GREEN BAY, Wis — Last week, Mark Scheffler, a Democrat running for Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District seat, announced his framework for immigration reform. Scheffler’s Democratic primary opponent, Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Rick Crosson, is raising serious concerns about the most alarming piece of this framework, what Scheffler is calling a “SAFE national immigrant registry for undocumented workers,” as described in his responses to the VOTE411 candidate guide published by the League of Women Voters. “SAFE” is an acronym doing double duty for a registry he promises to keep out of the hands of ICE. WisPolitics. Vote411.

At a time when targeting and dehumanizing immigrants and when concerns about government surveillance using advancements in technology and AI are at an all-time high, it is reckless to suggest support for such a policy.  “The ‘safe’ label misunderstands what a registry actually means for the people who would be on it,” Crosson said. “Scheffler’s “thorough” immigration framework seems to stem from a lack of understanding of the realities facing our immigrant communities, individuals, and businesses that the laws benefit and support, including the deep-seated fears immigrant communities carry.”

“Ask any immigrant family in this district what a registry means to them. People are afraid to leave the house to go to the grocery store, to send their kids to school, to attend church or community events. They do not feel ‘safe’ or trust the government under the current situation. Requiring them to be put on a list with a promise that ICE will not have access to it is not a promise that can be kept. Look at how the current administration has weaponized lists that carried the same promise, such as ITINs through the Social Security Administration, or the IRS, where undocumented immigrants pay their taxes.” 

The infrastructure is already built, and it runs on lists. ICE now operates ImmigrationOS, a Palantir-developed platform that pulls data from IRS records, Social Security files, Medicaid data, license plate readers, and commercial data brokers to build target lists and identify individuals for enforcement. Palantir’s related ELITE targeting tool builds dossiers, scores addresses, and creates the target lists that agents act on in the field. The full system became operational this March. Every one of the databases feeding into it was, at some point, promised to be safe. Once a government builds a list of people by status, that list outlasts the administration that built it and the intent behind it. To suggest that a new list can be added to that infrastructure and remain out of the hands of ICE is either to ignore what is happening in this country right now, or to be indifferent to it to attract certain voting blocs.

The results of surveillance infrastructure meeting aggressive enforcement policy are crystal clear.  Just yesterday in Maine, ICE agents shot and killed 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero on his way to work with his wife and 3-year-old daughter nearby. Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had a Social Security number. He was not the target of the warrant. Six days earlier, ICE agents in Houston shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, also not the target of the operation. Both men were pulled over in their vehicles based on data-driven surveillance operations that flagged them as possible matches. Both men were killed by ICE agents acting on that data.  This is “lists” in action.

Crosson emphasized, “You can protect national security without building a list. You can fix the system without turning neighbors into suspects. Ask me what I am for. I am for clearing the backlogs. I am for fixing the courts. I am for saying yes to the people who want to build a life here and are already doing the work of keeping this district running. And I will hold ICE accountable, rather than feed them opportunities to further terrorize our communities.”

“To propose any type of registry as the answer is deeply concerning and should give every voter pause.  This comes from a candidate who is running as a Democrat but plans to leave the party to serve as an independent. If ‘independent’ means appeasing both sides of the political spectrum with performative policies, rather than committing to fight for the humans in the equation, this is not the kind of representation Northeast Wisconsin needs at a time like this.”

Rick Crosson is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel with 20 years of service and a Democratic candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District. He comes from a multi-generational military family. The August 11, 2026 primary is the first contested Democratic primary in WI-08 in 20 years. More information is available at RickCrosson.com