Temperature rises in local community as ICE partnership expands
As President Donald Trump draws national headlines for increasingly bold actions concerning deportation and immigration, it can be easy to think that Oshkosh, far from Washington, D.C., and even farther from the US-Mexico border, will remain relatively untouched by changes in immigration policy. Though a few cities like Los Angeles and Chicago have dominated national headlines amid more aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), communities across the US are being asked to assist in deportation efforts.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order that “requires ICE to authorize State and local law enforcement officials … under section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to the maximum extent permitted by law,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. In March, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE under the Warrant Service Officer model, the least involved model for immigration enforcement under the policy. Sheriff John Matz explained the details of the agreement.
“When someone commits a jailable offense, they come into our jail, we determine their citizenship status through a portal that’s provided by Homeland Security, which ICE is a part of, and if it is undetermined that they are a US resident, or it’s determined that they’re here illegally, we notify ICE of what crime they have allegedly committed and ICE decides whether or not we should place a detainer on them,” he said.
The sheriff’s department holds individuals under a detainer for 48 hours, during which time they may be transferred to ICE custody for deportation proceedings, before they are released.
Cooperation with ICE is not new in Winnebago County. Matz says that the 287(g) agreement has formalized policy that has been in place for more than 20 years.
“We entered the agreement because of the protection that it gives us. It gives us the ability to be trained in order to issue the detainers,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re really not explaining to the individual why the detainer exists and don’t have the authority to place the detainer.”
Matz says that a small share of individuals interacting with the sheriff’s office have been affected by the office’s cooperation with ICE.
“We notified ICE of over 100 individuals who were deemed to be here illegally and thus far there have only been seven that ICE has placed a detainer on and come to pick up,” he said. “So, when you look at the percentage of individuals that are reported to ICE and the percentage of people who are actually placed on a detainer, it’s relatively small.”
Still, there has been a marked increase in the number of people reported to ICE by the sheriff this year. Between 2019 and 2024, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office only reported 102 individuals to ICE, compared to 88 between January 1 and July 18 this year.
Matz acknowledges that the sheriff’s office has been notifying ICE of more arrested individuals. However, he says that this is not the result of any changes brought on by the 287(g) partnership.
“It has to do with us having better processes in place when we book somebody in, making sure that we are checking their citizenship status. It was happening before on a consistent basis, but not all the time, and now we do it all the time,” he said. “The other part is the number of people who have come here illegally in the most recent past has increased significantly. When you have that kind of migration, you’re going to have more people here that are here illegally.”
Molly Smiltneek, an immigration attorney and Afghan services coordinator for World Relief, notes that individuals reported to ICE under the 287(g) partnership have not yet been convicted of any crimes.
“This is a limited partnership, where ICE warrants are only supposed to be executed on people in the Winnebago County Jail, but there are few safeguards to ensure that limitation,” she said. “This kind of agreement targets people who, yes, are jailed, but who have not been proven guilty of any crime.”
With individuals’ residency in the US at stake, Smiltneek also says that the new partnership raises questions about the oversight of local law enforcement, especially after a recent Supreme Court decision allowing factors like ethnicity and language to be considered in ICE stops.
“How do we know they aren’t stopping people and asking about their immigration status, their nationality, or where they were born?” she asked. “How do we know people aren't being arrested and charged with more serious, jailable offenses simply because of the color of their skin?”
Matz emphasizes that the only case an individual’s legal status is determined by the sheriff’s office is when they are booked for a jailable offense.
“We don’t go to restaurants, we don’t go to farms, we don’t go anywhere to determine citizenship status,” he said. “We have training that deals with implicit bias. I can tell you with absolute certainty that we do not base any kind of arrest or investigation on somebody’s ethnicity, or their sexual preference, or their religion, or their political affiliation.”
Another concern among the community regarding the 287(g) program is its potential cost for the sheriff’s department. Though there is a small cost involved in holding individuals under immigration detainers, the sheriff’s office can receive compensation for its cooperation with ICE through the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) grant. SCAAP reimburses state and local correctional facilities for officer salaries and training involved in housing undocumented individuals with a felony or two or more misdemeanor convictions. Matz says that the 287(g) agreement places no additional financial burden on the local community.
“There is reimbursement that we can get from the federal government for housing people who are here illegally. That’s existed for a very, very long time,” he said. “And the agreement also gives us the ability to recover some medical costs if somebody who is here illegally has medical issues or medications or needs to go see outside doctors, et cetera. So there’s actually some savings that happen.”
In addition to long-standing reimbursement programs, the Department of Homeland Security is offering law enforcement agencies monetary awards as high as $1,000 per eligible officer for the location of particular undocumented individuals targeted by ICE and general assistance with the agency’s mission.
Matz says that he has heard from community members across the political spectrum about the 287(g) agreement. He believes individuals with positive or negative opinions about the arrangement are misinformed.
“No matter how much I say it, and how much I repeat it, people will form their own opinions and believe that I am catering to an administration, and that’s not the case, or people believe that, yeah, he’s all in with the administration. Neither one of those are true,” he said. “It gives us some training to actually administer the detainers, and we solidified a few different processes, and that’s it.”
Regardless, community members’ perception of local law enforcement has been affected by the new agreement. Smiltneek worries that the agreement diminishes public trust and safety.
“Immigrant victims of crime or anyone who just needs help will think twice about calling 911, contacting the police, or cooperating with law enforcement if they know there is a chance they or their loved ones may be detained and deported,” she said. “A common theme in local law enforcement is ‘know us before you need us,’ but how can we expect immigrants to get to know law enforcement, let alone trust officers, if they have that fear?”
This fear is already having an effect on the community. Mashebe Subulwa, a naturalized US citizen and director of the Oshkosh non-profit SEPO Zambia, says that he fears he may be targeted in the local community because of his name and other aspects of his identity.
“Our system right now is all poisoned,” he said.
According to Karl Buelow, who serves on the Oshkosh Common Council, the Oshkosh Police Department has no interest in entering agreements with ICE and does not consider or request the legal status of any individuals in the community. However, he says that the sharing of resources between the city and county complicates this policy.
“One of the areas of the Venn diagram that does overlap is if the Oshkosh Police Department arrests somebody for a crime, that person is transported to the county jail because Oshkosh does not have their own jail facility,” he said. “So, since the county has that agreement with ICE, the county will reach out to them.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organizations have criticized the expansion of this program under the Trump administration. As of the end of September, 14 Wisconsin sheriffs departments and police departments had 287(g) agreements with ICE, a marked increase since Trump took office. In September, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement touting a 641% increase in 287(g) agreements nationwide under the new administration, a jump from 135 to 1,001. The ACLU has also sued five Wisconsin sheriffs, the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office not among them, for following detainer orders from ICE. Four of the counties in the suit do not have 287(g) deals.
Matz says that Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportation and crackdown on immigration in the first months of his presidency did not influence the decision to pursue the 287(g) partnership in Winnebago County.
“It’s the same thing we were doing before, we just weren’t afforded the training before,” he said. “So it has nothing to do with the agenda of the particular administration, it has to do with what best protects Winnebago County civilly and what gives us the ability to assist in the enforcement of federal law.”
Matz points out that the sheriff’s office cooperates with other federal agencies, including the FBI and federal marshals, and says that its ICE partnership is no different.
“To single out not cooperating because of an opinion of some people that we shouldn’t, that doesn’t make sense. We don’t get to decide what are fair and just laws,” he said.
Some Wisconsin districts have been less cooperative with ICE, however. In September, Republicans in the State Assembly introduced legislation that would cut funding to counties that do not report the legal status of all individuals being held in jail on felony charges. The bill is targeted at districts like Milwaukee and Dane Counties, which do not currently issue immigration detainers.
Though the bill is likely to be vetoed by Governor Tony Evers, it represents the tension between state and federal government and the local leaders immigrant and refugee communities turn to for protection. ICE has not conducted raids in Oshkosh, but has been sighted as near as the Fond du Lac County Courthouse and arrested 21 undocumented individuals in Manitowoc County during a September operation.
Buelow explains that the Common Council has avoided taking a strong public stance on this issue to avoid drawing attention to Oshkosh’s immigrant community.
“From what I understand, ICE goes where they get tips and where they can try to find a lot of people, so they’re kind of playing whack-a-mole,” he said. “If you put your hand up, either your middle finger or you’re waving at them like, come to us, that gets their attention.”
According to Buelow, the Common Council is staunch in its support of Oshkosh’s refugees and others who feel that they are at greater risk amid the uncertainty of current immigration policy.
“Our number one is to reach out to our leaders and our non-profits in our community to find out what they recommend and what they need,” he said. “We have a vastly rich tapestry here in Oshkosh of immigrants from Afghanistan, the Congo, South Sudan, and many others, and that is a strength of Oshkosh, not a detriment.”
by Aria Boehler
Published October 6, 2025
Oshkosh West Index Volume 122 Issue I