Thread: WI-Sheriff would not be covered by County Board resolution

MON., MAY 4, 2009 - 9:04 PM
Sheriff would not be covered by County Board resolution on status of immigrants
By MATTHEW DeFOUR

mdefour@madison.com

A proposal before the Dane County Board this week seeks to reassure the immigrant community that they can access county services without being deported.

But the resolution won’t likely change practices in the county jail or family court that stirred deportation fears in the first place.

The resolution seeks to protect a person’s immigration status as confidential and direct law enforcement officers not to disclose a person’s immigration status unless required by law. But the sheriff, not the County Board, sets policy for the jail.

"I don’t anticipate that we’re going to do anything different than what we’re doing right now," Sheriff Dave Mahoney said.

Mahoney has explained that the jail has always reported undocumented inmates to federal immigration officials to foster cooperative law enforcement, even though it’s not legally required. But after Congress increased funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2007, more of those reports resulted in inmates being deported, stoking fears in the immigrant community that any brush with the law would result in deportation.

Then in February, a family court commissioner was criticized when a routine background check found a Honduran woman was an immigration fugitive, and she was reported to the federal government.

Sup. John Hendrick, of Madison, who sponsored the resolution, also submitted a proposal that would create a task force to study the issue.

"Even if the sheriff says he’s not going to change his policy, we need to reaffirm the county policy for all other county departments," said Hendrick, who sponsored the resolution. "We don’t want people not coming to the health department if they’re sick."


http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/latest/449837

The resolution seeks to protect a person’s immigration status as confidential and direct law enforcement officers not to disclose a person’s immigration status unless required by law. But the sheriff, not the County Board, sets policy for the jail.

Even if...County gets a client using two different ids, I think that the County has to report this to the sheriff. Or the county becomes involved in fraud