The ACLU of Wisconsin says it’s evaluating options to urgently move forward with a lawsuit challenging the legality of ICE detainers after the state Supreme Court on Monday stayed the case.
The five sheriffs, sued by the ACLU on behalf of Voces de la Frontera, had asked the court to put the case on hold as they attempt to move it to federal court. The justices on Monday granted the request.
The court also declined the ACLU’s request to continue briefing the case so it could proceed simultaneously with the federal appeal to “avoid potential uncertainty and conflict.”
Members of the legal teams representing the sheriffs of Walworth, Kenosha, Brown, Marathon and Sauk counties didn’t immediately return messages from WisPolitics seeking comment.
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The ACLU, on behalf of Voces de la Frontera, had earlier urged the court to move ahead with the case. In a filing opposing the sheriff’s request for a stay, the ACLU found ICE prepared 395 detainers for those held in facilities across Wisconsin between Dec. 30 — the day the sheriffs sought to move the case to federal court — and March 10, the latest date for which data were available. That number includes 104 in the jails operated by the five sheriffs sued by the group.
“While it is crucial that this case proceeds as expeditiously as possible, we will continue to fiercely litigate the case, no matter how long it takes,” said ACLU spokesperson David Gwidt. “Every day this case remains unresolved is another day immigrants are deprived of liberty and subject to unlawful arrest and detention.”
Voces de la Frontera last year asked the state Supreme Court to directly hear its lawsuit challenging immigration detainers, which are requests from ICE for local jails to hold someone for up to 48 hours. The suit argues holding someone for extra time must be authorized by judicial warrant and the holds amount to an illegal new arrest.
The five sheriffs petitioned to have the case moved to federal court. But U.S. Judge William Conley ruled in May they waited too long to file the request.
The sheriffs have since filed an appeal seeking to get the case back in the federal courts. They asked the justices to stay the case until that appeal is resolved.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has set a briefing schedule in the appeal that runs through late September.
The U.S. government had asked the state Supreme Court to allow it to intervene in the suit. The justices in Monday’s order decided to hold off ruling on that request.
This item was updated July 7
