The Wisconsin counties getting paid to help ICE.

Friend –

We recently made a series of open records requests to several Wisconsin sheriffs' offices investigating the relationship between local law enforcement and ICE.

What we found is deeply disturbing.

We've learned that ICE has been paying three Wisconsin counties – Ozaukee, Brown, and Sauk – to use their officers to detain immigrants and then transport them to different locations for removal.

These new agreements 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.

According to an agreement in April 2025 with Brown County, ICE provided funds specifically for "detention and transportation services," with a contract value of $90,000.

From early May to mid-June of this year, ICE paid Sauk County nearly $5,000 in exchange for allowing for the detention of various individuals. Similarly, Ozaukee County sold cell space in its local jail to ICE, emboldening the agency to arrest even more people.

Prior to these recent agreements, Dodge County Jail was the only facility in Wisconsin that detained immigrants for ICE.

These counties are not only choosing to aid and abet Trump's mass deportation agenda for profit but are also destabilizing the lives of immigrants, fracturing our communities, and diverting precious tax dollars away from services that residents need and depend on.

This regime's immigration policies are some of the most destructive and dehumanizing we've ever seen – but we're not backing down. We will continue to work to expose, challenge, and stop these appalling actions.

Immigrants are our family members, our neighbors, our friends, and our co-workers, and they are a vital part of every community in our state. They belong in Wisconsin.

In solidarity,


ACLU of Wisconsin

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