The initial temporary injunction
allows all fishing to continue
on the 19 disputed lakes.
Following today's hearing, Judge
William Connolly will decide whether
the Lac du Flambeau has sovereign
authority to restrict non-tribal
members from fishing within its
reservation.
In other news, a lawsuit against
five Wisconsin sheriffs in
Walworth, Brown, Marathon,
Kenosha, and Sauk counties over
ice detainers or immigration
hold. Waffles between being
heard in state or federal court.
A federal judge in Madison this
month remanded the case to the
Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The sheriffs wanted heard in federal
court and have appealed that remand.
The question before any court is
whether those 48 hour ice
holds are legal in Wisconsin.
Our next guest unpacks the issue.
Brenna Goldar, staff attorney at the
UW Law School State Democracy
Research Initiative joins us now.
Thanks very much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
Well, first of all, how does
an ice detainer work?
An ICE detainer is a request
sent by ICE to local
or state law enforcement agencies
asking them to hold somebody
for an additional 48 hours
beyond when they would otherwise be
released under state law.
These are voluntary requests so the
local law enforcement officers can
decide whether to follow that
request or not.
If they do follow it then the person
would remain in custody beyond when
it would otherwise be released.
Waiting for ICE to come and retreat.
Yes, and so how common?
Uh... Is the use of these ice
detainers
across Wisconsin?
So according to some data from
October 2021 through June 2025,
ICE sent more than 3,300
detainer requests.
Not all of those were necessarily
honored, but that's how many are
coming in.
And counties really vary in whether
they are working
with ICE to honor those, or if they
have policies that limit how
frequently they honor those
detainers.
Presumably this has ticked up
during the current Trump
administration.
So what has that cooperation
on the part of sheriffs and
sheriff's departments resulted in?
So the petitioners in this case are
arguing that that results in
unlawful detention of individuals
past when they would typically be
released. And that can have
significant impacts for individuals
potentially dealing with child care
or dealing with missing
work. This can apply to people who
are not just at the end of a criminal
sentence, but also in pre-trial
detention, so who might otherwise be
detained for a relatively short
time. Those additional couple of
days can have a significant impact.
And there are also concerns that
cooperation between local law
enforcement and ICE Can.
Erode trust in local communities
with law enforcement and lead to
under-reporting of crimes and
less of a close relationship with
the immigration community.
The lawsuit argues that these holds
are not legal because
sheriffs have no authority
with administrative warrants
to conduct a
second arrest of someone.
Would you expect that the state and
federal courts would have a
different view on that?
I think it depends on whether
they view this as really an issue of
state law or federal law.
So the plaintiffs in
this case are arguing that this is
really just an issue of state-law,
and that is something that you would
sort of expect the Wisconsin courts
to actually have the more expertise
on and be able to decide in a more
authoritative way.
What the respondents are arguing is
that there's this federal law issue
of whether federal law sort of
independently provides some basis.
For that arrest authority, and
so if they succeed in getting this
case into federal court, the
federal courts might be more open to
that, and it seems like respondents
think that federal court might be
favorable to it because they are
seeking to get it into federal
courts.
So Wisconsin law enforcement under
state statute can arrest if there
are reasonable grounds to believe
that the person is committing or has
committed a crime.
Wouldn't an argument be that
someone entering into the
country illegally and
staying constitutes
a crime?
So first of all, the statute,
it is not a crime under state law
to enter and be in the country
unlawfully. And so it's not clear
that that statute itself would give
the authorization for state law
enforcement to make that
arrest.
But even if it did, federal law only
criminalizes a narrow subset
of immigration violations,
particularly entering the country on
lawfully. So somebody, for example,
who enters with a lawful visa and
then overstays that visa, has not
actually committed a federal
immigration crime.
Also ICE detainers can issue to
folks with green cards who then
are facing deportation proceedings
because they have committed a
crime subsequent to entering the
country, but they are not actually
unauthorized until they go through
those proceedings.
And so there are many people who are
subject to ICE detains who have not
committed any sort of federal
immigration crime.
So if it is just
Would it only
apply in Wisconsin versus
applying nationally if it was
decided in federal court?
Yes, so if it's decided in
Wisconsin, it would only apply in
Wisconsin.
The reach of a federal court
decision would depend on what
issues they decide and also what
level of court it gets to.
So if the federal court ultimately
rules mostly on Wisconsin law and
based on Wisconsin statutes, then it
wouldn't apply beyond the state.
It would just sort of be persuasive
to other courts, like a Wisconsin
Supreme Court ruling would be as
well, if the Federal Court were
to rule on more of a blanket federal
law issue and particularly if that
were to get appealed up to the
Seventh Circuit of the U.S.
Supreme Court. Then that could have
broader national implications.
Is that the ultimate goal for it to
go all the way up?
It's not clear that it is.
The merits briefing hasn't happened
yet, either at the state
level or at the federal court level.
The federal court remanded based on
a timing issue of the filing, and
so we don't really have a good sense
yet of how viable it would be
for this to become really a major
federal law case that goes all the
way.
Alright, well we'll see what
happens. Brinna Goddard, thanks so
much. Thank you.
For more on this and other issues
facing Wisconsin, visit our website
at pbswisconsin.org
and then click on the news tab.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Frederica Freiburg.
Have a good weekend.