Milwaukee, WI — The Milwaukee County Sheriff announced that his department will no longer be honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcmeent (ICE) detainer requests. Sheriff Schmidt will instead enact a policy in which his department will notify ICE that the department is about to release an individual from custody that ICE has targeted for deportation. The notification will be done even in the absence of a judge’s warrant.
Immigration groups point out that the new policy continues the practice of allowing for ICE to arrest the person for deportation and separation from their family.
“This new policy games the system by continuing collaboration with ICE in the separation of families,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera.
“We call on Acting Sheriff Schmidt to amend this policy to not share information with ICE in absence of a judge’s warrant”, said Neumann Ortiz.