Where I stand
Dane County Law Applies to Everyone, Including ICE
A county sheriff is not an arm of the federal deportation system, and I will not run the office like one.
Here is the record we are leaving behind: until January 2025, Dane County took more federal SCAAP money than any other Wisconsin locality, funding earned by sharing data about people in our jail with the federal government. The county withdrew only after years of pressure from the ACLU. That era is over for good if I am Sheriff. No 287(g) agreements, no data-sharing arrangements that turn a county jail into deportation infrastructure, no exceptions.
And there is a second commitment, because the moment demands it. We have all seen what unaccountable federal enforcement looks like in other cities: masked agents, violence against residents, official stories that fall apart on video. In Minneapolis, it took a county prosecutor to bring state charges against an ICE agent who shot a resident, after video contradicted the federal account. Her words apply here too: a federal badge does not make anyone immune from state charges for criminal conduct.
So let me be plain about how Dane County will work. Wisconsin criminal law protects everyone in this county, and it binds everyone in this county. If any agent, federal or otherwise, clearly commits a violent crime against a person here, my office will investigate it, document it, make arrests where the law requires, and refer the case for prosecution. Whoever you work for. Whatever your badge says.
As Sheriff, I will:
- Keep the Sheriff’s office out of federal immigration enforcement. No 287(g), no SCAAP-style data-sharing. ICE detainers are requests, not warrants, and this office will not hold anyone past their release, or hand ICE a release date or home address, on a detainer alone.
- Local resources for local public safety. Deputies won’t ask your immigration status, run your plates for ICE, or join federal enforcement actions. Whether you can call for help or report a crime should never depend on your status.
- Enforce Wisconsin criminal law without a federal exception. Violent crimes against people in this county get investigated and referred for prosecution, no matter who commits them.
- Document everything. Body cameras, reports, and evidence preserved, because accountability in other cities has depended on the record surviving.
- Keep trust with immigrant communities, because people who fear the badge do not report crimes, and that makes everyone less safe.
If you live here, you belong here. The Sheriff’s office should be something you can call when you need help, not something you have to hide from. Every person in Dane County is safer when the law applies to everyone, and that is the whole idea of the law.