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In February, the Walworth County Sheriff signed an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security pertaining to individuals incarcerated in the Walworth County Jail.

The agreement allows jail staff to transfer individuals upon completion of their sentence to ICE custody through the use of an ICE administrative warrant.

ICE administrative warrants are not signed by a judge but just an immigration officer alleging the individual is suspected of violating immigration laws.  ICE administrative warrants are not based on evidence that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.

ICE is detaining people at record rates. The detention population reached over 70,000 people in late January. ICE officers are now using wider tactics to meet high arrest quotas. They are arresting people with work site raids, at immigration hearings, using racial profiling and at jails across the country.

As a result, the share of detained people with no serious criminal record has ballooned to 42% of those detained.

Walworth County deputies do not routinely determine the citizenship or immigration status of those in their custody before transferring them to ICE. ICE administrative warrants could easily sweep individuals into ICE custody who are here legally or have not violated immigration laws.

Those transferring custody from the Walworth County Jail to ICE need to be vigilant that the administrative warrants they’re being handed are not deportation by an overzealous immigration enforcement operation.

Hanson, of Elkhorn, is a member of the Walworth County Democratic Party.