ICE’s 287(g) to be implemented in Waukesha County

As of this month, a number of Waukesha County Sheriff Correction Officers are trained and ready to comply with 287(g), an ICE partnership program that delegates power to state and local law officers to enforce immigration law on their behalf. Named for Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the program allows certified officers and staff to process arrested individuals for legal status, and turn them over to ICE for deportation proceedings if they are found to lack status.

Eric Severson, the Waukesha County Sheriff, confirmed that several staff members of the county jail have recently been certified in 287(g). The program will be implemented starting in late July or early August. All suspected undocumented aliens brought in, even for minor traffic violations, will be processed. The implementation of the program is expected to result in a local surge of undocumented immigrants being turned over to ICE for deportation proceedings.

According to ICE’s official website, the program prioritizes criminal aliens, especially those that pose the greatest security threat. Training lasts four weeks, and includes “coursework in immigration law, the use of ICE databases, multi-cultural communication and the avoidance of racial profiling.”

Of course, critics point out that racial profiling is inherent to the program and endemic in its implementation. Several major cases of law enforcement abusing Hispanics in particular have been documented. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona was notoriously found by the Department of Justice to conduct ‘sweeps’ of Hispanic neighborhoods, and the ACLU has often argued that 287(g) drains resources from law enforcement, distorts their mission to serve and protect, and generates increases in civil rights abuses and racial profiling incidents.

We at Soberalski Immigration Law are very concerned for those in our community who may fall victim to Waukesha County’s 287(g) partnership with ICE. The program is aimed at putting immigrant communities in fear and potentially breaking up families. That is why we urge everyone to follow this link to the ACLU’s printable Know Your Rights document: https://www.aclu.org/files/kyr/MKG17-KYR-PoliceImmigrationFBI-OnePager-English-v01.pdf