Sheriff updates board on county's 287(g) warrant service officer participation and low local ICE detainer counts

Sheriff Darren Mottz gave the Winnebago County Board an update on the county's participation in the federal 287(g) warrant service officer program and detailed how often the county has run into immigration detainers.

"Last year we had 4,893 bookings," Sheriff Mottz said, adding that 228 of those booked were born outside the United States. "We made notifications to ICE on 151 of them. ICE placed detainers on 17, and by year-end we turned over 10 to ICE." He said deputies have long honored federal detainers when someone is already in custody on criminal charges and that the county's chosen model is the warrant service officer model, not the jail enforcement or task-force models.

The sheriff and staff emphasized the operational limits of the program. Amber, a member of sheriff's staff, explained the credentialing: 16 deputies completed a seven-hour online course and are authorized to issue the Homeland Security warrant (Form I-200) when ICE elects to pick up a person after criminal processing. "We put people through the portal to determine whether or not they are citizens," she said, "but we only run people through it when there is an associated criminal charge."

Mottz also drew a sharp distinction between cooperation with ICE and the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAP). SCAP is a state-managed reimbursement program that helps counties recover limited costs for housing certain noncitizen detainees; the sheriff said the county's five-year average SCAP reimbursement is about $20,000 annually and the funds are used for jail assessment items (hygiene, clothing, recreational items). "That is separate from our cooperation with ICE," he said.

Board members pressed officials on multiple fronts. Supervisor Nusbomb asked whether two individuals held on homicide charges had ICE detainers; Mottz confirmed two homicide arrestees did have detainers. Other supervisors raised liability questions tied to the 287(g) arrangement, differences in how other counties handle notifications, and whether increased participation could change the number of detainers.

On liability and the nature of the agreement, Amber said the county did sign into the warrant service officer program and the credentialing shifts some liability considerations because trained deputies act under the scope of federal authority when administering detainer paperwork. "The only people who have detainers placed on them are those brought to our jail on criminal charges," Mottz said. "We are not conducting street-level immigration enforcement."

Several supervisors asked about the SCAP process and whether those reimbursements give a fiscal incentive to cooperate; staff said the SCAP reimbursements are determined by state processing and are unrelated to ICE's decisions about detainers. The sheriff also reiterated that many people born outside the U.S. are legally present (students, visa holders, refugees), and that the county does not list those who are legally resident as potential subjects for ICE detainers.

The presentation included monthly detail: January saw 407 bookings with 25 persons born outside the U.S., 13 notifications and three detainers; February had 361 bookings, 21 persons born outside the U.S., nine notifications and three detainers; as of February 28 the jail held four people with ICE detainers.

No policy change or vote was taken at the meeting. The sheriff told the board the county would continue honoring detainers for persons in custody on jailable criminal charges while continuing routine monthly reporting.