Barron County’s “Trust ICE” Message Comes with a Threat

On Sunday, I wrote that for Wisconsin county officials, cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has more than one meaning (sometimes plain, sometimes concealed through ambiguity).

If official cooperation is sometimes shielded from view, at other times an expectation of the public's cooperation is stated more as an implied threat.

That's the case in Barron County. The county sits in northwestern Wisconsin, with Rice Lake as its largest city and the City of Barron as the county seat. It’s an ordinary, rural place that trades heavily on personality and familiarity. That's exactly why slogans like “trust us” can feel persuasive — and exactly why they should be treated with skepticism. Barron County is also a deeply red place and supportive of Trumpism, with Trump receiving over 62% of the vote in the last presidential election.

Consider the recent remarks from the Barron County sheriff, Jodi Kummet (herself an appointee of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers). Henry Redman of the Wisconsin Examiner reports:

The Barron County Sheriff on Wednesday said in a social media post that area residents shouldn’t trust the news media about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in the area.

In the post on Facebook, the sheriff’s office challenged the accuracy of local news reports on ICE activity in the area that prompted “a flurry of calls and messages” to the sheriff’s office. The post stated that ICE was in Barron County on Sunday looking for two individuals but did not locate either of them. The post also said that information about ICE should come from the agency itself.  “

The Barron County Sheriff’s Department encourages everyone to read past the headlines and question what they see or hear in the news, and especially on social media, as it relates to ICE operations,” the department wrote. “Do your own research and visit the Immigration and Customs Enforcement website to see what their operations entail and who they are apprehending.”

See Henry Redman, Barron Co. Sheriff says to trust ICE on immigration operations, Wisconsin Examiner, February 11, 2026.

A local sheriff’s job is narrowly tailored under law: custody, jail administration, and local public safety under state law, with state law constraints and state law accountability.

So when a county sheriff’s office tells the public to trust a federal enforcement agency, the local sheriff’s department is asking residents to skip the question that matters in Wisconsin now: Do county sheriffs have lawful authority to hold people for ICE beyond when they would otherwise be released?

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case squarely raising that question. The Wisconsin's high court has before it now a case challenging sheriffs who assist ICE. See Voces de la Frontera, Inc. v. Gerber, No. 2025AP2121-OA (Wis. Dec. 3, 2025) (order granting petition for original action).

In our environment, “trust ICE” is not reassuring — it's evasive of legitimate concerns made plain time and again.

And yet, and yet, as Redman ably reports, the Barron County Sheriff's Department asks more of its community than trust. It has offered a thinly-veiled threat to ordinary residents who have sought no more than peaceful inquiry under law:

As previously stated, if ICE comes to Barron County and requests assistance of the Barron County Sheriff’s Department, we will support our law enforcement partners,” the Barron County sheriff’s post stated. “Unlawful obstruction and interference with any operations will not be tolerated.”

There is no unlawful obstruction in seeking information, there is no unlawful obstruction in exercising one's First Amendment rights, and there is no unlawful obstruction in pursuing legal redress for federal misconduct and abuse.

No part of Wisconsin, whether near or far, big or small, sits beyond the law or apart from justice.