Winnebago County Board declines to take up resolution denouncing ICE action in Minnesota - WPR

The Winnebago County Board declined to take action on a resolution condemning federal immigration actions in Minneapolis, removing the item from its agenda Tuesday night without debate.

The board took a voice vote to remove the issue from the agenda.

The resolution would not have carried legal force but would have expressed the board’s opinion publicly. If approved, it would have condemned U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement tactics that “needlessly endangered human life, disregard basic dignity, and erode the rule of law.”

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“Recent immigration enforcement actions undertaken by federal authorities, including those that resulted in the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have generated widespread public outrage regarding civil rights, accountability, and the appropriate use of force,” the resolution read.

But the board did not publicly debate the issue.

County Board Supervisor Douglas Nelson made the motion to remove it from the agenda. He said he worried debate on the measure would have only served to divide the board.

“I just didn’t see that any good would come out of an hour’s worth of arguing with people that we work with and try to move forward with on a daily basis, or at least a monthly basis,” he told WPR. “I just thought the best thing for Winnebago County and this board was to just not even go into something that happened in another state.”

County Board Supervisors Lucas Reinke and Kristl Laux authored the resolution. Both said they were disappointed by the board’s decision.

“I wanted to tell our people, our residents — not just our citizens, but all of our people — even our immigrants, even our refugees, even our undocumented people, that we would protect them as much as we could, that we were there for them, that we care about them,” Laux said in public comments.

World Relief Wisconsin, a Christian humanitarian organization, has helped more than 1,500 immigrants and refugees settle in the Fox Valley region over the past 12 years, according to the nonprofit’s website.

“I’m disappointed more for our constituents than anyone else because I would hope that they could learn what their elected officials feel on this issue,” Reinke told WPR.

In deciding not to take a stand on the ICE action in Minnesota at the meeting, Laux said that the board expressed “where they stood on it and where their belief structure on it was.”

“They weren’t going to be able to hear what we were saying anyway,” she said.

Joe Schulz/WPR

Public comments split on ICE resolution

Four members of the public spoke against the decision to remove the resolution from the agenda. Four spoke in favor of the decision. Two left the meeting after the item was removed.

Oshkosh resident Michael Krueger described the board’s decision as “despicable, disgraceful, heartbreaking.” He said immigration enforcement actions are creating “generational trauma” for families and children across the country.

“Anybody in this room that can feel that they live a life of compassion but still not stand up for all people needs to revisit themselves and wonder how they can sleep at night, knowing that millions of people across this country cannot get a good night’s sleep and will not for many years to come,” he said.

Oshkosh resident Toby Vanden Heuval was also against the board’s decision. He said the board has taken up similar non-county issues in the past.

“That was not fair to everyone here, everyone who saw that topic on the agenda and the people who care about this cause,” he said.

Joe Schulz/WPR

But Joan Paterson of Oshkosh was in favor of removing the resolution from the agenda, calling it “woke rhetoric.”

“I suggest you rethink your priorities and your loyalties,” she said to the resolution’s authors. “Regarding your comments about (Renee) Good and Alex Pretti, they would be alive today if they just stayed home and let the law enforcement do what they were hired to do.”

Likewise, Oshkosh resident Bill Demler said he was against the resolution and supported ICE’s efforts to remove undocumented immigrants.

“I don’t care how nice these people are, how if they want to assimilate to our community, they broke the law,” he said. “And I’m glad you turned down this resolution.”

As of Feb. 7, 73.6 percent of people held in ICE detention had no criminal conviction, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. In October, an investigation by nonprofit news outlet ProPublica found more than 170 cases in 2025 where U.S. citizens were detained by immigration officials at raids and protests.

Joe Schulz/WPR

County executive: There are ‘legitimate fears’ in county’s refugee, immigrant community

Winnebago County Executive Gordon Hintz told WPR he believes the resolution was removed because many on the board “simply wanted to avoid having that kind of toxic discussion.”

Hintz said he didn’t have a position on the resolution, but noted the county has a large refugee and non-citizen population.

He said most of the city of Oshkosh’s population growth since 2010 is from the refugee population, and there are “legitimate fears” about what would happen if ICE came to the Fox Valley.

“The hard part for me as a local elected leader is I want to be able to provide some reassurance that I can’t, because I don’t know right now — based on what I’ve watched in some of the other communities — who those people are accountable to,” he said. “That’s the part that’s missing, but we have an obligation to protect the safety and security and well-being of the people who reside in our county.”

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