After 138 days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to Rep. Mark Pocan’s, D-Madison, Freedom of Information Act request regarding their September raid in Wisconsin with a spreadsheet and a 411-page document.
After the Dane County raid in late September, Pocan met with ICE officials to ask about their contact with local law enforcement. Twenty individuals from Dane County were arrested.
ICE responded with a spreadsheet and 411 pages, with some exemptions. This documentation found that at least 39 of the detainees had no documented criminal history and emails from ICE showed that the agency failed to inform Madison and Dane County law enforcement of the operation prior to the beginning of the raids, according to a press release from Pocan’s office.
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Pocan requested documentation from ICE concerning the contact they had with local law enforcement which uncovered weeks of coordination with county law enforcement of at least nine counties, but none with Dane County.
On two occasions in the documents released, officials referred to Dane County area’s population as “radical.” These were found on pages 358 and 376.
Pocan also requested a list of criminal offenses committed by the 83 individuals arrested across Wisconsin. ICE’s response was incomplete, the press release said.
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On March 8, Pocan’s office contacted ICE requesting information explaining a claim made in a Sept. 25 press release stating “more than half of the aliens arrested by ERO deportation officers during this operation had prior criminal histories that included convictions for the following crimes: indecent exposure to a minor (an aggravated felony), assault, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, domestic abuse, larceny, receiving stolen property, driving under the influence, identity theft, illegal re-entry after deportation, indecent liberty with a minor, obstructing police, theft, battery and weapon offenses.”
The request also included information on the time spent in satellite offices the agency used outside of Milwaukee which provided minimal information about the use of space in Madison and Dane County.
Documentation of ICE’s protocol when making arrests and privacy release forms to allow detainees to seek assistance from members of Congress were requested but no information was released in the response.
