Brown County Sheriff's Office. (IMAGE: Courtesy of Fox 11 WLUK)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — A recent open records request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin has found a contract agreement between the Brown County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The April 2025 agreement provides funding from ICE to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office specifically for “Detention and Transportation Services” with a contract value of $90,000.
The ACLU of Wisconsin outlined a breakdown of the funds:
- ICE is purchasing $63,000 in detention services from the Brown County Sheriff, which are reimbursed at a rate of $70 per detainee per day.
- An increase to $27,000 in transportation services (escort and stationary guard rates), which are reimbursed at $36 per hour.
The open records request from the ACLU of Wisconsin also found that Ozaukee and Sauk counties had ICE agreements, too.
ACLU of Wisconsin Senior Staff Attorney Tim Muth said in a statement:
These new agreements in Brown, Ozaukee, and Sauk counties underscore a concerning trend: local sheriffs are not only passively complying with ICE requests but actively entering into and benefiting from direct financial arrangements to house and transport immigrants for ICE removal.
The Brown and Ozaukee sheriffs had already signaled their cooperation with ICE by signing 287(g) agreements. Beyond the formal 287(g) agreements and SCAAP funding, these new arrangements provide more direct financial incentives for local sheriffs to collaborate with federal immigration enforcement. Such agreements further integrate local law enforcement into the federal deportation apparatus, diverting resources and compromising community trust.
We may see more of these arrangements to house detained immigrants in county facilities in the near future, as the recently signed federal budget bill assigns billions of dollars to ICE for funding efforts with local law enforcement.
WTAQ reached out to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office for more information; they did not return our call.
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