Here & Now

Sequester Could Have Local Impact

Frederica Freyberg:

The University of Wisconsin System is sounding the alarm over cuts due to sequestration. UW System President Kevin Reilly is saying some of the largest impacts will be to research funding, to the tune of $35 million in cuts. Reilly also says student federal aid programs would see immediate reductions. Even before the deadline, the federal government started trimming its outlays, specifically U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, released several hundred illegal detainees from detention centers across the country, and here in Wisconsin. The Dodge County Jail holds hundreds of these detainees for federal immigration officials, and early this week was directed to release about 35 of them. Sheriff Todd Nehls joins us now with details, and Sheriff, thanks a lot for doing so.

Todd Nehls:

Always a pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what was the process for release earlier this week?

Todd Nehls:

Well, we’re in daily communications with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, multiple times a day, to coordinate either pick up or delivery of immigration holds throughout the Midwest or the state of Wisconsin specifically. So when I came in early Monday morning, I was informed by my jail administrator that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had called us Monday and given us names of 35 of my immigration holds and told them to transport them down to the Chicago Courthouse, where they would eventually be released on a less intrusive means of detention rather than being held in a county jail.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, do you think that any of those that you released out of your jail would be considered dangerous?

Todd Nehls:

We know why they’re there. As far as me putting a finger on if they’re dangerous or not, compared to anybody else that’s incarcerated, I would have no information about that.

Frederica Freyberg:

After you took them down to Chicago, again, is it your understanding they would just be released onto the street, as it were?

Todd Nehls:

I think the way it works, they go in front of a federal magistrate and are probably released on some type of signature bond or cash bond that would try to guarantee future court appearances. Whether that works or not, I guess we’ll find out in the future.

Frederica Freyberg:

Who are these detainees in your jail?

Todd Nehls:

My understanding that most of the ones we have are people that have been through the court system, either because they committed a crime, or they’ve stayed longer than they should have on a visa, and failed to heed the warning to self-deploy back to where they came from. So they’re ordered and directed to incarceration and detention in my facility until the time comes that they can be taken back to their country of origin.

Frederica Freyberg:

And your daily census of these detainees?

Todd Nehls:

In 2012, we averaged about 300-310 a day. This morning I had 246.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is this a financial boon for your county and your jail?

Todd Nehls:

It’s great for Dodge County. Last year, it brought in $11 million in revenue. As a sheriff, I’m very privileged and blessed to be able to do so many things that many cannot do, because they don’t have that federal revenue stream. It also creates about 50-60 good family supportive jobs. It puts a little pulse in the local economy, too, because these people even though they’re incarcerated, they have friends and family from all over the Midwest coming to visit them, staying in local hotels, buy gas, buy food at the local restaurants. It’s good for Dodge County.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the release of like 35 of them earlier this week, does that represent a budget hit for you?

Todd Nehls:

It’s about $2100-$2200 a day. If that census stays low like that, that’s about $70,000 a month, or about $800,000 over the course of the year less revenue than I would have anticipated.

Frederica Freyberg:

So it is significant. How does your detainee operation in Dodge County compare to others across the country?

Todd Nehls:

There are two of us in Wisconsin. Kenosha County is also a holder of federal detainees. We’re the only two in the state, that I’m aware of, and that’s because we’re both very good at customer service. I look at our stats as how we compare nationally. Right now, Dodge County Sheriff’s Department is ranked 14th nationally, in the level of care and the quality of care that we provide these detainees.

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s pretty amazing, 14th in the country. How surprising was it to you that ICE decided to release several hundred detainees across the country?

Todd Nehls:

Well, I know the sequestration has been the excuse for doing that, but I’ve been anticipating some reduction in incarcerated detainees for quite some time with the conversation on immigration reform. I think it’s only a matter of time before this program really draws down even more so than it has today.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have you been in conversation with other sheriffs in other parts of the country that actually had to kind of open the floodgates and allow these people to walk away?

Todd Nehls:

No, I haven’t. Usually my conversations are from sheriffs that want to get into the business, and want to know how they can get into the business. It’s tough to do that right now because the enormous cost it takes to buy vans and personnel, to get to the ability that we have today. It’s pretty tough to get into that business, and I’m happy, because that maintains the business for me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So if your suspicion is correct, and they want to draw down these numbers in these detention centers, does that strike you as being dangerous for the public at large, if in fact we are not detaining these people ahead of deportation, or not, because they’re not the most violent criminals?

Todd Nehls:

They’re not the most violent. I’m in my jail a lot, and I talk to these detainees. Some are being detained for nonviolent offenses, money laundering, things like that. There are those that are violent. When they round up gang members from Chicago and Milwaukee area, anytime you see that in the media, that there’s a federal roundup of gang members and there are federal authorities involved, more than likely those individuals come to my facility. Tony Rezko, a non-violent offender, President Obama’s good friend, he was by me for two years. Guys like Blagojevich, if he would not have been able to bond himself out, he would have come to my facility. We have a lot of violent offenders, and we have an equal number of nonviolent offenders. I think those are the ones that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decided to release on the streets, and hopefully will return for a future court date for detention.

Frederica Freyberg:

Sheriff Nehls, thanks very much.

Todd Nehls:

Always a pleasure. Thank you for having me.