Chad Billeb
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing several Wisconsin sheriffs, including Marathon County Sheriff Chad Billeb. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of the Milwaukee-based immigration rights group Voces de la Frontera over cooperation with ICE.
The suit claims Billeb and other Wisconsin county sheriffs comply with voluntary requests from ICE agents to arrest and detain individuals who should be released. It alleges they “illegally deprive Wisconsin residents of their liberty” said the filing. The lawsuit argues that these voluntary requests do not qualify as a criminal warrant, which they claim is required in such cases.
According to the filing, Marathon County has received at least 16 requests from ICE for holds on individuals in custody at the Marathon County Jail since the start of the year. According to the lawsuit, the Marathon County Sheriff’s office has a policy of notifying ICE of every person who was booked into the jail who was not born in the United States, regardless of immigration status, and asking if ICE wants to place a detainer on that person.
At least nine of those people have been transferred into ICE custody as a result of those detainers, and 8 of those 9 still faced pending criminal charges at the time of that transfer.
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