In the shadow of national events, we must ask ourselves: what can the County do regarding federal abuses of power? As I write this, January 8, we just saw the tragic daylight murder of Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. I’m sure there will be further developments in that story, and future atrocities and overreaches by Trump in the weeks to come.
As a Board Supervisor and a human being, I am heartbroken and angry on behalf of Nicole and her family. We owe it to Nicole’s memory to ask hard questions — and to protect our residents at a local level.
ICE and Trump have made our communities less safe, not more. When federal policy prioritizes fear, mass detention, and deportation over due process and humanity, it erodes trust in government at every level. Dane County cannot control federal policy — but we are not powerless.
I thank Sheriff Barrett for discontinuing the County’s involvement in the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) program, which incentivizes local governments to share records related to undocumented persons with the federal government. I also thank County Executive Agard for providing detailed guidance to all County departments on exactly how they should reply to an ICE inquiry, including refusing entry and not providing information until a judicial warrant is produced.
County services exist to keep people healthy, housed, and safe — not to act as an extension of ICE. That means protecting data privacy, limiting cooperation to what the law strictly requires, and ensuring county facilities aren’t used to facilitate deportation and destabilize families.
Standing up to injustice is not abstract. It’s local, it’s personal, and it’s our responsibility. We honor Nicole Good not with empty words, but by building a county where safety is rooted in compassion, accountability, and shared humanity.
