ACLU shines light on ICE Detentions in Brown County

GREEN BAY, Wis (WGBW) – The ACLU of Wisconsin says at least three Wisconsin county sheriffs‘ offices have made recent deals with ICE to house and transport detained immigrants. Brown County is one of the counties named.

Using open records requests, The ACLU says it found a financial arrangement between ICE and Brown County from April of this year. The agreement with ICE provides funding specifically for “Detention and Transportation Services” with a contract value of $90,000.

Included in the agreement:

• ICE is purchasing $63,000 in detention services from the Brown County Sheriff, which are reimbursed at a rate of $70 per detainee per day.
• An increase to $27,000 in transportation services (escort and stationary guard rates), which are reimbursed at $36 per hour.
  

The ACLU also names Sauk and Ozaukee Counties as working with ICE. 

“These new agreements in Brown, Ozaukee, and Sauk counties underscore a concerning trend: local sheriffs are not only passively complying with ICE requests but actively entering into and benefiting from direct financial arrangements to house and transport immigrants for ICE removal,” ACLU of Wisconsin Senior Staff Attorney Tim Muth said. “We may see more of these arrangements to house detained immigrants in county facilities in the near future, as the recently signed federal budget bill assigns billions of dollars to ICE for funding efforts with local law enforcement.”

These three counties are the latest Wisconsin counties to work with ICE. Others, including Winnebago County, have been highlighted by the ACLU in the past.