Informal inquiry falls short of advocates' call for investigation into immigration agency ties
By Steve Schultze
Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
July 15, 2010
Milwaukee County supervisors said Thursday they wanted more details on Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.'s policies on dealing with illegal immigrants, but the informal inquiry falls short of the "immediate formal investigation" called for by immigrant advocates.
Voces de la Frontera and other advocates sought an investigation of links between the sheriff's office and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, citing anecdotal evidence of some undocumented immigrants who were deported after arrests on minor offenses.
That conflicts with recent federal immigration enforcement policy of focusing on dangerous criminals and suspected terrorists, said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the Voces group. She said the Milwaukee County sheriff's office collaborated with ICE on the deportations.
The sheriff's office received about $135,000 in 2009, $58,000 in 2008, $117,000 in 2007 and $127,000 in 2006 from the federal agency to help cover costs of detaining inmates who are illegal immigrants, according to information from the sheriff.
Deputy Inspector Richard Schmidt said he knew of no written agreement between the sheriff's office and ICE on detaining suspected illegal immigrants.
Data on a person's immigration status is obtained only after someone is arrested for some other offense, Schmidt said.
"We do not go around asking people what their immigration status is," he said.
Clarke, in a written statement, said his office provides the same information on people booked into the county jail to federal immigration officials that's publicly available to anyone.
"For anyone to say we should not cooperate with a legally authorized law enforcement agency by sharing our legally obtained information so that they can carry out their lawful responsibility flies in the face of the law enforcement officers' code of conduct," Clarke said in the statement. "This is what happens when emotion replaces logic and reason."
Members of the board's Judiciary Committee requested statistics on the number of county jail inmates turned over to the ICE annually, a fuller explanation of the federal aid and whether participation in the ICE program is voluntary.
Supervisor Lynne De Bruin said she also wanted to know whether the sheriff's policies had changed on dealing with illegal immigrants.
"I'd like to know what the facts are," she said. "I don't know how many are deported out of Milwaukee County each year. I don't know if it's a growing problem or a minor problem."
Davorin Odrcic, a Milwaukee immigration lawyer, said he'd seen a surge in calls for help on immigration problems over the last year but said he had no hard evidence on whether arrests and deportations were up.
On another matter Thursday, the Judiciary Committee sidetracked a proposal to make disclosure of closed-session comments a violation of the county ethics code. Supervisor Joseph Rice said the measure was needed to "protect the legal and fiscal interests of Milwaukee County."
The proposal was prompted by De Bruin's disclosure of remarks made by John Chianelli, administrator of the county's Behavioral Health Division, in an April 14 closed meeting on sexual assault at the Mental Health Complex. Chianelli said housing dangerous male patients in the same ward as female patients was a trade-off, according to De Bruin. The trade-off was less violence for some level of sexual assault of female patients in mixed wards.
The board censured De Bruin for releasing her notes on the closed session and a letter she wrote to Chianelli after the meeting. She provided copies to the Journal Sentinel in response to a request under the open records law.
The judiciary panel voted, 4-2, to refer the issue to the county corporation counsel for legal advice.
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