Students in Wisconsin who receive free or reduced lunch can apply for free driver’s education classes.
“Doing what’s best for our kids is what’s best for our state and ensuring the next generation of drivers can make good and safe decisions behind the wheel is critically important to building safer roads and communities for everyone,” Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement this week.
The Driver Education Grant Program has provided $6 million annually to more than 10,000 students since it began in September 2024.
The first $1.5 million in grants this year will support the first wave of applicants with the same amount released every three months.
Common Ground pushes for access
Common Ground, a nonpartisan coalition that addresses community issues, has advocated for more access to driver’s education for low-income high school students.
“This grant program will reduce racial and economic disparities around access to driver education and the ability to obtain a driver’s license,” the organization said in an Aug. 25 news release.
Common Grounds launched a listening campaign in 2021. Its leaders spoke with about 1,000 people, and reckless driving was the primary concern.
According to data from the Milwaukee County Motor Vehicle Collision Dashboard, individuals younger than 20 years of age had the highest injury rate by age group in Milwaukee County.
What you need to know
The program will pay to send approximately 11,500 low-income students per year to driver’s education classes on a first-come, first-served basis.
Interested students and/or their families ages 14 to 19 can go to the WisDot website and fill out an application. WisDOT also created a map to help students and families find a program near them.
Funds are paid directly to the driving school. The funding covers 30 hours of classroom time, six hours of observation time and six hours of driving.
After applying, eligible students will receive a confirmation email with confirmation “coupon” numbers for the course.
They can share the coupon number with any licensed driving school in the state to start the course.
Driving schools will enter the coupon number in their student records upon course enrollment. Payment for the course will be sent electronically to the schools from Wisconsin DMV.
A Rivian R1T owner had his truck towed after screens went dark and resets failed.
Service center replaced the battery and modules but left him with fresh problems.
Incident highlights EV startup growing pains even as Rivian drivers report positives.
Owning a brand-new car is supposed to be a joyful experience. Buying one from a relatively new automaker can heighten those feelings since the product typically offers exciting innovations. For one Rivian owner, though, the whole thing has left a bittersweet taste in his mouth.
His situation, shared in a pair of Reddit posts, highlights the challenges that come with supporting a new automaker. It also points out how shaky service can sour an otherwise stellar product.
The first issue popped up when the owner in question slipped into his R1T to find that the screens were dead. No reset procedure worked, so the truck was basically a big, shiny, expensive brick. “I love this truck, it’s amazing,” he wrote, “but these damn problems that keep popping up are making it hard to keep loving.”
After a tow, Rivian’s service center replaced the 12-volt battery, swapped out a faulty AXM module, and flushed the coolant. The owner picked the truck up days later, hoping his troubles were behind him. To say was he wrong would be an understatement: actually, he had more problems before even leaving the service center, the least of all being that there were ‘greasy fingerprints’ all over and the floor mats were dirty.
The big issue was that his Apple CarPlay no longer worked. He tried logging out and back in, to no avail. Moreover, the driver’s traffic visualization system was non-functional and things like the ‘smart turn signals’ were on the fritz. “This isn’t fun guys, I’m seriously about to give up on this truck,” he wrote in a full follow-up.
To be fair, this sort of story isn’t unique to Rivian. Service mishaps happen at every automaker, including legacy brands. The difference is that companies like Ford, GM, and Toyota have decades-old networks of dealers and service processes to lean on. Rivian is still building its infrastructure from scratch.
You May Love It – But Can You Trust It?
Many owners rave about positive experiences, but enough of them report headaches like this that it underscores how fragile trust can be when the car in question relies heavily on things like complex software and untested support systems to function as it should. One commenter in the thread claims they’ve been in for service between 10-15 times in just two years. In the end, for this particular Rivian owner, the R1T still feels like the right truck – when it works.
Jesús Daniel Ruiz Villamil wanted to be proactive, so before he started his junior year at Milwaukee’s South Division High School, he asked his counselors about courses beyond normal high school classes.
They suggested dual enrollment, where Ruiz Villamil could get college credit for taking university-level courses like Latin American and Caribbean studies and advanced Spanish taught by his high school teachers.
Now a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Ruiz Villamil credits the dual enrollment classes he took at South Division for the success he’s experienced so far in college.
“I think those college classes … helped me to improve my writing and reading skills to be prepared for my English classes, psychology classes and political science classes,” he said.
Dual enrollment gives students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. South Division is one of several Milwaukee Public Schools that offer dual enrollment in the school – MPS teachers teach college classes in the classroom.
MPS high school students at any school can also take advantage of dual enrollment on a college campus – where students can earn high school and college credit at the same time for taking college classes – through the district’s M-Cubed partnership with UWM and the Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Participation in dual enrollment is growing in Wisconsin, but Milwaukee lags behind many other districts in the state, a Wisconsin Policy Forum report found.
In Milwaukee Public Schools, 2.8% of high school students participated in dual enrollment, the study found using 2023-2024 state report card data. The report card data is based off enrollment data from the previous school year.
In Oak Creek-Franklin Joint School District, the rate is 47%, while at Racine Unified, the dual enrollment participation rate is 40%.
Concerns with state funding
Vicki Bott, UWM outreach program manager, said she thinks dual enrollment could grow at MPS, but limits in state funding force schools to weigh the benefits of increasing access with other pressing district needs.
The district covers nearly the entire cost of programs like M-Cubed or in-classroom courses like those at South Division, MPS postsecondary engagement coordinator Hannah Ingram said. Wisconsin does not give school districts funding to help cover these dual enrollment costs.
For each UWM course that a high school teacher teaches, MPS pays $330 per student at no cost to the student. For this coming school year, the district is paying a little over $3,200 per student to participate in the M-Cubed program, Ingram said.
“It’s too much of a burden on school districts and high schools, so that’s where we’ve got some inequity,” Bott said. “If it’s a matter of like, you know, repainting to prevent lead poisoning or providing tuition for dual enrollment, they’re going to choose the lead poisoning prevention.”
Other hurdles
Some schools don’t have dual enrollment courses inside the classroom because no teachers have the necessary qualifications to teach a college-level course, MPS career and technical education manager Eric Radomski said. Teachers also don’t get incentives to teach dual enrollment courses.
South Division can offer several courses in the high school because several teachers already had the necessary qualifications, including master’s degrees, Principal José Trejo said.
Trejo said not many South Division students participate in M-Cubed. He said students tend to just participate in the courses within the high school.
South Division High School Principal José Trejo said students typically do well in the school’s dual enrollment courses because students are already familiar with the teachers, and teachers are familiar with their unique needs and circumstances. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
Most dual enrollment courses across Wisconsin are similar to South Division’s program, where high school teachers get credentialed to teach courses for college credit in the classroom, Wisconsin Policy Forum researcher and report author Don Cramer said.
South Division is one of 10 MPS schools that offer classes through UWM in the high school, Ingram said. Radomski said 15 high schools have career and technical education classes, eight of which offer dual enrollment career and technical education courses.
Despite the financial constraints, Radomski said, “We have seen a gradual trend in the right direction with more and more (career and technical education) teachers offering dual enrollment courses over the past several years.”
The district adds about one to two career and technical education dual enrollment courses in the high school each year, he said.
Different schools, different priorities
Another reason dual enrollment access varies, according to Ingram, is because some MPS schools choose to prioritize other programs over dual enrollment in the classroom, like Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, the Rising Phoenix program through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, or Early College Credit Program and Start College Now, Wisconsin’s two dual enrollment programs.
At Pulaski High School, for example, three students dual-enrolled during the 2022-2023 school year, but 84% of students completed AP or IB courses.
Not all students who take AP courses take the exam, and not everyone who takes the exam receives college credit. Students need to take and score high enough on an AP exam to earn college credit.
AP exams are graded on a scale of one to five. Students typically need to score three or higher depending on the course and the requirements of the university to which the student is transferring. Students can check what AP scores their prospective college accepts using the College Board’s AP credit policy search.
Radomski said despite the benefits of advanced courses like AP and IB, a lot of MPS students see greater success in dual enrollment courses because they need to pass an entire class to receive college credit, not just a test.
“We have over a 75% pass rate, for example, in Career Tech Ed, but the number is not nearly that high for students getting a three or four on their (AP) test in order to get that credit,” Radomski said.
Ruiz Villamil said the rigor of AP courses helped him prepare for college classes, but he preferred dual enrollment. He said he failed two AP exams and didn’t earn credit despite taking the classes for a year.
Helping students find their path
At South Division, principal Trejo has seen dual enrollment courses help students gain better clarity about what they want to do after graduation. With this clarity, Trejo said, students can avoid pursuing a college degree only to realize they don’t like it.
“It’s a really good experience in terms of understanding ‘maybe that’s not what I want to do’ and it’s OK,” Trejo said. “But at least you found that out early enough so that you’re not spending so much money in college.”
For example, students interested in becoming a teacher can learn how they like working in a classroom by taking college-level education classes and participating in an internship at an MPS school — an opportunity Trejo said students might not have if they didn’t start their education career until college.
Ruiz Villamil said his dual enrollment courses helped expose him to new pathways of study.
“That’s one of the reasons that I’m doing a Spanish minor, probably major,” Ruiz Villamil said. “Nowadays, I can look back to it and appreciate that I took those classes.”
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
White House budget director Russell Vought speaks with reporters inside the U.S. Capitol on July 15, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The White House budget office moved Friday to yank nearly $5 billion in foreign aid already approved by Congress in a controversial maneuver meant to bypass lawmakers.
The so-called pocket rescission, which a top congressional watchdog and the Republican chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee have called illegal, would pull funding that Congress has already approved for the State Department to fulfill overseas commitments.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has deemed such actions to circumvent Congress unlawful. And Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said Friday that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
“Given that this package was sent to Congress very close to the end of the fiscal year when the funds are scheduled to expire, this is an apparent attempt to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval,” the Maine Republican said in a statement.
According to a summary provided by Senate Appropriations ranking Democrat Patty Murray, the move would claw back $3.2 billion from the State Department’s Development Assistance account that funds food security programs, works to limit irregular migration to the U.S. and to strengthen the market for U.S. companies involved in climate issues to expand overseas.
It would also remove $913 million in U.S. treaty dues to the United Nations to support peacekeeping missions; $445 million in security assistance from the State Department’s Peacekeeping Operations, particularly in Africa; and $322 million from the Democracy Fund, according to Murray’s office.
The White House Office of Management and Budget did not respond to a message seeking the request.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that President Donald Trump is “using his authority under the Impoundment Control Act to deploy a pocket rescission, cancelling $5 billion in foreign aid and international organization funding that violates the President’s America First priorities.”
“None of these programs are in America’s interest, which is why the President is taking decisive action to put America and Americans first,” Rubio said.
Frustration from Congress
When the White House makes a request to Congress to claw back funding already approved, the payments are withheld for 45 days while lawmakers make a decision to approve the rescission or not. Because there are fewer than 45 days before the end of the current fiscal year, funding is essentially paused indefinitely, regardless if Congress approves the move.
As lawmakers face an Oct. 1 deadline in order to avoid a government shutdown, the rescission has already drawn frustration on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray listens during a Senate Budget Committee on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Murray, of Washington state, blasted the rescission request.
“Donald Trump wants to zero out more bipartisan investments in our national security and global leadership,” Murray said in a statement. “This time, however, he is attempting to do an end run around Congress altogether. No lawmaker should accept this absurd, illegal ploy to steal their constitutional power to determine how taxpayer dollars get spent.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed the Trump administration for withdrawing funds approved on a bipartisan basis.
“As the country stares down next month’s government funding deadline on September 30th, it is clear neither President Trump nor Congressional Republicans have any plan to avoid a painful and entirely unnecessary shutdown,” the New York Democrat said in a statement.
Pennsylvania Democrat Brendan Boyle, who is the top Democrat on the U.S. House Budget Committee, said in a statement the rescission wasn’t “worth the paper it’s printed on,” and criticized Trump and White House budget director Russell Vought by name.
“It is deeply alarming, plainly illegal, and a blatant abuse of power,” Boyle said. “Congress approved this funding on a bipartisan basis, and the Constitution is clear: it is Congress—not the President—that holds the power of the purse. With this illegal power grab, Donald Trump and Russell Vought are driving us toward a government shutdown.”
This is the Trump administration’s second rescissions request to Congress. The first, which Congress approved, yanked $9 billion in congressionally approved funding. That included about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, such as National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, for two fiscal years. It also clawed back $8 billion of foreign aid.
A jail lieutenant for a northern Wisconsin sheriff’s office resigned in 2022 after an internal investigation found he sent sexually explicit messages and photos to female subordinates. He now works as a police officer in a neighboring county.
Jeffrey Johnson worked at the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office for 10 years, rising to administrator of the county jail, before he “resigned in lieu of termination,” according to a Wisconsin Department of Justice database that tracks law enforcement officers who leave a position under negative circumstances. Johnson started working for the Minong Police Department in Washburn County a little over a year later, according to the same database.
His resignation came after he admitted to sending “text messages of a sexual nature to a subordinate jail deputy, including pictures of your genitals,” according to a document from the sheriff’s office The Badger Project obtained in a records request. “When confronted about these text messages, you did not deny sending them and noted you could not recall the messages, given you were likely intoxicated when they were sent.”
Sawyer County refused to release the full investigation report to The Badger Project, citing client-attorney privilege, but one of the documents it did release notes that Johnson interacted similarly with “a number of other female deputies.”
Sawyer County Sheriff Doug Mrotek said in an interview that scrutiny on Johnson was greater because he was a leader and oversaw the jail’s staff of about 17 people. But he was not on duty when he sent the messages and the interactions didn’t constitute harassment, Mrotek said.
“We all make mistakes,” Mrotek said. “We all can have a bad day. It’s tough for me not to have a lot of respect for his integrity and character. Now make no mistake, I’m not saying that I condone his wrong action … but he made a mistake. And that mistake cost him his position as a leader.”
Mrotek said if Johnson had been a patrol deputy and not a jail lieutenant at the time, he would probably still be working for the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s a leader-subordinate issue,” Mrotek said. But “he’s not going to make the same mistake twice.”
Johnson used Mrotek as a reference when he applied to his current job, where he works as a patrol officer and not in a supervisory role.
Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.
Minong Police Department Chief Lucas Shepard wrote in an email that Johnson was recommended for the position by the command staff at Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.
Shepard also said Johnson was unanimously approved for the position at his department by himself and four citizen representatives. The chief and Johnson are Minong’s only full-time police officers.
Shepard said his department’s own background check revealed that the allegations of misconduct against Johnson involved consensual behavior that happened off duty.
“Beyond his resignation from that department, Officer Johnson offered the Minong Police Department years of valuable knowledge, training, and experience in law enforcement,” Shepard wrote. He “exemplifies what community-based policing strives for and if he has one definite characteristic as an officer, it is the care that he has for the people that he is policing.”
Wandering officers increasing in Wisconsin during cop crunch
This cop crunch has been a problem for years across the country, experts say.
Statewide, the number of wandering officers, those who were fired or forced out from a previous job in law enforcement, continues to rise. Nearly 400 officers in Wisconsin currently employed were fired or forced out of previous jobs in law enforcement in the state, almost double the amount from 2021. And that doesn’t include officers who were pushed out of law enforcement jobs outside of the state and came to Wisconsin to work.
Despite their work histories, wandering officers can be attractive to hire for law enforcement agencies, as they already have their certification, have experience and can start working immediately.
Law enforcement agencies can look up job applicants in the state DOJ’s database to get more insight into officers’ work history. And a law enacted in 2021 in Wisconsin bans law enforcement agencies from sealing the personnel files and work histories of former officers, previously a common tactic for cops with a black mark on their record.
About 13,400 law enforcement officers are currently employed in Wisconsin, excluding those who primarily work in a corrections facility, according to the state DOJ. Wandering officers make up about 2.5% of the total.
At least one major study published in the Yale Law Journal has found that wandering officers are more likely to receive a complaint for a moral character violation, compared to new officers and veterans who haven’t been fired or forced out from a previous position in law enforcement.
This article first appeared on The Badger Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.
“The Trump administration is threatening our state’s fundamental values by commanding ICE and its agents to ignore due process, rip people from their communities and repeatedly violate basic human rights,” Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) said. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Democrats are calling for prohibitions on state and local support for the Trump administration’s mass deportations and for greater transparency surrounding law enforcement officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers helping carry out arrests.
Lawmakers, led by the Democratic Socialist caucus, proposed a package of five bills to meet those goals at a press conference Thursday. Federal agents have used increasingly aggressive tactics to arrest immigrants as they seek to advance the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. In Wisconsin, ICE arrests have doubled under Trump with agents arresting an average of 85 people per month since January.
“The Trump administration is threatening our state’s fundamental values by commanding ICE and its agents to ignore due process, rip people from their communities and repeatedly violate basic human rights,” Rep. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) said. The bills, he said, will implement “strong accountability measures so that all Wisconsinites, regardless of their background, are welcome and safe here.”
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) said that most of the people being detained by the Trump administration aren’t criminals. According to ABC News, a recent report found that since late May, people with no criminal convictions and no pending criminal charges have started to make up an increasing percentage of those arrested by ICE.
“The vast majority have been people who pose no public threat,” Ortiz-Velez said. “They are the essential workers that put food on our tables, milk the cows and keep the meat factories operating. They build our homes, and they’re our neighbors, and they’re our friends.”
Republicans, who hold majorities in the Senate and Assembly, would be necessary for the bills to advance.
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) said it’s unlikely Republicans will sign on.
“We hope that our Republican colleagues will work with us on common-sense legislation, especially when the stakes are this high, but no, I don’t anticipate any support from our Republican legislative colleagues on this,” Clancy said.
Republicans introduced a bill earlier this year that would require local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. It passed the Assembly in March.
One of the bills in the Democratic package is a measure introduced earlier this year by Ortiz-Velez to do the opposite by prohibiting cooperation of law enforcement with ICE
Another bill would require law enforcement officers to identify themselves when arresting someone including making their name and badge number visible, providing the authority for arrest or detention and prohibiting them from covering their face or wearing a disguise. Face coverings would be allowed if worn for safety or protection.
Violations would be a Class D felony and carry a penalty of maximum $100,000 fine.
Leaders of the Department of Homeland Security have said agents are covering their faces to protect themselves from doxing and threats, according to NPR.
“It’s not normal for any law enforcement officer, any agency to wear masks and hide their identity, nor is it safe,” Ortiz-Velez said. “No exception should be made here.”
One bill would prohibit state employees and police officers from aiding in the detention of someone if the person is being detained on the “sole basis that the individual is or is alleged to be not lawfully present in the United States.” The bill would also prohibit law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin from participating in 287(g) agreements.
The federal 287(g) program provides the opportunity for state and local law enforcement agencies to partner with ICE, allowing local officers to perform certain immigration-related duties, including identifying, processing and detaining removable immigrants in local jails.
According to the ACLU of Wisconsin, there are 13 counties in Wisconsin as of the end of July that formally participate in the program. Several have joined this year including Kewaunee, Outagamie, Washington, Waupaca, Winnebago and Wood.
“It’s important to remember as we’re here at the state capitol that Wisconsin has shown strong opposition to policies like 287(g),” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director and co-founder of Voces de la Frontera, a nonprofit immigrant rights organization.
Neumann-Ortiz noted that in 2016 thousands protested immigration legislation that Republicans were proposing at the time, and it ultimately failed.
“People can make the change,” Neumann-Ortiz said.
Another bill would prohibit state and local facilities from being used to hold detained immigrants and would prohibit funds from being used to establish new immigrant detention facilities. The bill’s co-author, Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire), called it “the Communities, Not Cages” bill.
“Over the past eight months, my constituents have stopped me at events and contacted my office and shared personal stories of fear and horror that grows and comes with watching the Trump regime abduct, detain and deport people they perceive to be immigrants without due process without accountability, often without even showing their faces,” Phelps said. “Our constituents in every corner of the state wish for us to be welcoming, safe and humane — a state that invests in communities and not in cages.”
The final bill would establish a grant program run by the Department of Administration for community-based organizations in Wisconsin to support them in providing civil legal services to people and families in immigration matters.
The city of La Crosse is suing three fire truck manufacturers — including two headquartered in Wisconsin — in federal court, accusing them of unlawfully coordinating to limit the supply of trucks and raise prices.
A researcher surveys wild rice on the Pine River. (Wisconsin SEA Grant)
The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that this year’s wild rice crop yield in northern Wisconsin is low, continuing a pattern of lower yields over recent years. Wild rice crops have been affected by heavy rainfall and powerful storms this year, contributing to an 18% decline in the wild rice crop compared to last year.
“The 2025 season has brought a mix of conditions, including several notable storm systems,” said Kathy Smith, Ganawandang manoomin (which means she who takes care of wild rice), with the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission. “A fast-moving windstorm in mid-June produced widespread wind damage and heavy rainfall across the upper Midwest. In late June, some areas saw 6-7 inches of rain in a short period, contributing to temporary high-water levels on seepage lakes.”
Using satellite-facilitated remote sensing technology, the commission was able to determine the 18% decline in the wild rice crop. A DNR press release notes that these technologies do not provide insights into local wild rice production, bed densities, or seed production. Early scouting reports help fill in the gaps, showing a “mixed bag of production,” the agency stated, “with some top-producing lakes seeing declines in the crop from last year, while others appear to be rebounding.”
Wild rice harvesting is open to all Wisconsin residents with a wild rice harvester license. The crop provides nutritious, naturally grown food to people across the upper Midwest. Wild rice also holds an important cultural place for indigenous tribal communities. Around late August through mid-September, the rice reaches maturity. Jason Fleener, a DNR wetland habitat specialist, stresses that it’s important to wait to harvest the rice until it falls with relatively gentle strokes or knocks from ricing sticks. If no rice falls, then it’s best to wait a few more days before attempting to harvest.
Harvesting immature beds can negatively affect the overall harvest, as well as the long-term sustainability of the rice. Besides climate effects, human activity such as boating (which creates waves that uproot growing rice plants) can also harm the crop.
A couple hundred people rallied Aug. 25 in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia outside the the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located in Baltimore. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
WASHINGTON — Maryland federal Judge Paula Xinis barred the Trump administration Wednesday from re-deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully removed earlier this year, until she makes a decision in an evidentiary hearing set for October.
Separately, Abrego Garcia filed a claim for asylum, a longshot bid to gain legal status as the Trump administration aims to expel him to Uganda after unlawfully deporting him to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March. Xinis has no jurisdiction over the asylum case, which will be handled by an immigration judge.
Xinis said at a Wednesday hearing that she would issue a temporary restraining order blocking immigration authorities from removing Abrego Garcia until she issues a decision following a hearing scheduled for Oct. 6 in the U.S. District Court of Maryland.
That hearing is on Abrego Garcia’s habeas corpus claim challenging his detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week.
Xinis said she would rule on the claim within 30 days of the early October hearing.
Xinis said she would include in her temporary restraining order that Abrego Garcia must be detained within 200 miles of the district courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia are also challenging the administration’s efforts to expel Abrego Garcia to the East African nation of Uganda and are pushing for a credible fear interview, in an effort to stop his removal to a country where he could face harm.
Immigrants who are deported to a country that is not their home, known as a third country, are allowed to challenge their removal if they believe they will experience harm in that country.
Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign said during Wednesday’s hearing that he expects the credible fear process to take two weeks.
Ensign said that while the Department of Justice objects to Xinis’ temporary restraining order, the federal government is “committed” to keeping Abrego Garcia in the United States until she makes her decision on the habeas corpus claim.
Uganda or Costa Rica
Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador despite deportation protections granted in 2019, was brought back to the U.S. in June to face criminal charges lodged against him by the Department of Justice in May amid several court orders, including from the Supreme Court, that required the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
His case has brought a spotlight to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Abrego Garcia has detailed the physical and psychological torture he experienced at the El Salvador megaprison.
Last week, attorneys for Abrego Garcia in his criminal case in Nashville, Tennessee, said in court filings that the Trump administration is trying to force Abrego Garcia to plead guilty to human smuggling charges by promising to remove him to Costa Rica if he does so, and threatening to deport him to Uganda if he refuses.
Costa Rica’s government has stated it will grant Abrego Garcia refugee status.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney in his Maryland case, Simon Y. Sandoval-Moshenberg, said Abrego Garcia is willing to be removed to Costa Rica but will not plead guilty to the charges in Tennessee.
Those charges stem from a traffic stop in 2022 in which Abrego Garcia was in a car with several people. No charges were filed at the time.
The Department of Justice has alleged that Abrego Garcia took part in a long-running conspiracy to smuggle immigrants without legal status across the United States. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Trump and other top officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have accused Abrego Garcia of being a MS-13 gang leader, but no allegations have been proven in court.
Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. without legal authorization from his home country of El Salvador in 2011 at the age of 16. He applied for asylum in 2019, but authorities denied the claim because he did not apply for asylum within his first year in the U.S., which is the legal deadline for such claims.
Instead, an immigration judge gave him deportation protections, known as a withholding in place, because it was likely he would face gang violence if returned to his home country of El Salvador.
Federal immigration officials at the time didn’t object to the deportation protections and declined to find a third country of removal that would accept him and where he would not experience harm.
Family alleges Tesla Cybertruck defects trapped 47-year-old driver in fiery August crash.
The lawsuit also accuses Barn Whiskey Bar of over-serving alcohol before the incident.
Plaintiffs seek over $1M in damages despite NHTSA’s top safety rating for the Cybertruck.
A tragic crash involving a Tesla Cybertruck has now turned into a courtroom battle. More than a year after Michael Sheehan lost his life in a single-vehicle accident, his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against both Tesla and a Texas bar, arguing that both share responsibility for what happened.
According to the complaint, filed in Harris County District Court, Sheehan owned the Cybertruck for just 102 days when the crash happened. He left the Barn Whiskey Bar in Cypress, Texas, and crashed about seven miles away. The Tesla left the road, hit a culvert, and burst into flames.
At the time of the accident, it was unclear what caused the crash. Investigators openly admitted that just identifying the body was difficult due to the heat of the fire. Now, we have a little more insight into potentially contributing factors.
Claims Against The Bar
Sheehan’s family says that the Barn Whiskey Bar over-served Sheehan despite him being “clearly intoxicated.” In fact, the lawsuit goes as far as to say that “it was apparent to the provider that MICHAEL SHEEHAN was obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others.”
Interestingly, the family also blames Tesla because it says the Cybertruck itself is dangerous. According to the lawsuit, the “battery cell chemistry used is hyper volatile and susceptible to thermal runaway.” The family says that the automaker could have used “battery cell chemistry with slower thermal propagation readily available, which allows longer time to escape post-crash.”
The family goes on to cite other things it sees as defects, like the battery modules, the packs, the location of the vents in those modules and packs, and even the door handles in the truck that are “unreasonably difficult to locate in an emergency.”
What The Family Seeks
Essentially, the family believes that if the fire had spread more slowly and if egress had been easier, Sheehan would’ve escaped. To that end, it’s seeking damages in excess of $1,000,000. All that said, it’s also worth noting that the Cybertruck has the highest safety rating (five-star) from the NHTSA.
Reading Time: 7minutesClick here to read highlights from the story
Pay raises and other efforts have done little to ease the 911 dispatcher shortage in Brown County: The county is short more than one in three of its needed dispatchers.
Boosting pay isn’t enough to attract and retain dispatchers, experts say – departments must boost morale, get creative with hiring and training and address the mental health toll the job takes.
Waukesha County officials made changes that show promise: The county’s 911 center went from over half-vacant to almost fully staffed in two years.
Furthermore, advocates support federal legislation that would reclassify all 911 dispatchers as first responders, which would allow dispatchers to access benefits like additional mental health resources.
For years, Brown County has struggled to hire people to answer 911 calls and coordinate responses to emergencies. Its emergency dispatch center was among many that grappled with worsened staffing shortages after the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as the crisis eases nationwide, major shortages still beset Brown County’s 911 center. Despite past pay raises and other efforts, the county is missing more than one in three of its needed dispatchers. Industry experts say boosting pay isn’t enough to attract dispatchers nowadays. Departments must also boost morale, get creative with hiring and training and address the mental health toll the job takes.
Waukesha County’s 911 center offers an example of how such measures can help alleviate shortages. It placed a laser focus on employee mental well-being and went from over half-vacant to almost fully staffed in two years.
The Brown County vacancies haven’t impacted how quickly dispatchers pick up the phone when residents dial 911 — employees still answer faster than the national standard recommends. But some county leaders are worried that mistakes will be made if the issue continues.
Only one of the five elected supervisors who helm a committee overseeing the county’s public safety operations answered calls and emails for this story. Supervisor Michael LaBouve, who represents most of the east side of De Pere, told Wisconsin Watch the county is following a plan to address the shortage and solving it is “going to take time.”
“I think we’re all seeing progress, so that’s all I have to communicate about that,” LaBouve said. “I feel good about what’s happening.”
But at 19 employees short, the center tallies more vacancies today than it did several years ago when the county first prioritized the crisis, and some are losing their patience.
During a public meeting in late May, supervisors aired their frustration at the lack of progress. Dispatchers worked a combined 8,600 hours of overtime so far this year, the department said, and they’ve routinely taken to local government meetings to voice their experiences with stress and burnout.
“Looking at us to go 60, 70, potentially 80 hours and being called in on the days off and 24/7 is just — it’s mind-boggling,” dispatcher Kirk Parker said during a May meeting.
Money not the answer?
Staffing shortages have plagued the public safety communications industry for years, but the issue peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2019 and 2023, about one in four dispatch jobs across the country were vacant, research by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch suggested.
There are still “alarming strains” on the industry, but there are recent signs of progress, said April Heinze, chief of 911 operations for the National Emergency Number Association, a national nonprofit of dispatch industry professionals. Research by NENA shows 74% of centers reported having vacant positions in 2025, improved from 82% in 2024.
However, those improvements aren’t reflected locally. Brown County was short 19 staffers in early August, according to officials, leaving about 35% of the center vacant.
“Like playing a game of Whack-a-Mole: as quickly as one issue can be addressed, another issue pops up,” Chancy Huntzinger, Brown County’s director of public safety communications, said in a statement to Wisconsin Watch.
In 2023, in one of its first major efforts to attract and retain staff, Brown County’s Board of Supervisors voted to allocate over $400,000 for raises, retention bonuses and a starting pay boost. Pay now starts at $24.60 per hour, according to the department.
“Obviously, pay is not always the most important thing,” Heinze said. Data from the study NENA completed in May showed the largest affliction for dispatchers across the country is burnout.
Plus, the pay boost didn’t do much to make Brown County stand out to job seekers. The department’s minimum pay is middle-of-the-pack compared to other northeast Wisconsin counties.
Waukesha’s methods show promise
Roughly two hours south, Waukesha County’s 911 agency has made outsized progress in solving its dispatcher shortage.
When COVID-19 prompted the “Great Resignation,” dozens of dispatchers left Waukesha County Communications Center for higher-paying, lower-stress jobs in public safety technology startups, utility company call centers and other nearby 911 centers.
By October 2023, the center was over half empty. Down over 20 dispatchers, senior staff were forced to pick up call-taking shifts. Staff worked during their time off. Employees regularly picked up back-to-back 12-hour shifts.
“People were starting to feel burnt out, and really it became a snowball effect,” said Gail Goodchild, the county’s emergency preparedness director. “We saw bad attitudes. People didn’t want to come into work. The culture was waning.”
Department leaders realized they needed “all hands on deck” to turn things around, Goodchild said — which they did. According to NENA, they had only two vacancies in July.
The department did raise pay, bringing the starting hourly wage to $29.44 from roughly $27. This helped, but “wasn’t the leading thing that really turned us around,” Goodchild said. Department leaders also parted with staff they felt “didn’t contribute to a positive culture.” They revamped their hiring and training processes and eased the job requirements. And they introduced an intense focus on dispatchers’ mental health.
Waukesha’s hiring process once heavily relied on CritiCall, a software commonly used in 911 centers that tests potential dispatchers’ skills at multitasking, decision-making, map reading and more. It was determined the test was “weeding people out that would have probably been a really good fit,” said Chris Becker, Waukesha’s communications operations manager.
“We looked at our numbers in that and determined that there was no correlation between our successful trainees and their CritiCall scores being high,” Becker said. “So we tossed that out.”
Now, the hiring committee strictly focuses on if a candidate will fit the department’s culture. To ensure people learn the hard skills the exam measures, the department has refined and revamped its training. (Brown County candidates must pass the CritiCall exam to be hired, and the county has not considered changing that, Huntzinger said.)
An officer walks into the Green Bay Police Department on Aug. 12, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Waukesha also removed its two-year work experience requirement from the job description to yield more candidates, a move it may soon reverse because it’s seen that having “some of that life experience” is good, Becker said.
Finally, the county ramped up mental health support to dispatchers. In addition to regular benefits offered in the county’s employee assistance program, it contracted a local mental health provider specializing in first responders. Dispatchers now regularly attend mandatory, confidential 90-minute meetings with the providers, who help employees work through vicarious trauma, a type of trauma common among first responders that compounds when hearing, reading or witnessing distressing events. The grant-funded initiative costs roughly $16,000 for 18 months, Becker said.
“In case our staff ever gets to a point where they need them, they feel more comfortable to reach out for that help, rather than living with it and burying it and then getting to that point of burnout again,” Becker said.
Brown County has not explored increased mental health support as a method of retention. Staff are encouraged to visit the Public Safety Communications director’s office if they have concerns, and they can receive counseling benefits through the county’s employee assistance program, Huntzinger said.
“We’re listening to people’s worst days, right? We hang up the phone when the first responders get there, and then it’s left to our imagination to fill in the blanks,” Becker said. “But some of those traumatic calls just don’t go away, and they’ll pop up at random times, or a call three years later will remind you of a call that you took, and you’re right back to that place again. … It’s super important for our staff to have that outlet.”
Looking ahead
After bumping pay, Brown County’s Board of Supervisors requested an independent review of the dispatch center in 2024. The report, delivered in January 2025, made 65 recommendations on how the center could improve operations and its staffing.
The department has made mixed progress on implementing the recommendations, which vary in complexity, and gives monthly progress updates to the board’s Public Safety Committee.
Per the advice of the consultants, the department introduced employee referral bonuses and now has candidates visit the call center before they interview, rather than after.
The department will also hire “traveling dispatchers” — temporary contractors who will work at the center for six months to cover some shifts, Huntzinger said. She did not answer a question from Wisconsin Watch about how much this will cost the county.
Next year, the center will introduce a new shift schedule to help it operate more effectively with less staff, Huntzinger said. Though consultants recommended the county’s “unnecessarily complex” schedule be changed immediately, it was delayed following employee pushback.
The report also suggested the county “substantially expand” partnerships with local education institutions to create a pipeline of candidates. Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, which offers workforce training in emergency dispatch, said it has not been formally assigned recruitment efforts but it aims to support the region’s workforce needs.
In the last four years, 84 students have completed programs that certify them in emergency dispatch. Twenty-seven of those included a tour of the Brown County Dispatch Center.
“One of the biggest barriers is awareness,” Jeff Steeber, the college’s associate dean of public safety, said of the struggle to get students into the field. “Many students enter our programs without knowing that emergency dispatch is a viable and rewarding career option.”
Industry leaders have spent years advocating for legislation they believe would change this.
The federal 911 Saves Act, championed by both NENA and Waukesha leaders, would reclassify all 911 dispatchers as first responders for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which currently lists them as clerical or secretarial employees, alongside office clerks and taxi dispatchers.
This would allow dispatchers to access a slate of benefits, such as increased mental health resources, and it would reinforce the cruciality of the job, Heinze said.
“You hear little kids say, ‘I want to be a firefighter. I want to be a police officer,’” Goodchild said. “They don’t look at a 911 telecommunicator dispatcher as a career path. That hurts the industry, too.”
Eighteen states have passed their own laws reclassifying telecommunicators, but Wisconsin is not one of them.
“We’re hopeful this year that it is going to (pass), and it would help us, I think, very, very, very much,” Heinze said.
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
A Wisconsin man who faked his own death in Green Lake last year has been sentenced to 89 days in jail — the same amount of time he evaded law enforcement.
Debra Gillispie’s grief journey took her from outrage and a mission to shut down a bar, to driving across the country and back, to 20 years of leading local advocacy and reform efforts, and ultimately, to the prison that’s holding the man who killed her son.
The case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan will move forward following a federal court ruling. Dugan is accused of helping a man evade ICE by ushering him through a side door of her courtroom.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks to protesters who held a prayer vigil and rally on his behalf outside of the ICE office in Baltimore, Maryland, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. Lydia Walther Rodriguez with CASA interprets for him. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
BALTIMORE — Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore early Monday for a prayer vigil for the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration aims to re-deport to Uganda unless he pleads guilty to Justice Department charges.
As Abrego Garcia arrived for his Monday ICE check-in at the office, he was arrested and detained, one of his immigration lawyers, Simon Y. Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the crowd.
The crowd shouted “Shame!”
Sandoval-Moshenberg added that the ICE officials at the time would not answer questions about where Abrego Garcia would be detained.
“The only reason that they’ve chosen to take him into detention is to punish him,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said outside the office.
Television cameras and photographers follow Kilmar Abrego Garcia as his family, friends and other supporters walk him up the steps to the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located in Baltimore, on Aug. 25, 2025. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to States Newsroom that “ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and are processing him for deportation.”
DHS said that ICE has placed Abrego Garcia in removal proceedings to Uganda, which has agreed to accept deportees from the United States.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys quickly filed a habeas corpus petition suit in a Maryland district court, where Judge Paula Xinis, who also ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garica after his wrongful deportation, has barred immigration officials from removing Abrego Garcia from the United States until 4 p.m. Eastern Wednesday. A habeas corpus petition allows immigrants to challenge their detention.
In a Monday afternoon emergency hearing with Xinis, the attorneys for Abrego Garcia, including Sandoval-Moshenberg, said he was being held in Virginia.
Sandoval-Moshenberg asked Xinis if she could order that Abrego Garcia not be moved from Virginia because he was concerned that Abrego Garcia could be moved. Xinis agreed, saying the order would give Abrego Garcia access to his legal counsel in his criminal case and habeas one.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia would accept refugee status that has been offered by Costa Rica’s government, but would not plead guilty to the charges.
‘I am free and have been reunited with my family’
As Abrego Garcia walked into his ICE check-in with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, he was greeted by cheers from hundreds of protesters.
In Spanish, Abrego Garcia thanked those who attended.
“I always want you to remember that today, I can say with pride, that I am free and have been reunited with my family,” he said.
Immigrant rights activists from the advocacy group CASA shielded the family and the attorneys as they entered the field office.
Protesters hold up a sign of support for Kilmar Abrego Garcia outside the ICE office in Baltimore where he was arrested on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
Over the weekend, attorneys for Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Nashville said in court filings that the Trump administration is trying to force the Maryland man to plead guilty to human smuggling charges by promising to remove him to Costa Rica if he does so, and threatening to deport him to Uganda if he refuses.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty and was released Friday to await trial in January on charges he took part in a long-running conspiracy to smuggle immigrants without legal status across the United States.
His attorneys received a letter from ICE that informed them of his pending deportation to Uganda and instructed him to report to the ICE facility in Baltimore for a check-in.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said that Monday’s check-in with ICE was supposed to be an interview but “clearly that was false.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg said the new lawsuit was filed early Monday in the District Court for the District of Maryland challenging Abrego Garcia’s potential removal to the East African country, or any third country, while his immigration case is pending.
“The fact that they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a matter that is completely unconstitutional,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Trump mass deportations in spotlight
The Supreme Court in April ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, his home country. An immigration judge had granted him removal protections in 2019 because it was likely he would face violence if returned.
The case has put the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics in the national spotlight as well as the White House’s clash with the judicial branch as the president aims to carry out his plans of mass deportation.
On Friday, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys moved to dismiss the case against him because of the coordination from Homeland Security and the Justice Department to force a guilty plea from him.
“There can be only one interpretation of these events,” the lawyers wrote. “The (Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security) and ICE are using their collective powers to force Mr. Abrego (Garcia) to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat.”
Another judge in Maryland had earlier ruled that ICE must give Abrego Garcia 72 hours of notice before removing him to a third country.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia while he was detained there, criticized the move by the Trump administration to re-deport him to Uganda.
“The federal courts and public outcry forced the Administration to bring Ábrego García back to Maryland, but Trump’s cronies continue to lie about the facts in his case and they are engaged in a malicious abuse of power as they threaten to deport him to Uganda – to block his chance to defend himself against the new charges they brought,” he said in a Sunday statement. “As I told Kilmar and his wife Jennifer, we will stay in this fight for justice and due process because if his rights are denied, the rights of everyone else are put at risk.”
Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., speaks during a rally on Aug. 25, 2025, in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is standing behind Ivey outside of the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located in Baltimore (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
Maryland Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, who represents the district where Abrego Garcia’s family lives, attended Monday’s rally. He slammed the Trump administration for moving to again deport Abrego Garcia.
“This started with a mistake,” he said. “They knew it was illegal. Instead of acknowledging it and bringing him back, they said, ‘We can’t bring him back.’ They lied.”
The Trump administration repeatedly stated in court that because Abrego Garica was in El Salvador, he was no longer in U.S. custody and could not be brought back despite court orders.
Wrongly deported in March
Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported in March and returned to the U.S. in June to face the charges filed by the Justice Department in May.
Because of his 2019 deportation protections, the Trump administration either had to challenge the withholding of removal or deport Abrego Garcia to a third country that would accept him.
His attorneys in the Tennessee case attached the agreement with the government of Costa Rica to accept Abrego Garcia’s removal in Saturday court filings.
“The Government of Costa Rica intends to provide refugee status or residency to Mr. Abrego Garcia upon his transfer to Costa Rica,” according to the agreement. “The Government of Costa Rica assures the Government of the United States of America that, consistent with that lawful immigration status and Costa Rican law, it does not intend to detain Mr. Abrego Garcia upon his arrival in Costa Rica.”
In that filing, the Trump administration late Thursday agreed to remove Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica if he remained in custody until Monday, pleaded guilty to the DOJ charges and served the sentence imposed.
Selah Torralba, an advocacy manager for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said at Monday’s rally outside the ICE facility that she pushed for Abrego Garcia’s release while he was detained in Tennessee.
“After spending close to three months brutalized in a place that he should never have been sent to begin with, and another three months imprisoned in a state that is not his own, Kilmar was joyfully reunited with his family and children this weekend,” she said. “But it is impossible to celebrate that joy without acknowledging the cruel reality that our communities have known for far too long.”
From left, Republican state Reps. David Steffen and Ben Franklin and Democratic state Sen. Jamie Wall plans for closing Green Bay Correctional Institution at an Allouez Village Board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 19. (Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner)
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.
Now that the Wisconsin budget has called for closing the aging Green Bay Correctional Institution, lawmakers, the governor’s office and the Department of Corrections are having to grapple with how to carry it out.
“For the first time in ever, we finally have agreements in the Legislature and with the executive branch on how to move forward,” said state Rep. David Steffen (R-Howard) after an Allouez village board meeting last week.
There are unresolved details that will need time to work out, Steffen said, but “we’re moving in the right direction.”
Steffen, state Rep. Ben Franklin (R-De Pere) and state Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) spoke to the village board Aug. 19 about plans to close the prison, located in the village adjacent to the city of Green Bay. Gov Tony Evers and DOC Secretary Jared Hoy were invited to the meeting but were unable to come, Allouez Village Board President Jim Rafter said.
The 2025-27 Wisconsin budget includes money for preliminary plans to revamp Wisconsin’s prison system and close the Green Bay prison. But what Evers originally proposed and what the document looked like when it reached his desk were far apart.
Pushing for a deadline
Evers originally called for $325 million for a series of projects that would enable the state to close the Green Bay prison in 2029 and transform Waupun Correctional Institution.
What the Legislature passed — largely written by the GOP majority on the powerful Joint Finance Committee — includes $15 million for prison system construction planning related to the corrections department’s realignment, including closing the Green Bay prison.
Supporters of closing the Green Bay Correctional Institution posted signs outside the Allouez Village Board meeting Tuesday, Aug. 19, calling for the prison to be closed. (Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner)
When he signed the budget July 3, Evers vetoed the 2029 closing deadline, arguing in his veto message that the Legislature had rejected his own plan for closing the prison, which also aimed for closure in 2029. The Legislature, he wrote, provided “virtually no real, meaningful or concrete plan” in place of his.
Republican lawmakers criticized Evers’ veto. In a statement the day that the budget was signed, Steffen said that “only in government would four and a half years be too short of a deadline to finalize the closure of a crumbling building.”
Republican lawmakers want to restore the deadline. Franklin said at last week’s meeting that he will introduce a bill in the fall to set a closing deadline and wants it to be Dec. 31, 2029. The bill should specify that the deadline could only be extended with approval from the Legislature, he said.
Wall gave less weight to the impact of setting a deadline. He pointed to Lincoln Hills, which houses male juvenile offenders. The facility has remained open for years after the original deadline to close it, Wall said, because the Legislature did not take the steps needed to meet that target date.
He also expressed concern that people might leave because of a deadline “that may or may not become real,” exacerbating ongoing staffing problems in the system.
While the shortage of correctional officers improved after pay increased, vacancies have started rising again. The DOC and prisons across the country have experienced staffing troubles, which can lead to more restrictive conditions for incarcerated people.
Vacancy rates published by the DOC for correctional officers and sergeant positions in adult prisons climbed to 35% in August 2023. The vacancy rate declined to about 11% in fall 2024, but it has since increased to 17%. At Green Bay and Waupun, it’s over 25%.
“Historically speaking, from the time that I started there to the time that I left… if 10 new people would start at one point, usually half would quit,” former Green Bay corrections officer Jeff Hoffman told the Examiner last year. “Because they didn’t want to work in that environment.”
Differences over prison system planning
Franklin said his proposed deadline bill will more specifically state how the $15 million will be spent.
Wall said the DOC is already developing a plan for spending the money, which will go through the state building commission. The plan is to direct the money to planning for the kind of facility changes that Evers proposed originally, he said.
Franklin said Republicans will have to be flexible in adopting some of Evers’ proposals to restructure juvenile centers and medium and maximum security adult prisons. He said he doesn’t think everything will be adopted as Evers originally proposed, however.
Franklin said he also wants to set milestone dates, for actions such as transfers of incarcerated people, which would provide “a barometer of where we’re at” ahead of the closing deadline.
He said he also wants quarterly progress reports to the Joint Finance Committee.
Steffen said the committee and the Legislature should have the opportunity to see and understand plans and ask questions more than once and have time to deal thoughtfully with the situation instead of “in a pressure cooker budget environment.”
Wall cautioned against moving too slowly, however. DOC has some projects that could go up for approval early in 2026, he said.
“And time is not necessarily on our side here when it comes to the state budget,” Wall said, noting that if the economy softens, that could affect the state budget.
According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state could be facing a more difficult budget in 2027 than it has seen in recent years, with recently approved spending and tax cuts using up most of the surplus.
Speaking to reporters after the Allouez meeting, Steffen said that “we are generally in agreement on what to do with the buildings, the expansions at the other facilities and the closure” at Green Bay.
But he said there will be incarcerated people who need somewhere to go. Republicans and Democrats differ on whether to expand the earned release program — releasing some people before their sentence is completed — or “find the space within the system” to move them, Steffen said. He raised the possibility of having local jails take in prisoners, a tactic the Department of Corrections has used to reduce overcrowding.
Funding remains uncertain, Steffen added.
Aging prison system
A 2020 draft report on the Department of Corrections’ website includes information about problems created by the infrastructure inside the aging prisons in Green Bay and Waupun.
“There are a lot of issues with running facilities that are that old,” Hoy said in April about the Green Bay facility. “We shouldn’t be running prisons in that manner in 2025… We want to do more with our population than what those facilities can afford us to do.”
Prison reform advocates hold vigils outside the prison. Wisconsin Department of Corrections data shows that on average, prisoners at GBCI spend an average of 48.5 days in disciplinary separation, where an incarcerated person may be sent for committing a violation — the most of any prison listed.
While lawmakers push to close the Green Bay prison, it’s unclear what will become of Waupun, the state’s oldest prison, which has attracted scrutiny for a string of prisoner deaths, a lockdown and living conditions.
The governor’s proposal in February aimed to close the prison temporarily and convert it to a medium-security institution and “vocational village” emphasizing job training and readiness at an estimated cost of $245.3 million. The provision did not pass the Legislature.
While Allouez’s Rafter wants to close the Green Bay prison, Waupun mayor Rohn Bishop has called for keeping Waupun Correctional Institution open.
Bishop has pointed to the economic impact on Waupun and to the city’s history and heritage. In a column in December, he said the city donated the land to bring the prison there, generations of people in Waupun have worked at the prison and local churches have had outreach to incarcerated people.
Green Bay Correctional Institution. (Photo by Andrew Kennard/Wisconsin Examiner)
The federal government has extended its lease on a downtown Milwaukee property used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to federal lease records and the building’s owner.
The property at 310 E. Knapp St. is owned by the Milwaukee School of Engineering but will remain in use by the federal government through at least April 2026, with options to extend through 2028, said JoEllen Burdue, the college’s senior communications director.
“We do not have immediate plans for the building and will reevaluate next year when we know whether or not the government wants to extend the lease,” Burdue said.
The lease was originally scheduled to expire in April 2025.
With a new ICE facility under construction on the city’s Northwest Side, the downtown lease extension raises the possibility that the federal government is expanding local immigration infrastructure or enforcement. This would be consistent with other forms of expansion in immigration enforcement, statewide and nationally.
“I’m upset and concerned about what this means for my immigrant constituency. For my constituents, period,” said Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa, who represents the 8th District on the South Side.
Immigration infrastructure
The Knapp Street property is used by ICE as a field office for its Enforcement and Removal Operations, according to ICE.
This includes serving as a check‑in location for individuals under ICE supervision who aren’t in custody and a processing center for individuals with pending immigration cases or removal proceedings.
The Vera Institute is a national nonpartisan nonprofit that does research and advocates for policy concerning incarceration and public safety.
The most people held by ICE at a given time at that Knapp Street location during the Biden administration was six. On June 3, 22 people were held there – also exceeding the high of 17 during President Donald Trump’s first administration, according to data from Vera Institute.
The office generally does not detain people overnight but can facilitate transfer to detention centers that do.
The functions carried out at the Knapp Street office mirror those planned for the Northwest Side facility.
A new ICE field office is expected to open at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive in Milwaukee. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
City records show the West Lake Park Drive property will be used to process non-detained people as well as detainees for transport to detention centers.
The records also state that the property will serve as the main southeastern Wisconsin office for immigration officers and staff.
The U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate arm, initially projected the new site would open in October. However, a spokesperson said there was no update and did not confirm whether that timeline still stands.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, responded to NNS’ requests for comment.
Rise in immigration enforcement
As local immigration enforcement grows, so does enforcement throughout the state and the rest of the country.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse is a nonprofit at Syracuse University that conducts nonpartisan research.
Not only are more people being detained, but they are being detained for longer, said Jennifer Chacón, the Bruce Tyson Mitchell professor of law at Stanford Law School.
A July 8 internal memo from ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons instructs agents to detain immigrants for the duration of their removal proceedings, effectively eliminating access to bond hearings.
Eighty-four of 181 detention facilities exceeded their contractual capacity on at least one day from October 2024 to mid-April 2025, according to a July report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The Dodge County Jail, which ICE uses to detain people apprehended in Milwaukee, is one of the facilities that exceeded its contractual capacity. On its busiest day, it held 139 individuals – four more than its 135-bed limit.
In addition to Dodge County, Brown and Sauk county jails have also entered into agreements with ICE to house detained immigrants, according to records obtained by the ACLU of Wisconsin.
ICE’s unprecedented budget
Noelle Smart, a principal research associate at the Vera Institute, notes that it remains unclear whether increased immigration enforcement drives the need for more detention infrastructure or expands to catch up with more infrastructure.
But, Smart said, with ICE’s unprecedented new budget, the question of which one drives the other becomes less relevant.
Trump’s proposed ICE budget in 2025 was $9.7 billion – a billion more than ICE’s 2024 budget. An additional $29.85 billion was made available through 2029 for enforcement and removal as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
“We know this administration intends to vastly increase the number of people subject to arrests and detention, and we expect to see increases in both given this budget,” Smart said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Login
