Brennan proposes an ICE ‘accountability commission’ if elected governor

The candidate says a time will come to handle those whose actions have been beneath the dignity “of who we are as Wisconsinites, as human beings.”

When President Donald Trump leaves office, and his militarized incursions into local communities ends, gubernatorial candidate Joel Brennan wants to be ready to prosecute. As Trump once said about immigrants, the worst of the worst — the federal agents whose actions have led to deaths, injuries, and unjust arrests and confinements — would be the targets.

“People are angry,” Brennan told UpNorthNews. “And so what I did was lay out something done in a few other states that created a statewide accountability commission.”

Brennan, a former top cabinet official to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, outlined the commission’s mission and membership, based on documenting misdeeds by law enforcement as part of Trump’s effort to roundup and deport suspected undocumented immigrants, whether they have committed a crime or not.

“People who are on the streets, who are protecting their fellow citizens, who are chronicling and cataloging what’s going on would have a safe and secure place to store all of that information,” Brennan said. “You would have a commission that would be populated with people who we would respect: former judges, people in law enforcement, people who have been working with nonprofits or worked with the immigrant population around the state of Wisconsin.” 

There has not yet been large-scale activity in Wisconsin by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the US Border Patrol, but community leaders are preparing for it. Brennan says state government needs to be ready as well.

“It is not easy to hold federal officials like ICE accountable at the state level. But there will come a day when the people who are in charge at the federal level change. We want to make sure that we have the opportunity to hold those to account who have done things that simply are beneath who we are, not only as Wisconsinites or Minnesotans or whoever, just as human beings.” 

Brennan supports a guidance memo issued last year by Evers on ways state officials should accommodate ICE visits and the actions they should instead resist, such as demanding personnel files or accessing non-public office spaces. Brennan believes local law enforcement should also be supported in its primary roles rather than made subservient to ICE.

“I think what Gov. Evers did in laying out that guidance was smart,” Brennan said. “And we should make sure that we are prepared for the same kind of situation that has happened in other places. Things like ensuring that in Wisconsin, local law enforcement is focused on local law enforcement duties. They shouldn’t be doing the job of law enforcement at the national level and border enforcement. That’s the job of the federal government.”

There are an estimated 3,000 federal agents in and around Minneapolis, dwarfing the city’s police force of about 600 officers. 

“We need to make sure that we are providing local law enforcement with the resources to do their work at the local level, doing whatever they can to protect and promote the citizens that they are, that they’re hired to protect,” he added.

Brennan says it’s making cities less safe and shows the need for the kind of accountability actions he’s proposing.

“As governor, I would hope that we would never have to deal with the occupation of American cities — that what we have seen is something that’s going to go away and we’re going to see saner, cooler heads prevail in this. But I think in the current climate and because of what we have seen, you need to be prepared to hold others to account for what they have done. I’m going to stand on the side of Wisconsin residents.”