Elvira Benitez Suarez, released from ICE detention after an appeals court ruling opened the door to bond, checked in with immigration authorities Monday as her fight for legal residency continues.
Paul Kiefer / Wisconsin Watch
Paul Kiefer joined Wisconsin Watch in September 2025 as a Roy W. Howard fellow, focusing largely on immigration and data reporting. He grew up in Washington state, first setting foot in a newsroom as a teenage producer-in-training at a Seattle public radio station. He went on to cover criminal justice in Washington for both the Seattle news site PubliCola and InvestigateWest. He headed east in 2023, finding work as a state politics reporter for Delaware Public Media before receiving a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and interning with the Washington Post’s metro desk.
Posted inCommunity, Criminal justice
Wisconsin’s prison population is heading toward a record high. Track the trend here.
Overcrowding is particularly extreme in Wisconsin’s women’s prisons, two of which hold more than twice as many people as they were designed for. A new Wisconsin Watch tool, updated weekly, shows the population approaching the 2019 record.
Posted inCriminal justice
Decade-old marijuana conviction prompts ICE detention of Wisconsin green card holder after family trip
After returning from her native New Zealand, Hortonville resident Everlee Wihongi was detained over a 2014 marijuana possession conviction. Immigration attorneys say similar low-level offenses are increasingly triggering detention under the Trump administration.
Posted inCommunity, Public Safety
Wisconsin mother granted bond in challenge to ICE detention rule
A Sheboygan Falls woman tested a federal appeals court ruling against a Trump administration policy barring many ICE detainees from seeking release on bond.
Posted inCommunity, Housing
As homelessness crisis worsens, Milwaukee sees some success
Despite increase in homelessness, advocates see signs of hope.
Posted inCommunity, Economic Development
New Wisconsin Watch tool makes statewide layoffs easier to track
Search employer-reported layoffs since 2018 by county, industry and year as part of a growing suite of data-driven news apps.
Posted inCriminal justice
Wisconsin Watch launches immigration court data tracker
It’s part of a new approach to data storytelling: news applications.
Posted inEconomic Development
Wisconsin regulators: Data centers must cover full cost of their energy needs
The Public Service Commission approved a new rate structure for We Energies’ largest data center customers, requiring them to cover the full cost of new power generation and fuel.
Posted inCommunity
‘Language lost. Culture lost’: In Milwaukee, a race to keep Rohingya language alive in exile
After ethnic cleansing in Myanmar scattered Rohingya communities, a grassroots effort in Milwaukee is testing whether teaching the language in written form can help it survive — and whether families will choose to pass it on.
Posted inCommunity, Criminal justice
Steady arrests, shifting targets: Explore latest data on ICE activity across Wisconsin
Scroll through maps and data to explore where ICE is making arrests in Wisconsin — and how patterns are shifting.