What have local law enforcement agencies said about cooperating with ICE deportations?
What have local law enforcement agencies said about cooperating with ICE deportations?
Show Caption
Hide Caption
What we know: How far can immigration officials go under new laws?
From executive orders on birthright citizenship to deputizing federal agents, how far can immigration laws go? Here's what we know.
GREEN BAY - As the Trump administration initiates its crack down on immigration, Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis emphasized that local law enforcement is dedicated to protecting everyone in the community, regardless of legal status.
'Always remember that if you're in a situation where your safety is at risk, the Green Bay Police Department is here to help you, no matter where you live or where you come from,' Davis said. 'If you're here in our city, we're here to keep you safe.'
Davis appeared Monday on local Spanish radio station La Mas Grande to discuss immigration and answer questions from the community. His main message was simple: Green Bay Police are not ICE, and they are not responsible for immigration enforcement.
Immigration enforcement in the United States is a federal responsibility and handled through federal agencies like the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. State and local agencies, like the Green Bay Police Department, don't have the qualifications or legal authority to take enforcement action, Davis said.
Local agencies still play a role in immigration enforcement by how much they cooperate with ICE. If ICE asked the police department for assistance, Davis said the decision would depend on what ICE was asking for.
Police officers would not, if asked, go into the community to look for and arrest undocumented immigrants, Davis said. However, if ICE asked the department to block traffic on a street while they conduct work, that may be provided, he said.
Green Bay Police officers will rarely ask for your immigration status
Unless there is a reason tied directly to an investigation, officers will not ask you about your immigration status, Davis said. For example, if police are investigating forgery in the case of someone using a fake green card, questions regarding immigration status may come up.
Outside of investigations where the information is necessary, officers are directed not to ask anyone about their immigration status, Davis said.
'The bottom line is, very, very rarely and almost never, is a Green Bay police officer going to need that information and they're not going to ask you,' Davis said.
If an officer does stop you and asks about your status, you don't have to answer, Davis said, which is protected under the Constitution. You can also file a complaint to the department. Citizen complaint forms are available in English and Spanish.
How will the Brown County Sheriff's Office respond to ICE?
The Brown County Sheriff's Office released a statement Jan. 22 emphasizing that immigration is enforced at the federal level, not local. There have been no federal changes that impact local law enforcement, the statement said.
'We are not aware of any federal immigration enforcement actions in our area. Federal agents are not required to notify local law enforcement of their actions," the statement said. "The federal changes do not impact law enforcement at the local level.
"The Brown County Sheriff's Office priority is the safety of our communities. We are committed to remaining good partners with all the federal law enforcement agencies, and it is important to remember that immigration is written in federal law and is enforced by federal agencies.'
The sheriff's office is one of seven in Wisconsin that have a contract with ICE through the 287(g) program, which allows specially trained state and local law enforcement officers to perform certain immigration enforcement functions under federal oversight.
Brown County operates under the Warrant Service Officer model, which means officers can issue immigration arrest warrants to inmates in Brown County Jail that ICE identifies and hold them in custody for two days past their release date to give ICE more time to pick them up. The contract does not allow officers to interview inmates about their immigration status.
The Press-Gazette attempted to interview Sheriff Todd Delain and was told the sheriff is not doing interviews on immigration at this time.
Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@greenbay.gannett.com or (920) 431-8314. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @vivianbarrett_.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Netanyahu says Iran tried to assassinate Trump as he tries to justify air strikes on Fox News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed during an appearance on Fox News that Iran has tried to assassinate Donald Trump twice. Netanyahu, who sought to justify Israel's recent waves of missile strikes in Iran, asked host Bret Baier whether 'these people who chant 'death to America'' and 'tried to assassinate President Trump twice' should 'have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to your cities.' Baier then pressed Netanyahu about his claim that Iran launched two assassination attempts. 'Through proxies, yes.' he said. 'Through, through their intel, yes, they want to kill him,' he added. 'He's enemy number one.' In July, the Secret Service ramped up security for Trump in the weeks leading up to an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after learning of a plot to kill then-candidate Trump. In September, the president claimed there were 'big threats on my life by Iran.' The Department of Justice in November charged Farhad Shakeri with trying to conduct a murder-for-hire plot against Trump. 'He's a decisive leader,' Netanyahu added. 'He never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak, giving them basically a pathway to enrich uranium, which means a pathway to the bomb, padding it with billions and billions of dollars.' Netanyahu referenced Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement brokered by former president Barack Obama's administration. The Israeli prime minister said missile strikes that have killed top military officials and nuclear scientists have sought to curb Iran's nuclear program and prevent the regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 'I think we've sent them back quite a bit,' he said. 'I think they were completely surprised. And, you know, surprise is the is a great element of success.' Baier also asked Netanyahu when he told Trump he would launch the strikes on Iran. 'Obviously, we informed our American friends and President Trump, our great friend, ahead of time,' he said. Administration officials have sought to distance the White House from the attacks, though Trump last week said last week — before the attacks — that a military operation against Iran would 'blow' negotiations his administration has tried to broker over its nuclear program. Talks scheduled for Sunday were canceled. The strikes — which preceded Iran conducting any strikes on Israel in kind — followed Trump's deployment of Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to lead negotiations with Iran. Netanyahu said he would be open if Iran complied with Trump's demands. 'I said it is worth it if they'll do what the president wants, and that is eliminate their enrichment capacity,' he said. 'You know, that's a lot better than my having my country, my forces, my brave pilots, having to do it.'
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The GOP's big bill would bring changes to Medicaid for millions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has been clear about his red line as the Senate takes up the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill Act: no Medicaid cuts. But what, exactly, would be a cut? Hawley and other Republicans acknowledge that the main cost-saving provision in the bill – new work requirements on able-bodied adults who receive health care through the Medicaid program -- would cause millions of people to lose their coverage. All told, estimates are 10.9 million fewer people would have health coverage under the bill's proposed changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. That includes some 8 million fewer in the Medicaid program, including 5.2 million dropping off because of the new eligibility requirements. 'I know that will reduce the number of people on Medicaid,' Hawley told a small scrum of reporters in the hallways at the Capitol. 'But I'm for that because I want people who are able bodied but not working to work.' Hawley and other Republicans are walking a politically fine line on how to reduce federal spending on Medicaid while also promising to protect a program that serves some 80 million Americans and is popular with the public. As the party pushes ahead on President Donald Trump' s priority package, Republicans insist they are not cutting the vital safety net program but simply rooting out what they call waste, fraud and abuse. Whether that argument lands with voters could go a long way toward determining whether Trump's bill ultimately ends up boosting — or dragging down — Republicans as they campaign for reelection next year. Republicans say that it's wrong to call the reductions in health care coverage 'cuts.' Instead, they've characterized the changes as rules that would purge people who are taking advantage of the system and protect it for the most vulnerable who need it most. What's in the bill House Republicans wrote the bill with instructions to find $880 billion in cuts from programs under the purview of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has a sprawling jurisdiction that includes Medicaid. In the version of the bill that the House passed on a party-line vote last month, the overall cuts ended up exceeding that number. The Kaiser Family Foundation projects that the bill will result in a $793 billion reduction in spending on Medicaid. Additionally, the House Ways & Means Committee, which handles federal tax policy, imposed a freeze on a health care provider tax that many states impose. Critics say the tax improperly boosts federal Medicaid payments to the states, but supporters like Hawley say it's important funding for rural hospitals. 'What we're doing here is an important and, frankly, heroic thing to preserve the program so that it doesn't become insolvent,' Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, meanwhile, has denounced the bill as an 'assault on the healthcare of the American people' and warned years of progress in reducing the number of uninsured people is at risk. Who would lose health coverage The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the GOP's proposed changes to federal health programs would result in 10.9 million fewer people having health care coverage. Nearly 8 million fewer people would be enrolled in Medicaid by 2034 under the legislation, the CBO found, including 5.2 million people who would lose coverage due to the proposed work requirements. It said 1.4 million immigrants without legal status would lose coverage in state programs. The new Medicaid requirements would apply to nondisabled adults under age 65 who are not caretakers or parents, with some exceptions. The bill passed by the U.S. House stipulates that those eligible would need to work, take classes, or record community service for 80 hours per month. The Kaiser Family Foundation notes that more than 90% of people enrolled in Medicaid already meet those criteria. The legislation also penalizes states that fund health insurance for immigrants who have not confirmed their immigration status, and the CBO expects that those states will stop funding Medicaid for those immigrants altogether. Why Republicans want Medicaid changes Republicans have cited what they call the out-of-control spending in federal programs to explain their rationale for the changes proposed in the legislation. 'What we are trying to do in the One Big Beautiful Bill is ensuring that limited resources are protected for pregnant women, for children, for seniors, for individuals with disabilities,' said Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., in a speech on the House floor. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso argued that Medicaid recipients who are not working spend their time watching television and playing video games rather than looking for employment. Republicans also criticize the CBO itself, the congressional scorekeeper, questioning whether its projections are accurate. The CBO score for decades has been providing non-partisan analysis of legislation and budgetary matters. Its staff is prohibited from making political contributions and is currently led by a former economic adviser for the George W. Bush administration. What polling shows While Republicans argue that their signature legislation delivers on Trump's 2024 campaign promises, health care isn't one of the president's strongest issues with Americans. Most U.S. adults, 56%, disapproved of how Trump was handling health care policy in CNN polling from March. And according to AP VoteCast, about 6 in 10 voters in the November election said they wanted the government 'more involved' in ensuring that Americans have health care coverage. Only about 2 in 10 wanted the government less involved in this, and about 2 in 10 said its involvement was about right. Half of American adults said they expected the Trump administration's policies to increase their family's health care costs, according to a May poll from KFF, and about 6 in 10 believed those policies would weaken Medicaid. If the federal government significantly reduced Medicaid spending, about 7 in 10 adults said they worried it would negatively impact nursing homes, hospitals, and other health care providers in their community. For Hawley, the 'bottom lines' are omitting provisions that could cause rural hospitals to close and hardworking citizens to lose their benefits. He and other Republicans are especially concerned about the freeze on the providers' tax in the House's legislation that they warn could hurt rural hospitals. 'Medicaid benefits for people who are working or who are otherwise qualified,' Hawley said. 'I do not want to see them cut.'
CBS News
12 minutes ago
- CBS News
2 of 4 detainees who escaped Newark ICE facility remain missing, FBI says
Two of the four men who escaped Newark's Delaney Hall immigration detention center last week remain missing, the FBI says. The agency is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to their arrests. The FBI has identified the escapees as Franklin Norberto Bautista Reyes, 20, and Andres Felipe Pineda Mogollon, 25. According to the FBI, Reyes had previously been arrested on aggravated assault and possession of a weapon charges. They say his last known address was in Long Branch. The FBI says Mogollon was arrested on petty larceny and residential burglary charges. He is known to have ties to Queens and his last known address was in Newark. Anyone with information is asked to call the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line at 1-866-347-2423. The other two men who escaped have since been taken back into custody, the FBI says. Delaney Hall detainees escaped through hole in wall, ICE says The four detainees got out through a hole in a wall of the facility, ICE told lawmakers. The escape happened amid an apparent period of tension inside the facility Thursday night. Family members of those being held at the facility said detainees were not fed for 20 hours, and when they were finally given food, it was a small amount. "[My husband] said, for that reason, a small group of people had started to rile up and started to riot. He said they were breaking things, just trying to get anybody's attention, because they are constantly ignored," the wife of one detainee said Thursday night. Loved ones alleged other poor treatment, such as unhygienic conditions and inconsistent visitation hours. "They have posted hours that people can do visits, but still, when they get here, those hours are no longer valid," Faith of NJ Executive Director Charlene Walker said Friday. "A lot of times, people are driving four, five, six hours just to get here and be turned away. Or if they get inside, it's only for a few minutes." Protesters showed up outside the facility late Thursday and on Friday, at times clashing with ICE agents. Vans were seen leaving Delaney Hall on Friday, apparently relocating detainees to an undisclosed location. The Department of Homeland Security has denied claims of widespread unrest within the facility and said they provide high quality services. ICE detention center sparks controversy in Newark, N.J. Sen. Andy Kim and Rep. Rob Menendez made an unannounced congressional oversight visit Friday. Kim said ICE is conducting a security review of the facility to decide if it will be shut down. The facility has been a source of controversy in Newark since ICE announced it would be reopening back in February. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has repeatedly claimed the facility opened without undergoing necessary inspections or acquiring proper permits. DHS denies the allegations. On May 9, Baraka was arrested outside Delaney Hall during a visit with members of New Jersey's congressional delegation and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped, but Congresswoman LaMonica McIver was charged with impeding law enforcement for the same incident. Baraka, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit over his arrest.
