimal expenditure of resources. In fact, the disclosure could be modeled on the Parole Commission’s new transparency efforts, although that is mandatory.
State law now requires that the Parole Commission inform the public on its website about which inmates are being considered for parole (and released on parole). There is also required statistical data disclosure. See the website.
In the past, it was extremely difficult for the news media and public – but most importantly for victims – to learn who was coming up for parole or being released in Wisconsin. In fact, we won a major journalism award for our series documenting a systemic failure by the state to notify victims’ families of paroles. That led to new legislation mandating this level of transparency.
In contrast, which jail inmates are illegal immigrants is still cloaked in secrecy. In most counties, it would take an open records request to learn the information – like used to be the case with parole in Wisconsin. And that’s a very time-consuming process. Some counties have ignored our requests. Others comply fast.
Here are some examples of inmates who are currently in jails that DO disclose ICE/immigration holds in their jail lists in Wisconsin. But, again, it’s rare. You can see how valuable this information would be to know, and how some (but not most) jails disclose it. It would also be useful if the jails disclosed when they REJECT an ICE hold because, in some jurisdictions, that’s happening a lot.
We were able to write a number of stories on the topic due to the counties that DO include the information on jail lists, but the vast majority do not. See those stories here.
