Zoerner says border crisis fueled push for expanded ICE cooperation in Kenosha: ‘You have no idea who's in your country’

From KenoshaReporter.com

Kenosha County Sheriff David Zoerner is making public safety a central focus of his reelection campaign, with his partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), efforts to combat drug trafficking and push for expanded federal cooperation among the key issues in the race.

Zoerner said his campaign is focused on his record in office, including the sheriff’s office’s cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies and efforts to address drug trafficking.

"Law and order is absolutely where I'm at. I'm a conservative Republican," Zoerner told the Kenosha Reporter. "I run on law and order. I run a tight ship."

Zoerner was first elected sheriff in 2022 after defeating Democrat James Simmons with 56.5% of the vote. He now faces a contested Aug. 11 Republican primary as he campaigns on his record in office over the past four years.

A centerpiece of Zoerner’s reelection campaign is Kenosha County’s participation in the federal 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model with ICE, which he says reflects years of cooperation with federal law enforcement and firsthand experience at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In December 2025, Zoerner announced the sheriff’s office’s participation in the 287(g) Jail Enforcement Model after working with ICE officials and sheriffs around the country for more than a year. The agreementgives trained jail personnel delegated federal authority to identify and process qualifying detainees already in custody for serious criminal offenses.

Zoerner said his service on the National Sheriffs' Association Border Security Committee and multiple trips to the southern border reinforced his support for closer cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

"Back when it was open, when it was a complete mess," Zoerner said. "It was very impactful to me.” 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the number of people living in the country illegally grew by 5.7 million from 2022 through 2024 under the Biden administration, but CBO now projects that population will shrink by roughly 1 million over the first three years of the Trump administration as enforcement has ramped up.

President Donald Trump pledged to pursue what he described as the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history, targeting what he estimated could be nearly 20 million people living in the country illegally.

“Watching that border being wide open and criminal illegal aliens pouring through, and the way they did that, the way that they facilitated that at the border, the close gotaways, you have no idea who's in your country,” Zoerner said. “I'm a former Marine, it just blows my mind that we would do that, that we would allow that.” 

In a Jan. 13 news release, Zoerner said he had worked directly with ICE leadership and sheriffs across the country “for well over a year” to bring the 287(g) program to Kenosha County. 

“This is not a new idea, and it is not reactionary,” he said in the press release. “It is the result of deliberate, responsible planning focused on one mission: protecting the people of Kenosha County.” 

Zoerner said the agreement applies only to individuals already incarcerated on serious criminal charges.

“This agreement is focused on violent criminals, felony drug offenders, repeat offenders, and individuals with documented histories of assault, sexual violence, and other serious crimes who are already in our jail because they committed serious offenses. These are people who pose a demonstrated threat to public safety," Zoerner said in the press release.

ICE data show nearly 2 million illegal immigrants living in the United States are subject to either final removal orders or have criminal records, including about 1.5 million with final removal orders and roughly 423,000 with criminal convictions, according to the report.

Some of those are considered the most serious cases, with the National Counterterrorism Center telling lawmakers in December that it had identified about 18,000 known and suspected terrorists who entered the United States during the Biden administration, including people with alleged ties to groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

At the time the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office signed the 287(g) agreement in mid-December, the Kenosha County Jail housed 742 inmates, including 24 with ICE detainers.

"I will not tolerate the release of violent criminal offenders back into our community. Period," Zoerner wrote in the release.

Zoerner, who first joined the Kenosha Sheriff’s Office in 1999, told the Kenosha Reporter that the 287(g) agreement builds on an existing relationship between his office and federal authorities by giving trained jail staff direct access to ICE systems while limiting the program to the county jail.

"Working cooperatively is nothing new to us. We've always done this. We've honored detainer requests," Zoerner said. "By signing the 287(g) agreement ... they sent staff to be trained by ICE, and now they're sworn in ... it allows them to access the ICE computers. We have them in our facility now so they can place detainers. It helps us and it's easy to process so we can actually know who we have with us if they're wanted."

After Zoerner announced the Kenosha Sheriff’s Office’s participation in the program, he received criticismfrom immigration rights activists who said the policy shift could increase risks to the community.

However, Zoerner disputed criticism of the program, noting it does not authorize deputies to conduct immigration enforcement in the community.

"It's a jail enforcement model, they're not out kicking in the back doors of businesses and chasing people down,” he said. “We don't have the lawful authority to do that. That's a whole different program.” 

Zoerner also noted litigation involving Kenosha, Walworth, Brown, Marathon and Sauk counties over a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Wisconsin on behalf of Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group, challenging sheriffs’ authority to honor ICE detainers.

“The ACLU picked up their case and filed it with the state Supreme Court,” he said. “What they're trying to do is they're trying to get the state Supreme Court to…make the ruling that sheriffs in Wisconsin cannot honor ICE detainers.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently paused the case while an appeal proceeds in federal court.

“The only detainers we're honoring are the detainers for people that are criminal illegal aliens,” Zoerner said. “They're already in our custody in our jail facilities for committing crimes in our community. It's absolutely paramount to get a known criminal out of your community. It would be irresponsible of an elected sheriff to not do everything you can to get a known criminal out of your community.”

Zoerner’s campaign has also highlighted his record on drug enforcement.

He previously served as chairman of the Wisconsin Advisory Committee to the North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), where he helped coordinate regional drug enforcement efforts and preserve federal funding across Wisconsin and Minnesota. He said he took a leadership role to help ensure his agency could continue operating effectively.

"To stop the flow of drugs into Kenosha, we have to stop them before they ever reach our borders,” Zoerner said in a previous statement provided to the Kenosha Reporter. 

Zoerner’s campaign also highlighted a separate 2025 investigation involving Homeland Security and ICE that it said led to multiple arrests and the recovery of more than $120,000 in stolen property from a retail theft operation linked to the Mexican cartel La Familia Michoacana.

In a separate drug enforcement case, Zoerner said he assigned a Kenosha Drug Operations Group detective to work with the DEA and ATF, increasing access to federal resources and assisting with what the campaign describes as the largest drug trafficking investigation in county history.

"Public safety is not a suggestion—it is a mandate," Zoerner said in a statement provided to the Kenosha Reporter. 

Zoerner is facing Tony Gonzalez, captain of administrative services for the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office, and Kenosha Police Department Capt. James Beller in the Aug. 11 Republican primary.

Gonzalez previously said he would not expand the 287(g) program beyond its current Jail Enforcement Model. In a Facebook post, Gonzalez said making patrol deputies "de facto federal immigration agents on the street" would not be a responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

Gonzalez, who was born in Guatemala and served in the U.S. military before joining the sheriff’s office, has received public support from several Democratic-leaning voters, including former Kenosha County Democratic Party leaders.

The winner will face independent write-in candidate Gary Roberts in the Nov. 3 general election.