Activism against Line 5 includes members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and residents across Wisconsin, including at this home in Madison. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
Environmental groups are blasting what some are calling a “premature and unlawful decision” by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve federal permits for the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline project in northern Wisconsin. The permits have been issued despite an ongoing court challenge to state-level permits and before Wisconsin’s water quality certification for the project has been finalized.
“This is a clear violation of the Clean Water Act,” said Rob Lee, staff attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates. “It appears the Army Corps is fast-tracking a fossil fuel project at the expense of environmental protection and legal due process.”
In June, Midwest Environmental Advocates submitted formal comments during a public hearing warning the Army Corps to not approve the permits until a final water quality certification had been issued by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). A water quality permit had been issued in November but that permit is still the subject of litigation and therefore has not been finalized.
“Federal law is clear,” Lee said in a statement. “The Army Corps can’t approve this project without final water quality certification from the relevant state authority. The DNR’s certification is still being challenged in court, which means it’s not legally final — and that makes this permit premature and unlawful.”
Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin said in a statement that the group was “horrified that the Army Corps is willing to condone an extremely dangerous project that will irreparably destroy the integrity of the watershed.” Conmiller added that “the damage, not to mention the long term risks associated with the pipeline itself, must be considered before any such project would be granted permits to proceed.”
Owned by the Canadian oil giant Enbridge, Line 5 is an over 70-year old pipeline carrying thousands of gallons of crude oil from Canada into the U.S. A federal court ruled pipeline route has been trespassing on the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s reservation. Enbridge’s planned reroute is also being challenged before an administrative law judge. Advocates for the pipeline say it will generate 700 jobs and boost Wisconsin’s energy sector, while critics argue that the pipeline’s new route would continue to threaten the Bad River watershed and other ecosystems in the event of a catastrophic oil spill. .
Clean Wisconsin has intervened in the administrative challenge to the planned pipeline reroute. “The health of these ecosystems is critical to Tribal Nations, fisheries, and local economies across the region,” said Clean Wisconsin President Mark Redsten in a statement. The group highlighted that tourism alone generates $378 million in economic activity and supports over 2,800 jobs in Bayfield, Ashland, Douglas and Iron counties.
In the past, Enbridge pipeline spills have devastated waterways and habitats. Another Enbridge pipeline leaked over 69,000 gallons of oil before the breach was noticed in late 2024, the same week environmental and trial groups filed new legal challenges of the Line 5 reroute.
Emily Park, co-executive director of 350 Wisconsin, said the group was “deeply disturbed” by the decision. “Wisconsinites and millions of other residents of the region depend on clean and healthy water for our lives, food, jobs, and recreation,” said Park. “We are appalled that the Army Corps is willing to appease a foreign corporation by risking the health of water, the stability of our climate, and the wellbeing of current and future generations.”
By “fast-tracking the Line 5 reroute,” said Sierra Club Wisconsin Chapter Director Elizabeth Ward, “the Army Corps has backed Canadian oil giant Enbridge at the expense of the Bad River Band, Wisconsinites, and the 40 million people who rely on the Great Lakes for safe drinking water. There’s no safe way to reroute this pipeline. Every day that Line 5 continues to operate, our water, ecosystems, and way of life is in danger.”
The USDA has announced it will stop providing nutrition assistance on Nov. 1. Milwaukee officials and nonprofits are organizing a food drive to try to meet residents' needs. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Local officials and community organizations are uniting to provide families with food and basic necessities during the government shutdown. City and county governments together with the Milwaukee Public School District, the Milwaukee Bucks and faith groups are organizing a food drive with Feeding America Western Wisconsin and Nourish MKE. The drive will begin immediately and continue until FoodShare benefits are restored.
On Nov. 1, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are expected to end amidst a government shutdown in Washington D.C.. Across the nation, there are over 42 million Americans who depend on the federal food assistance program.
“The federal government shutdown needs to end,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “This is not an abstract issue. It’s about whether families can afford to eat. While Washington debates, Milwaukee is stepping up. We’re coming together to keep each other fed, safe and cared for. That’s who we are as a city.”
Food drive donations will be accepted locations across the city including:
Milwaukee City Hall (200 E. Wells St)
Milwaukee County Courthouse (901 N. 9th St)
Zeidler Municipal Building (841 N. Broadway)
Marcia P. Coggs Health & Human Services Center (1230 W. Cherry St)
Hillview (1615 S. 22nd Street)
Fiserv Forum (1111 Vel R. Phillips Avenue)
All Milwaukee public schools
All Milwaukee library branches
The Mason Temple Church (6058 N. 35th St)
“Food insecurity affects physical health, mental health and stability to entire households,” said Shakita LaGrant-McClain, director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services. “I encourage everyone to consider donating to your local food pantry. This is a time where the community really needs to come together.”
Democrats have insisted that any resolution to continue funding the federal government must include renewing Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies which are set to expire soon, causing health costs to skyrocket across the country, including for 310,000 Wisconsinites, many of whom will see their insurance payments rise by between 45 and 800%. Milwaukee and surrounding counties are also still reeling from the denial of FEMA disaster assistance to help repair damage left behind by the historic floods in August.
“Milwaukee County is strong and resilient, but the health and wellbeing of our residents and families should never be casualties of political fights in Washington,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. “Until this federal shutdown ends, we will do what we always do: look out for our neighbors and step up to help in times of need. I’m grateful to all our community partners to encourage every resident who is able to join us in caring for our community.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
State and local government officials in Wisconsin objected Friday to the Trump administration’s decision to deny additional disaster assistance to rebuild infrastructure in Door, Grant, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties after the historic floods in August.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said the decision left him feeling “extremely disappointed.” Crowley spoke from his office at the Milwaukee County Courthouse Friday, saying that the funds would go towards repairing parks, government buildings, and other public infrastructure damaged by the so-called flooding which swept communities two months ago.
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) initially sent disaster relief after the floods, Crowley said he “commended the Trump administration,” and that “I thought that we were putting politics behind us in making sure that communities can recover.” Crowley said that by Friday over $123 million in financial assistance has been distributed to county residents for home repairs.
Photos of flooded streets in Milwaukee during the August 2025 storm. (Photo courtesy of Anne Tuchelski)
But it’s not just local businesses and homes that were damaged. The rainfall, which fell in a torrential downpour on the weekend of Aug. 9, left Hart Park in Wauwatosa underwater. Downed trees and other debris were strewn along roadways. Cars, swept away by the overnight flooding, were abandoned in the street for days.
Over 1,800 homes were left damaged or destroyed, with an estimated $34 million in damage to public infrastructure. “The preliminary damage assessments show that the damage that we saw throughout all six counties is more than significant,” said Crowley. “Roads and bridges that our residents rely on sustained substantial damage. Public buildings and facilities were not only washed away, but in some cases had significant mold contamination that will also impact the public health and safety of our residents. Our parks and our trails, they were damaged, which will harm our quality of life in the short term, as well as the long term, and the list goes on.”
Crowley pointed to Hart Park as a prime example of an area with lingering damage additional funds could remedy. As the disaster relief is denied, Milwaukee County is also in the middle of crafting a budget which will not be padded by COVID-era federal funds. County supervisors are currently debating amendments to Crowley’s proposed $1.4 billion budget, which carries cuts to transit services and eviction legal defense programs and increases property taxes by 4.1%.
“We’re already making challenging decisions about funding not only programs and services, but future infrastructure spending, and capital projects that are needed not only now, but in the years ahead. Today’s action by the Trump administration will send us back even further. It will delay progress in our recovery efforts from this natural disaster, and it will place a financial burden solely on local taxpayers who have already had to sacrifice so much as a result of these floods.”
Flooding in Hart Park, Wauwatosa. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement Friday saying he filed an appeal asking the Trump administration to release more than $26.5 million in public assistance for infrastructure repair it has denied. “Denying federal assistance doesn’t just delay recovery, it sends a message to our communities that they are on their own, and that the Trump administration doesn’t think over $26 million in damages to public infrastructure is worthy of their help,” Evers said in a press statement. “I couldn’t disagree more. The federal government should not expect our communities to go through this alone, and we are going to fight tooth and nail to ensure they get every possible resource to rebuild and recover. We are hopeful that the Trump administration will reconsider this decision, so we can make sure folks have the resources and support they need.”
The denial comes during a federal government shutdown that has lasted nearly a month. In a letter to Evers, FEMA said that while the flood damage was significant, assessments determined that “the public assistance program is not warranted.”
The storm and flooding was dubbed a “thousand year storm” and dumped record-breaking amounts of rain essentially overnight. Wisconsin now has 30 days to send an appeal.
“Turning your back on families facing washed-out roads, damaged schools, and flooded homes because they’re not seen as political allies is unconscionable,” said Kerry Schumann, executive director of Wisconsin Conservation Voters in a statement. “These communities didn’t cause this crisis, but they’re living through it. They deserve leadership that helps them recover and protects them from the next flood, not one that deepens the damage.”
A car abandoned on the northeast side of Milwaukee after the August 2025 flood. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
“By denying federal assistance, the Trump Administration is leaving Wisconsin communities to fend for themselves,” said U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin. “No community can pick up these pieces alone, and Wisconsinites need support so they can rebuild and be on the road to recovery. I hope my Republican colleagues will join me in calling on the Trump administration to step up to the plate and be here for Wisconsin communities left in the lurch.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Democrat of Milwaukee, also expressed frustration. “Our state was forced to wait nearly two months for the Trump administration’s ill-advised and disappointing decision,” Moore said in a statement. “Communities in Milwaukee, which are still recovering, are counting on federal assistance to help fund critical repairs to public roadways, buildings, vehicles, and equipment that were severely damaged.” Nevertheless, Moore said, “Wisconsinites do not give up.”
Rep. Kalan Haywood (D-Milwaukee) also issued a statement condemning the denial. Haywood said that the Trump administration “is sending a clear message to the people of Wisconsin – ‘we do not care about you’.” Haywood added that, “these funds are so badly needed to repair infrastructure, businesses, and schools. These are all essential to reverse the trend of President Trump’s faltering economy. Our residents pay millions in federal taxes and they should not face these hardships alone.”
Haywood added that Wisconsin’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) “is on the verge of drying up.” while “communities are left to rebuild major infrastructure on their own, it is disappointing that the White House is choosing a $300 million ballroom ego-project over the well-being of the people of our state. It is my hope that FEMA reconsiders this decision to ensure that Wisconsin residents have a chance to recover and prosper. Wisconsinites deserve better and should demand better.”
Two bills related to disaster relief (AB-580 and AB-581) have been introduced to the Wisconsin Legislature as communities process the news. One bill would require the Department of Military Affairs to create a program to award grants to individuals and businesses severely impacted by disasters related to a state of emergency declared by the governor. Grants of no more than $25,000 could be awarded under the bill to an individual to help repair a residence, and grants of no more than $50,000 would go to businesses. The other bill would also work through the Department of Military Affairs, and would appropriate $10 million in disaster assistance grants for individuals, and $20 million in grants for businesses in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
A view of medical marijuana products at a New York medical marijuana cultivation facility. Wisconsin Assembly Republicans have proposed a bill to legalize medical cannabis in the state under strict conditions. (Drew Angerer | Getty Images)
“Illness does not discriminate,” said Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health on Wednesday. “It affects people from all walks of life. There is no doubt that each and every one of us knows someone that has suffered through an illness and struggles to find ways to make it through each day.”
Testin was speaking in favor of SB 534, a bill introduced by Republicans to legalize medical cannabis in Wisconsin. If passed, the bill would allow registered patients to have cannabis in a non-smokeable form such as a concentrate, oil, tincture, edible, pill, cream or vapor. The bill would also create an Office of Medical Cannabis Regulation attached to the state health department and tasked with overseeing the budding program.
Testin shared a story about his grandfather, whom he described as his role model and as “the reason I decided to take a life of public service.” Back in the 1990s, Testin’s grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer, which then metastasized to bone cancer.
The senator recalled watching his grandfather undergo chemotherapy. The man “was a big guy,” Testin said, “and we watched him wither away.” At that moment, over 25 years ago, “my family made the very difficult decision to go outside the law to get him marijuana,” Testin said. “It gave him his appetite back, and it gave him time that we probably otherwise would not have had.”
Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point). (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Testin said his story was not unique. Although other medications exist, he said that many “come with side effects that can make living a normal life much more difficult.” He noted that 40 states, including Wisconsin’s neighbors Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, give patients access to medical cannabis when recommended by doctors. Texas is the most recent state to legalize medical cannabis, he noted
“So both red and blue states alike have been able to come together and recognize that this is a viable option,” Testin said. “Medicine is never a one size fits all, and it’s time for Wisconsin to join the majority of the country and add another option which may help patients find relief they need.”
Legislation’s provisions
Under the proposed bill, medical cannabis sales would be tracked through the state’s prescription drug monitoring program. Pharmacists would also be required to be on-site at dispensaries. The legislation would only cover certain conditions: cancer, seizures or epilepsy, glaucoma, severe chronic pain, severe muscle spasms, severe chronic nausea, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and any terminal illness, including patients with a life expectancy of less than a year.
Patients must be at least 18 years old. Minors could have access if there is written consent “from all” of their parents or guardians. Patients would be given registration cards and would be charged $20 a year to remain on the registry.
The bill also prohibits dispensaries or their staff “from claiming that medical cannabis may cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent any disease or medical condition.” Dispensaries would also be prohibited from “advertising their services to the general public, with certain exceptions.”
Getty Images
The bill includes a provision preventing courts from considering lawful use or possession of cannabis, or being registered as a patient, when determining custody or placement of a child, except where the child has access to the cannabis. Unlawful possession or use could still be used against parents in court, however. The bill also protects people who lawfully possess cannabis against housing discrimination, and prevents local governments from regulating legal medical cannabis programs or using zoning laws to restrict the location or operation of a legal cannabis operation.
Support and opposition
Earlier this year, two-thirds of registered voters polled by Marquette Law School said that cannabis should be legalized in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Wellness Coalition has registered with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission in support of the legislation and the Wisconsin Medical Society against it, The Alzheimer’s Association, Outdoor Advertising Association, and Pharmacy Society have all registered their positions as “other.”
People from a variety of backgrounds also spoke during the public hearing. Many supported legalizing cannabis, but had concerns about restrictions in the bill.
“This should not be a partisan issue,” said Testin. “It is clear that we as a state need to begin having a real discussion about medical cannabis legalization, and it is our hope that this bill will be the first step. It’s time for Wisconsin to provide our citizens with another option in their health care.”
Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk), who has proposed medical cannabis legislation for years, echoed that sentiment.
“Wisconsin is on an island surrounded by neighboring states that allow the use of medical cannabis products,” Felzkowski said during the Wednesday hearing. “Someone who suffers from a serious health condition should not have to make the choice to travel to another state or break the law so that they can try an alternative medicine for relief.”
Senate President Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) | Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner
Felzkowski recounted her battles with breast cancer, first when she was 40 years old, which resulted in a double mastectomy, and then a stage 4 diagnosis a decade later. She described the side effects of opioids that doctors prescribed to control her pain as “something nobody should have to live through.”
She said her oncologist called medical cannabis “another tool in the toolbox, and it could help a lot of people.”
“Here we are sitting in our Ivory Tower, denying that for people that really need it, and it’s wrong that we’re doing that,” Felzkowski said.
Legislators are divided
Lawmakers hope to get more colleagues behind the bill. Yet, despite lagging behind many other states, Wisconsin’s Legislature still struggles with just talking about cannabis. “We are not going to be talking about overall legalization for cannabis products,” said Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevera (R-Appleton), as she chaired a meeting of the Senate Committee on Health on Wednesday. “So, if you’re here to testify on how this should be 100% legal, this is not the spot for you today.”
The Legislature held its first public hearing on legalizing cannabis in 2022 in the Senate. Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Weston), who also spoke during Wednesday’s hearing, said in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner that he’s optimistic that the new bill will survive the Senate. “My goal this time,” Snyder told Wisconsin Examiner, “is something we haven’t done yet since I’ve been here and that is to have a hearing in the Assembly, where people I talk to can come down and explain their situations.”
Snyder said he hears from constituents who want the state to legalize medical cannabis. When he talks to Republicans who oppose the bill, he said, “I try to tell them first of all, this is something that helps a person. This is something that is going to be focused on folks that really need it.”
Snyder stressed that “these are people not looking for shortcuts to get marijuana, I mean they could do that without [legalized medical cannabis].” Rather, his constituents are people who often don’t want to travel so far north or south to get their medicine, or who would prefer going to a local farmer or dispensary instead.
Rep. Patrick Snyder
The bill’s critics include Republicans who feel medical cannabis would only lead to legalizing recreational use, which they don’t want, as well as Democrats who criticize the bill’s restrictive framework and want Wisconsin to legalize recreational use of cannabis.
Even with the Republican bill’s restrictions on the form in which cannabis can be used and its system of rigorous licensing, testing and enforcement, Snyder said there are “far right” Republicans in the Assembly who need to be won over.
Felzkowski said of the 24 states that allow recreational marijuana, 15 did so through ballot measures, which aren’t available in Wisconsin. “So that’s never going to happen in the state,” she said.
Nine states that have legalized recreational marijuana after legalizing medical cannabis “are solid blue states like Illinois, New York, and Connecticut,” she said. “Wisconsin is not a solid blue state.”
Another 16 states have only legalized medical cannabis. Hawaii, the first state to pass a comprehensive medical cannabis program in 2000, still does not allow recreational cannabis, she said.
“Fortunately, Wisconsin is able to learn from the experience of other states,” said Felzkowski. “We can create an effective program with safeguards, so patients and small businesses can benefit from medical cannabis products, while preventing abuse, or those without medical need from gaining access.”
GOP legislation would heighten hemp regulation to curb THC
As some Republicans work to legalize medical cannabis, others are focused on regulating or implementing new prohibitions on other hemp and cannabis products in Wisconsin.
Representatives Lindee Brill (R-Sheboygan Falls), Jim Piwowarczyk (R-Hubertus), Chuck Wichgers, (R-Muskego), Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield), and Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield), have all signed onto what Brill’s office called in a press release “a common-sense corrective bill” to close a “loophole” in the state’s hemp laws that “allows dangerous, psychoactive THC-laced products to proliferate in Wisconsin.”
The bill focuses on regulating or eliminating products containing delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, HHC, and other natural or synthetic cannabinoid derivatives.
“This proliferation is an active threat to public health,” Brill’s press release stated, referring to emergency room visits, poison control calls and hospitalizations of children after ingesting delta-8 THC and “other similar substances.”
“Both the CDC and FDA have issued warnings about the dangers of these products, which remain legal and dangerously unregulated,” the press release stated.
One 2024 study analyzing national poison data systems found that between 2021 and 2022 reports of exposure to delta-8 THC increased by 79%. The study also found that poison center calls related to delta-THC were “significantly lower” in places where either delta-THC was banned, or where cannabis use was legal. “Consistent regulation of delta-THC across all states should be adopted,” the study concluded.
Images depicting Dodge County deputies transporting ICE detainees to Broadview, Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Unraveled)
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin has been sending deputies into Illinois to transport migrants to and from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in suburban Chicago at the center of the Trump administration’s clash with Illinois officials and activists.
For more than two decades, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has had a contract with the U.S. Marshal’s Service to hold federal detainees in the county jail. As part of that contract, which budget documents show provided the county with more than $6 million last year, the sheriff’s office regularly holds migrant detainees for ICE and transports federal detainees of all sorts.
“We house federal inmates/detainees as part of our agreement with the U.S. Marshal Service. We also transport to and from various facilities as part of our agreement. The federal government reimburses us for transportation. ICE is a rider on the agreement,” Sheriff Dale Schmidt told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email. “It is a simple, non-political arrangement we have had for 20+ years under all previous administrations during this contract (Including President Obama and President Biden).”
But critics say that this year the arrangement has become more political because of President Donald Trump’s increased immigration enforcement and ICE’s escalation of tactics in both its efforts to capture people without legal documentation, and its confrontations with protesters.
“For two decades or more, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has obtained a steady stream of revenue from ICE for transporting and jailing persons in immigration detention,” Tim Muth, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin said in an emailed statement. “That practice continues. We regret that the sheriff declines to terminate his contract with ICE, a rogue federal agency that is increasingly violating the rights of persons it seizes from our communities, racially profiling and separating families, and landing some of them in the jail which the sheriff operates.”
Advocates and attorneys for immigrants say that ICE has been frequently moving detainees between detention centers as part of a “shell game” in an effort to keep them hidden from their lawyers and family.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” said immigration attorney Marc Christopher, describing unprecedented difficulties he’s experienced attempting to locate and represent clients under the second Trump administration. Under previous administrations, Christopher said, clients were relatively easy to locate and communicate with, and the attorney felt he had a good relationship with staff at facilities like the Dodge County Jail.
Now in nearly 70% of cases, Christopher told the Wisconsin Examiner, clients are “being shipped off to different facilities in many different locations…I’ve had clients sent to Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, all different locations.”
In one case, coordinating a telephone conference with a client who’d been detained in a private out-of-state facility required a three day set-up process for a video call with poor audio quality that lasted just 20 minutes, Christopher said.
Another change he’s seen is that detainees in Wisconsin who are taken to Dodge County are given court dates in Chicago.
“I had it where I’ve traveled to Dodge County after checking to see if my client’s there, only to drive all the way there to find out that that morning they were moved to a different facility,” said Christopher.
The Broadview ICE detention center in a suburb of Chicago has drawn regular protests for months. The presence of Dodge County Sheriff’s deputies at the Broadview facility were first reported by the independent media outlet Unraveled.
Images depicting Dodge County deputies transporting ICE detainees to Broadview, Illinois. (Photo courtesy of Unraveled)
The federal response to those protests has frequently escalated into violence and those escalations have been used as justification for Trump’s attempt to deploy troops from the Texas National Guard to the Chicago area.
Illinois state laws restrict ICE cooperation with local law enforcement and prevent the long term detention of migrants in Illinois. Because of that prohibition, ICE has moved detainees from Illinois to facilities in nearby Indiana and Wisconsin.
Schmidt did not respond to questions from the Wisconsin Examiner about how frequently his deputies have driven detainees in and out of Broadview under Trump, but the department’s 2024 annual report shows sheriff’s office personnel made 302 trips at the request of ICE last year.
Dodge County is reimbursed for its trips to Illinois. The journey from Juneau to Broadview is a five-hour round trip. State Sen. Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove), whose district covers part of Dodge County, says expending county resources to help ICE doesn’t keep the community safe and amounts to participating in the administration’s “cruelty.”
“Local law enforcement does not have to take on federal immigration enforcement duties. When they do, it risks discouraging victims and witnesses from coming forward — making all of us less safe,” Ratcliff said in a statement. “Our local resources should not be diverted from protecting our local communities. Further, there are serious concerns about inhumane conditions at ICE detention centers. There are also troubling political shell games being played in which detainees are transferred from facility to facility — sometimes across state lines — making it difficult for attorneys and families to locate them or ensure they receive due process. That is not justice; that is cruelty disguised as policy and it’s unconstitutional. Wisconsin’s strength lies in our welcoming communities and our commitment to fairness, dignity, and safety for all. I urge our local leaders to prioritize community trust, transparency, and compassion in every action they take.”
“You used to be able to call Dodge, set something up for the next day, spend two-three hours talking,” Christopher said. “Now I have to fight and find out where they are, try to schedule a time to speak with them. And the family is sitting on pins and needles. They have no idea where their loved one is. They have no idea what’s going on. I’m spending all my time not trying to analyze their case, but simply to find out where they are and try to arrange a time to chat with them. It’s horrible.””
Under the current administration, critics say, transporting ICE detainees is direct participation in an effort to deny due process and avoid transparency.
“I think there’s a concerning pattern of more local law enforcement being brought in to play an immigration enforcement role as part of the machinery of mass deportations,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera. Local departments are paid to transport immigrants for ICE, “as in Dodge most recently, in Brown County as well and Sauk,” she said, and also receive significant federal money for sharing information on immigrants in their custody through 287g agreements.
Neumann-Ortiz pointed to the 287g agreement sought by the Palmyra Police Department, which is still pending. The 287g program involves local law enforcement agreeing to aid ICE in arresting undocumented migrants or holding them in jail until ICE can pick them up.
“There’s real concern about it,” said Neumann-Ortiz. “They’re really trading off public safety and building trust in a diverse community to take this money. That is particularly alarming when you see what’s happening with ICE, and Customs, and Border Patrol and how they’re operating…They are operating as a militarized operation with masks, with guns, and they are profiling people and physically assaulting people violently, and really trampling over people’s due process rights.”
“Under that threat which is terrorizing communities,” she added, “why in the world would local law enforcement want to partner with that?”
This article has been edited to correct the name of attorney Marc Christopher.
Community Medical Services (CMS) on Milwaukee's South Side. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
When patients struggling with opioid addiction walk into the newly opened Community Medical Services (CMS) clinic on Milwaukee’s South Side, “we want them to feel that this is a space for healing and growth,” said Amanda Maria De Leon, regional community impact manager for CMS. The clinic provides therapy and medication-assisted treatment for people working to stabilize their lives after addiction.
Medication-assisted treatment involves medications like Methadone to control opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Together with therapy, medication-assisted treatment allows patients to begin to stabilize and repair their lives. Although studies have associated medication-assisted treatment with reductions in overdoses and other improved recovery outcomes, its use also carries stigma. Confronting that social disapproval, while also providing a comfortable environment for patients, is part of the mission of CMS.
The waiting room inside of Community Medical Services. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Walking into the clinic, patients are met with an open waiting room and ample seating. There is a small area with toys for young children in one corner, and across the room nurses sit at a desk waiting to check in patients. Hanging over the small play area is a plaque dedicated to a young girl who spoke at one of the city zoning hearings in favor of the clinic opening. De Leon explained that the girl, who was 8 years old at the time, had befriended a local unhoused man to whom she’d given food. “She knew he needed treatment,” De Leon told the Wisconsin Examiner, saying the girl told the zoning board, “I want them to open this clinic for my friend.”
Around a corner from the lobby, behind a set of protective glass windows, nurses dispense liquid methadone into small cups for patients on a daily basis. Walls and therapy rooms throughout the facility are painted calming blues and greens, and feature art or motivational messages. Small, decorative coffee tables sit between two small couches large enough for one or two people to sit facing each other.
“We create a space like this intentionally, because we don’t want a patient to feel like it’s a transaction,” De Leon told the Examiner. She said that the facility is designed to be therapeutic both to the patients and the staff, to mitigate burnout.
Dr. Dan Lemieux (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Dr. Dan Lemieux, one of the medical doctors at CMS, said that he’s “used to the hustle and bustle” of a clinic. His background began in family medicine, where Lemieux was used to seeing 20-25 patients each day. Over time he also began working in Suboxone treatment programs. “I think about eight years ago I kind of pulled back on family medicine a little bit and did a little more time in addiction,” Lemieux told the Wisconsin Examiner. “I found it more gratifying, enjoyed helping people a little bit more.” Lemieux began working at methadone clinics after the COVID-19 pandemic and found his way to CMS, where he has worked for about two years.
Lemieux has worked as the medical director of CMS clinics in West Allis, Madison, Fond du Lac, and now the Southside Milwaukee Clinic. Recalling the workload at West Allis, Lemieux told the the Examiner, “I think the counselors are really good at just keeping the flow going, and the front desk staff. So it never seemed overwhelming or busy, and the clients are always very appreciative.” Lemieux said he likes the highly focused sessions in recovery work, because “you can really spend your time kind of helping the client with those particular issues.”
Overdose deaths driven by the synthetic opioid fentanyl began skyrocketing in Milwaukee County around 2016, claiming hundreds of lives annually. New records for overdose deaths were set and broken every year from 2018 to 2022, when the death toll peaked at 674 lives lost. Nearly 5,800 non-fatal overdoses occurred that same year, according to the county’s overdose dashboard.
Amanda Maria De Leon, regional community impact manager for CMS, stands next to harm reduction supplies. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Recently, as new programs and services were established to stem the tide, overdoses began to decline. Last year there were 450 overdose deaths in Milwaukee, so far there have been fewer than half that number this year. CMS is one of the many organizations on the frontlines of the crisis, both as a treatment clinic and as a harm-reduction advocacy organization.
De Leon showcased a storage room full of boxes of hygiene kits, testing strips for both fentanyl and the tranquilizer xylazine (a more recent trend in the drug market), and Narcan (used to reverse an overdose), all of which are either used or distributed by the CMS outreach team. Sometimes staff visit homeless encampments and food pantries, other times they hold pop-up events in areas with high overdose rates. The team even organized a sober tailgate at American Family Field at a Milwaukee Brewers game and distributed over 1,200 tickets.
“We just deliver a little hope,” said De Leon. “Hopefully when you’re feeling a little better you’ll walk into a door of a treatment center. We don’t care where you walk into.” CMS also works with numerous partner organizations including the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative (MORI), various fire departments, the West Allis overdose response team and other nodes along an evolving network.
De Leon said the network has become bigger and more collaborative. At an open house CMS held at the new clinic, dozens of people showed up, she said, including community members, firefighters and police officers from multiple departments, probation and parole representatives and treatment providers. “I was speechless,” said De Leon. “We had over 70 people show up to our open house…That would have never happened in a methadone treatment world 20 years ago.”
Police officers tour a Community Medical Services treatment clinic. (Photo courtesy of Community Medical Services)
“We’re breaking down silos, we’re educating people,” she added. Today, people have easier access to methadone treatment programs. In Milwaukee County, both the jail and the Community Reintegration Center (formerly known as the House of Corrections) have medication-assisted treatment programs. De Leon stressed that when people are taken to correctional facilities they should tell staff whether they need medication-assisted treatment in order to access those programs.
Nevertheless, stigma associated with both addiction and medication-assisted treatment creates barriers to progress. Although CMS has clinics in the cities of West Allis and South Milwaukee, its new clinic is the first it has been able to open in the city of Milwaukee itself. The opening marked an end to years of contentious meetings with the city’s zoning board and local residents. Now, patients living near the South Side won’t need to travel far, and the new clinic could also lighten patient loads at other clinics.
Firefighters and clinic staff at Community Medical Services. (Photo Courtesy of Community Medical Services)
Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who represents the district where the new CMS clinic is located, said she supports the treatment center opening. “I strongly supported this facility opening in our community,” Dimitrijevic told the Examiner. “Providing residents with nearby access to needed health care and harm reduction tools makes us all safer and healthier. I am proud to have led by example on this issue by welcoming CMS to our community and am grateful for their work serving our residents.”
Another clinic is expected to open up on Milwaukee’s North Side in early 2026. But many people are not sold on medication-assisted treatment, fentanyl testing strips and overdose-reversing medications. In 2023, when the city of Milwaukee’s zoning board approved the North Side clinic, reactions from the community were split. Leadership from the fire departments of Milwaukee and West Allis spoke in favor of CMS opening a clinic, stressing the dire need for relief and treatment access across Milwaukee County.
Others called treatment centers “predatory” and expressed concerns about the clinic’s for-profit business model.
At least one 2014 study, which analyzed self-reported services from disease testing to psychiatric care, found that for-profit providers “were significantly less likely than nonprofit and public programs to offer comprehensive services”. The study said that “interventions to increase the offering of comprehensive services are needed, particularly among for-profit programs.”
Amanda Maria De Leon shows the clinic’s harm reduction supplies. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Other objections to the new clinic came from neighbors who argued that opening the clinic would hurt their property values and quality of life. A corporate representative and a real estate attorney from the Vin Baker Treatment Center, a facility named for a Milwaukee Bucks player that is located on N. 76th Street in Milwaukee, said that CMS would disrupt its business, jeopardizing a $3 million investment into the Vin Baker center. Ald. Lamont Westmoreland, who represents a North Side district, also opposed CMS, referring to city planning documents which recommended against opening social service businesses in the area. “I support treatment facilities, just not at this particular location,” Westmoreland said before the center opened.
John Koch, national director of community and public relations at CMS, explained that CMS is a for-profit entity with private equity backing. Koch said that the private equity investment, coupled with grants, has allowed the clinic to scale up to address the overdose crisis. opening new treatment centers, providing grants to extend clinic hours and embedding staff with local fire departments and homeless outreach programs for harm reduction. CMS bills Medicaid and other patient insurance to cover patient care, “and 90% of our people are on Medicaid”, Koch told the Examiner. “We work very heavily with Medicaid. And then outside of that we receive grants to open new projects.”
The private equity backing allows for “continuous investment back into the company to address the opioid epidemic as it’s needed,” said Koch. “If we were Ma and Popping it and just growing non-profit style, it’s so much slower and we would never be able to match the need.” CMS has opened seven clinics across Wisconsin, with over 70 clinics operating nationwide. “What we’ve been able to do is be innovative with our money, and meet people where they’re at,” said Koch. “So that’s our secret sauce, is using funds to just continue to provide more access to treatment. If we did not have private equity backing, we would never have been able to be this big, or be treating 30,000 people…That’s what’s allowed us to beat the opioid epidemic.”
Harm reduction supplies including fentanyl and xylazine testing strips. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Koch knows firsthand how treatment access can be the feather on the scale deciding life or death. In 2013, he was living on the streets of Chicago struggling with a heroin addiction. One night, not long after completing his second adult prison sentence, Koch encountered a police officer who saw that he needed help and gave him the number to a treatment center. Koch went the next day to begin recovery, which also included medication-assisted treatment. Today Koch is raising a family and works to give people the second chance he got years ago.
Despite such success stories, there is still public skepticism about medication-assisted treatment. De Leon recalled a conversation she had after making a presentation on harm reduction at a national conference. “This guy came up to me and said, ‘You know, you really changed my thinking,’” she said. He mentioned that in some cases people on probation or parole are expected to get off methadone in order to be fully released from supervision, despite the fact that he’s seen it significantly improve people’s lives.
An open house held to celebrate Community Medical Services opening a treatment clinic on Milwaukee’s South Side. (Photo courtesy of Community Medical Services)
De Leon asked why people were being forced to get off methadone and the man replied, “Well, nobody should be on these medications for the rest of their life.” She countered that if someone is finally stable after decades of addiction then, “Why not?…Would you tell me to get off of my insulin?” The man said no. “Then why would you tell somebody to get off of lifesaving medication that has him the most stable he’s ever been?” People are free to work on tapering off if they choose, but the priority should be stabilizing and saving a life, she argued.
Dr. Lemieux said that he’s also seen medication-assisted treatment make a difference. “It’s always a tough conversation to try and change minds,” Lemieux told the Examiner. “Just the data that comes out shows that people in recovery are getting jobs, they’re reuniting with family, they’re working more, crime goes down, and it’s just a win. They’re getting their lives back, and just being a part of that is very rewarding and amazing. I just hope that more people see this, realize this, and reducing deaths is just another huge point, too.”
The river flowing through Wauwatosa's Hart Park overflowing with flood water. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Over $80 million in federal relief funds have gone to Milwaukee County residents and businesses impacted by the historic flooding in August. Local officials are urging residents to tap into the funds, with just one month left to apply for federal aid. Thousands of Milwaukee County residents were affected by the floods, which blanketed streets and parks in flood water and debris after a record-breaking thousand-year storm.
“Federal assistance is a crucial resource to help our residents repair their homes, recover from flood damage, and take a major step toward normalcy,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a statement. “But to unlock this funding you must apply. I know the process can feel overwhelming, representatives from our federal partners are available throughout Milwaukee County at Disaster Recovery Centers and Disaster Survivor Assistance locations to help you every step of the way. With only one month left to apply, I strongly urge everyone affected by the flood to start the application today. Don’t wait until the last minute.”
Photos of flooded streets in Milwaukee during the August 2025 storm. (Photo courtesy of Anne Tuchelski)
The deadline to apply for federal aid is Nov. 12, with residents able to apply at DisasterAssistance.gov, or by phone at 800-621-3362. Residents are also encouraged to visit one of the disaster recovery centers at the West Allis Senior Center (7001 W National Ave), or the Milwaukee recovery center at McNair Elementary School (4950 N. 24th St). A recovery center that had been located at the Wauwatosa City Hall closed Friday Oct. 10, after assisting more than 500 residents with Federal Emergency Management Agency applications over its two and a half weeks of operation, according to a press release.
In the month since federal assistance became available, FEMA has distributed nearly $92 million to flood survivors statewide. Of that, just over $82 million has gone to 15,666 Milwaukee County residents. Additionally, the U.S. Small Business Administration has approved $10.2 million in disaster loans to Milwaukee County homeowners, renters and business owners.
FEMA has also continued providing flood relief through the government shutdown. A spokesperson from the office of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) told the Wisconsin Examiner at the onset of the shutdown that FEMA will continue conducting essential duties, including payments to disaster survivors, debris removal, emergency protective measures and salaries for the disaster workforce.
Jerome Dillard, executive director of Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) (left) holds book discussion with author and activist Bianca Tylek (right). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
“We’re talking about a major, major industry in our society today,” activist and writer Bianca Tylek told a group of about 20 people who packed a room at Madison’s Lake City Books Monday night. At the Q&A and book signing event, hosted by Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), Tylek — described as a leading expert in the prison industry — discussed her new book The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits, offering her insights into what she called a $80-90 billion industry in America.
“This is just a massive industry of folks who are using the correctional system to essentially extract either wealth or resources either from public coffers, or from low-income … communities that are directly impacted by incarceration,” said Tylek, who also founded and leads the non-profit organization Worth Rises, which works to confront and reform the prison industry. Tylek’s book delves into multiple aspects of the prison industry from food distribution to telecommunications and examines privatization, who profits and the lives of the people who are directly affected.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
The discussion was moderated by Jerome Dillard, EXPO’s executive director, who sat beside Tylek asking questions. Dillard called Tylek “my daughter in the movement,” and spoke of his admiration for her work and her spirit in fighting for change within the prison system.
Dillard described attending an event in Appleton last week with Tylek where he was invited to receive an award, “not knowing what we were going into,” and realizing it was a Wisconsin Correctional Association conference.
“I just couldn’t believe all the industries that were there with tables, and tabling the event with new devices and all this,” said Dillard. “I left there really broken and heavy. These conferences opened my eyes to how big this industry is … that individuals are capitalizing on human misery.” Conference tables displayed new kinds of spit masks and shock gloves to prospective correctional customers, some of whom made joking comments about using the devices on the job. “It just blew me away, you know, that she’s bragging about punishing and torturing people in their care,” said Dillard, recalling a woman who made such remarks.
Tylek said that there are over 1,400 manufacturers of correctional and policing equipment nationwide. “Every single state has a correctional conference,” said Tylek. “Every single state has a sheriff’s association,” as well as conferences and associations dedicated to jails, parole and other aspects of the correctional system. Tylek recalled attending the American Correctional Association conference, one of the largest in the nation, where she saw an exhibit hall “with hundreds of corporations” with their own exhibit tables.
“And not just tables,” Tylek told the crowd. “Probably the wildest thing I saw was one company drive a full bus into the convention center, where staff from correctional institutions could step onto the bus and play with all the equipment and trinkets that they were selling. And they gave out free raffle tickets and all these things, and probably the grossest thing that I experienced was all the tickets to private events. And I made my way up to a private event for Securus.” Tylek said that the company is one of the nation’s two largest prison telecommunication companies, and was one of the largest sponsors of the conference that year. “And they had a happy hour that involved a full open bar,” said Tylek, “a full swing dance performance, everyone just having the most joyous time of all. All while on the walls there were the kiosks, the tablets, the phone devices that you could go and speak to a Securus representative while you have your cocktail. And all of this built on about 2 million people who are sitting in a cage somewhere who will never see this, who don’t get to enjoy these luxuries in any of this. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s repulsive, I think, more than anything.”
Later, Tylek elaborated more on how companies use things like gifts and luxury vacations to grow their relationships with correctional and law enforcement leaders. “At conferences, you would get these private event tickets,” she said. At one such event, she recalled, attendees were given hand-rolled cigars. “That’s just the legal stuff that looks gross,” said Tylek. There are also “questionably legal” practices, such as offering “training cruises” in the Caribbean for prison and sheriff staff in brochures distributed during contract bidding processes.
Author and activist Bianca Tylek signs copies of her book The Prison Industry: How It Works & Who Profits. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
On the dark end of the spectrum is bribery, such as the case of a Mississippi prison commissioner who was involved in a bribery and kickback scheme with private prison companies. Tylek highlighted how in Mississippi, a prison commissioner went on to work for a private prison company as a lobbyist. Similar revolving doors exist between the prison industry, especially private prisons, Homeland Security and immigration agencies, said Tylek.
Tylek described the rise of the prison industry as a relatively new phenomenon in America. Prior to the abolition of slavery, she said, the prison population was predominantly white, and only shifted to being predominantly Black in the decades after abolition — a move to “re-confine and re-enslave” Black people. Prison populations continued to grow into the 1970s and 80s, leading into the War on Drugs. “Really around the 1980s is when you start to see industry recognize a potential opportunity,” said Tylek.
That’s the era during which most of the private prison companies featured in her book began to emerge. Private prison industry representatives helped craft some of the nation’s most punitive laws such as three-strikes laws, truth in sentencing and mandatory minimums, which helped grow the prison population. “Those three pieces of model legislation were drafted by the prison industry, and specifically by private prison executives,” said Tylek.
The consequences have been devastating for individuals and families, and also ripple out into society. “The impact of the prison industry bleeds far beyond prison walls,” Tylek said. Among those ripple effects are the cost borne by families that put money on the books for incarcerated loved ones to have food and hygiene supplies or simply to communicate, incarcerated people who work long hours for 14 cents an hour on average, missed child support payments from incarcerated parents and victims who don’t receive restitution. In addition, many small towns which once saw prisons as economic saviors now see them as burdens.
“In the end, all of us are impacted,” said Tylek. “When we exploit people who are incarcerated, or we have a system that wants to put more people behind bars and for longer because a few stand to benefit, then socially we are all harmed by that.”
Waupun prison gates, with no-visitors sign, in the middle of a residential area in Waupun. The city of Waupun was built around the prison, which is Wisconsin’s oldest correctional facility. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)
Yet a space ripe with so many problems also invites solutions. In several states, Tylek has been involved in movements to make phone calls to incarcerated people free and in more than one of those places, that effort succeeded. “Something that everyone can understand is what’s the importance of a phone call home,” Tylek told her bookstore audience. Families of incarcerated people often face significant financial challenges, including debt, income loss and unemployment.
In 2017, Tylek began to focus on the prison telecommunications industry. “We led the first successful campaign to make communication completely free in a jail system,” said Tylek. That was in New York, and affected the infamous Rikers Island jail. From 2019 to 2023, Tylek’s organization Worth Rises pushed for free jail calls in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, free prison calls in Connecticut, California, Colorado, Minnesota. Free prison calls were enshrined in the CARES Act as a result of that work. “We’ve been able to save families $600 million to date,” Tylek said, “and generate over 3 billion additional call minutes between people who are incarcerated and their loved ones.”
Dillard recalled celebrating some of those victories with Tylek, but the fight continues. “We’re in a dozen more states trying to fight for the exact same legislation to make communication free in our prisons and jails,” said Tylek. “The outcomes that we get are life-changing. In Connecticut we saw phone volume increase by over 120% overnight. In New York just recently, first data’s coming back and we are north of 40% increases in calling.” Some of that difference is also due to inconsistent call rates across different states, with incarcerated people being charged 2.8 cents per minute in New York versus people in Connecticut who were paying 32.5 cents per minute.
“No matter where it happens, the change is substantial,” said Tylek. “These are real people with real lives. We have talked to families whose autistic child stopped speaking when her father went to prison. And when phone calls became free and he could call home again she started speaking again, her child development changed, she started engaging more in school, and now she’s flourishing, all off a simple phone call.”
Bianca Tylek signs copies of her book (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
“What I love about the examples in Wisconsin is that we had nothing to do with them,” Tylek said, drawing laughter from the audience in Madison. “My biggest goal has been for this movement to take itself.”
Immigrant rights groups sounded the alarm after seven people were arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Madison Thursday morning, in what is being called a targeted action by the federal agency. Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee-based immigrant advocacy organization, said that calls flowed into their hotline around 10:30 Thursday morning, Madison365 reported, and that organizers are attempting to determine why the people were detained. Voces is working with Centro Hispano, a Dane County group, to connect with the families of those arrested by ICE.
Neither ICE nor the Dane County Sheriff put out a statement following arrests but the Madison Police Department did eventually confirm the arrests.
The Madison arrests, along with an ICE raid in Manitowoc that resulted in the detention of 24 dairy workers, mark an escalation in immigration enforcement activity in Wisconsin.
At a Friday press conference, Darryl Morin of Forward Latino called the ICE raids in Madison and Manitowoc “a new sad chapter in immigration enforcement right here in our great state.”
Centro Hispano of Dane County posted a message on Facebook confirming the seven arrests at a single address in Madison on Oct. 2.
“This is the only confirmed incident in Madison at this time. No other verified reports of ICE presence elsewhere in the city,” the post stated. “Centro and Voces de la Frontera are gathering verified information and providing support to impacted families.
“We are aware of many rumors about the presence of ICE in Madison, including schools, workplaces, and other spaces. We want to be clear: none of these rumors have been confirmed as actual ICE presence. There has only been one verified presence and arrests by ICE this morning at a residential location that ICE specifically targeted.
“We ask our community that if you have firsthand information about ICE activity, please call the Voces de la Frontera Community Defense Hotline at 1-800-427-0213 immediately.”
A Milwaukee PD "critical response vehicle", or surveillance van. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) is pursuing upgrades to technology used to track phones during investigations. Known as cell site simulators, the formerly murky equipment tracks phones by mimicking cell towers. Once connected to a targeted phone, cell site simulators are able to track the signal, allowing police to locate people. According to city purchasing division records, MPD aims to upgrade and acquire new components and extend a contract for the phone tracking gear by three years.
The city’s contract with Tactical Support Equipment will be extended until 2028 and increase by $165,000 to $1.45 million. “MPD operating funds will be used,” according to records obtained by the Examiner explaining the purpose for amending the contract. The amendments will cover funds and coverage for two cell site simulators purchased in 2022, the records state.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
A separate section of the purchasing division records explains “this equipment is used on a regular basis to locate suspects and in exigent situations such as critical missing incidents.” It also states, “MPD used this equipment to help support other law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin, law enforcement in other states such as Texas, Ohio, and Michigan, and federal agencies such as FBI and DEA. At this time, MPD is seeking to upgrade the existing equipment, add additional equipment, and add warranty, support and maintenance for the new and upgraded equipment beyond what the department currently has in place. Tactical Support Equipment, Inc. is the only vendor that can support the equipment as the equipment and software is proprietary.”
MPD has used cell site simulators since at least 2010, according to logs the department uses to catalog its use of the gear. For years, the technology was used by MPD’s Fusion Center, an intelligence unit originally created for Homeland Security operations. A group of officers known as the Confidential Source Team – or CS Team – operates the cell site simulators. Logs of the technology’s use show that it’s mostly used to investigate crimes including homicides and shootings and for investigations related to overdoses or firearms. The logs also show the technology is used to locate material witnesses, kidnapping victims, but also for vague reasons like “drugs”, “long term”, or are redacted entirely.
By 2022, when Wisconsin Examiner first interviewed a member of the CS Team, both the team and its gear had been moved from the Fusion Center to MPD’s Special Investigations Division (SID), which focuses on fugitives, felonies and violent crimes. The team’s name invokes the technology’s secretive history.
The Milwaukee department once signed non-disclosure agreements in order to acquire the technology leading to controversies in 2016, when MPD was accused of hiding use of Stingray-type devices from judges during court proceedings. When asked during a trial about how a person was located, officers used “oddly vague language,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin said, even stating that they “obtained information from an unknown source.” Things have changed over time, however. Today, the Milwaukee Police Foundation, which funnels private donations to MPD, publicly lists cell site simulators as among the technologies it helps MPD to purchase.
Like many other law enforcement agencies nationwide, for years MPD utilized phone tracking equipment produced by the Harris Corporation, a multi-billion dollar defense contractor. Harris’ devices were so common that one of its brand names, Stingray, became a common shorthand for all cell site simulators, which are also sometimes called “IMSI catchers.”
The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. A surveillance van, or “critical response vehicle” is in the background. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
In 2019, MPD purchased a new model from Tactical Support Equipment, a North Carolina-based veteran-owned company which sells everything from K9 camera systems to cables and night-vision cameras. The company does not appear to advertise its cell phone tracking systems on its website.
Tactical Support Equipment, which did not respond to requests for comment for this story, sold MPD a single cell site simulator in 2019 for $498,900, according to purchasing division records from the time. Later that same year, MPD purchased a C-Hostile Emitter Angle Tracker (C-HEATR), which is a remote handheld mapping device that works together with the cell site simulator.
Three years later in 2022, MPD upgraded the cell tracking gear by adding a four-channel “5G enabler solution” for $328,700, and a 12-channel portable base station with full 5G coverage (as well as insurance, training, and supporting equipment) for $951,750.
Responding to questions from Wisconsin Examiner, MPD said that the most recent upgrades will be to “support devices operating in 5G.” The department added that “MPD is the only agency in the area that has a [cell site simulator]. When an agency needs assistance with an investigation and their request falls in line with our operating best practices, we try to provide that agency with assistance.”
Although cell site simulators are less of an enigma than they used to be, many questions still remain. While MPD states that its technology can only track location, cell site simulators as a family of devices are known to be capable of intercepting calls and text messages, and even more exotic abilities like sending fake short messages to a target phone. In Milwaukee, local activists have long reported strange phone malfunctions and service disruptions which they suspect may be caused by law enforcement surveillance.
Protesters use their phones to record the action of Capitol police officers blocking the doors to a Joint Finance Committee meeting in May 2021. (Photo by Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)
MPD has repeatedly denied responsibility for the claims, and has said in the past that the department’s cell site simulators do not cause malfunctions to target phones. When the Wisconsin Examiner reached out for this story, however, MPD said for the first time that “the equipment already will disrupt service to the target phone when the target phone is located. That disruption is limited to the time it takes for the operator to narrow down the location of the device.”
The department has also repeatedly stated that its cell site simulators cannot intercept calls or text messages. A different technology known as PenLink is used by MPD for Title III investigations, which involve intercepting content of communications. In responses to Wisconsin Examiner, MPD cited Department of Justice policies and U.S. law which state that “cell site simulator technology must be configured as pen registers, and may not be used to collect contents of any communication.” Wisconsin Examiner reached out to the Wisconsin Department of Justice for more information and has not received a response.
From 2021 to 2023, Republicans introduced bills that would have changed how pen registers are defined in Wisconsin. Supporters of the bills, which did not pass, said that they would allow law enforcement to pursue pen registers for social media. Telecommunications experts, however, warned that the bills could open a “back door” for police to use cell site simulator devices in ways not well understood by judges or the public.
There have been more calls for more oversight of police surveillance in Milwaukee recently, with local activists pushing for Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinances. Over two dozen U.S. cities have already passed such ordinances, which provide more transparency about the purchase and use of surveillance technologies by police departments. MPD stresses that it uses cell site simulators in accordance with DOJ policy “and only after a court order is granted in cases that are not exigent,” the department said in a statement. “There is a process in place in which utilization of the equipment is only done with supervisory approval and oversight.”
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