When asked at a campaign event how he would stand up to ICE as governor, David Crowley said that he’s not just an ally for illegal immigrants. He chose a different word.
“When it comes down to the immigrants… I always say, ‘I’m not an ally. I’m an accomplice,’” Crowley told supporters. “I’m going to be with you no matter what.”
It was a striking choice of words for the Milwaukee County Executive, particularly given Crowley’s record of opposing cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
Crowley has said he sees no scenario in which Milwaukee County should partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He supports Milwaukee County’s policy against honoring ICE detainers. He has opposed agreements allowing local law enforcement to assist ICE. His county government has lobbied in Madison for restrictions on local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, in addition to lobbying for taxpayer-funded legal aid for undocumented immigrants..
Now, Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany is turning Crowley’s own words against him. A new Tiffany campaign ad juxtaposes Crowley’s “accomplice” declaration with three horrific Wisconsin crimes involving illegal immigrants who were unlawfully present in the United States.
But the three cases featured in the 30-second advertisement are only the beginning.
Across Wisconsin, illegal immigrants or other noncitizens subject to immigration enforcement have been accused or convicted in recent years of killing children, sexually assaulting young girls, murdering a pregnant woman, killing motorists while driving drunk, attempting to murder domestic partners, trafficking massive quantities of cocaine and committing other serious crimes.
Those cases have become part of a larger policy fight over a straightforward question: When someone who may be removable from the United States is arrested for a serious crime, should Wisconsin law enforcement cooperate with ICE?
Crowley’s answer has repeatedly been no.
The Three Cases That Made the Ad
Tiffany’s advertisement begins with the tragic deaths of Hallie Helgeson and Brady Heiling, high school sweethearts killed in Dane County.
On July 20, 2025, prosecutors say Honduran national Noelia Saray Martinez-Avila drove the wrong way on Interstate 39 near DeForest and slammed head-on into the teenagers’ vehicle.
Helgeson, 18, died at the scene. Heiling, 19, died five days later.
Authorities said Martinez-Avila had a blood-alcohol concentration of approximately .208 and had previously been arrested for OWI. She was charged with two counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and other offenses, and ICE subsequently lodged a detainer against her.
Then comes Fond du Lac County.
Juan Carlos Rocha Mejia, a Nicaraguan national, paid approximately $250 to Elia Antonio to rape Antonio’s 12-year-old daughter.
According to prosecutors, Antonio delivered her daughter to Rocha Mejia, who restrained and blindfolded the child inside a van with the intention of sexually assaulting her.
The girl fought back, bit Rocha Mejia and escaped to a nearby residence for help.
Both Rocha Mejia and Antonio were identified as being unlawfully present in the United States, and ICE detainers were lodged against them. Rocha Mejia was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison followed by 20 years of extended supervision. Antonio received 34 years in prison for trafficking her own daughter.
The third case involves Craig Schimming, a 52-year-old Menomonee Falls resident and Special Olympian.
On New Year’s Day 2023, Schimming was riding with his elderly parents to church when Juan Felix-Avendano, a Mexican national, slammed into their vehicle in Milwaukee.
Schimming was killed. His parents, then in their late 70s, suffered serious injuries.
According to reporting on the criminal complaint, Felix-Avendano had a BAC of .147 and was also high on meth. His vehicle’s speedometer was reportedly stuck at 110 mph following the crash.
Those are the three cases Tiffany managed to fit into 30 seconds. There are many more.
Children and Vulnerable Victims
Some of the most disturbing cases involve children.
In Fitchburg, Honduran national Williams Javier Alberto Monge was charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting his stepdaughter beginning when she was just six years old.
According to reporting on the criminal complaint, the abuse allegedly continued for roughly two years. The girl described bleeding afterward and being in so much pain that she felt as though she was going to die. Monge also allegedly threatened to kill the girl’s mother and grandmother if she told anyone. Dane County jail records list an immigration hold following his arrest.
In Racine County, Mexican national Martin Garcia Leal sexually assaulted a 12-year-old Burlington girl while her mother was at work. According to the complaint, Garcia Leal grabbed the girl, held her down and removed her shorts before making sexual contact with her. He was charged with first-degree sexual assault of a child under 13 and exposing genitals. An ICE detainer was placed on him while he was being held in the Racine County Jail.
In Green Bay, Nicaraguan national Wilmer Martinez-Sanchez was charged with repeatedly sexually assaulting his nine-year-old stepdaughter. The girl told investigators that Martinez-Sanchez assaulted her while her mother was working and her sister was asleep. When detectives interviewed him, Martinez-Sanchez was already serving a sentence for credit-card theft and was scheduled for deportation to Nicaragua.
Another Dane County case involved Julio Cesar Morales-Jarquin, a Nicaraguan national working in a residential care facility. He was arrested in April 2026 and charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault involving vulnerable residents, including an elderly woman with dementia. DHS said Morales-Jarquin entered the United States in 2023 through a humanitarian-parole program and remained after losing lawful status. ICE lodged a detainer and publicly urged Dane County not to release him.
Murders, Fatal Crashes and Attempted Homicide
Other cases ended with Wisconsin families burying loved ones.
In Abbotsford, Victor Manuel Gomez Acosta was charged after his six- and ten-year-old children were stabbed to death and their mother was stabbed 17 times. Authorities identified Gomez Acosta as a Mexican national unlawfully present in the United States after a temporary work authorization expired. ICE placed a detainer on him.
Gomez Acosta was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. In September 2026, he entered no-contest pleas while asserting a mental-disease-or-defect defense. The mental-responsibility portion of the case remains unresolved.
In Dane County, Gerson Blas Noe was charged in connection with the death of Ingrid Isamar Valverde-Ponce, a pregnant Sun Prairie woman whose body was found in a frozen farm field.
Investigators alleged Blas Noe initially provided false information while authorities searched for Valverde-Ponce. Prosecutors also pointed to internet searches involving unwanted pregnancy and purchasing a firearm. Authorities believed Valverde-Ponce was pregnant with his child.
Dane County jail records show federal immigration authorities requested an immigration hold. The county record indicates the request was declined.
In Rusk County, Jorge Sanchez-Tzanahua crossed the center line on Highway 8 while intoxicated and fatally struck a semi driven by Steven Nasholm, a 35-year-old father of three daughters.
Sanchez-Tzanahua had a previous OWI conviction and a revoked driver’s license. The criminal complaint said his preliminary BAC was .176 and that he admitted he was not legally present in the United States. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison followed by eight years of extended supervision.
Crowley has said he supports providing drivers licenses for illegal immigrants.
In Oconto County, Obilio Tomas Sargento Roblero struck and killed retired Green Bay police officer Thomas Roberts, who had stopped to help people with a disabled UTV.
According to the complaint, Roblero fled on foot without rendering aid and was eventually arrested in Arkansas. ICE placed a detainer on him. He later pleaded no contest to hit-and-run involving death and was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision.
And in La Crosse, prosecutors allege Ivan Canchola-Garcia repeatedly stabbed his former girlfriend while she was holding their 11-month-old daughter.
Investigators say surveillance footage showed him purchasing the knife and masks hours before the attack and later disposing of evidence before fleeing Wisconsin. He was arrested in Indiana and charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Drugs, Gang Allegations and Organized Crime
In Prairie du Chien, Venezuelan national Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate was arrested in 2024 and charged with second-degree sexual assault, child abuse, strangulation and suffocation, battery and disorderly conduct. Police also investigated suspected ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
At the time of his arrest, Coronel Zarate had an outstanding Dane County warrant from a separate case involving allegations of strangulation, false imprisonment, battery and disorderly conduct. He later pleaded guilty in that case to false imprisonment and disorderly conduct.
In Green Bay, twice-deported Mexican national Ruben Salgado-Espinoza was arrested with approximately 30 kilograms of cocaine — the largest cocaine seizure in Green Bay history.
Federal prosecutors said he admitted distributing between 18 and 35 kilograms of cocaine every month for approximately 18 months. He had previously been removed from the United States in 1998 and 2002 before illegally reentering. In April 2026, Salgado-Espinoza was sentenced to 169 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and illegal reentry.
Another Mexican national, Jhonatan Alexis Hernandez, was charged in Brown County with delivering fentanyl within 1,000 feet of St. Thomas More School, maintaining a drug-trafficking place and other offenses. According to the complaint, Hernandez sold counterfeit Percocet pills containing fentanyl and discussed additional drug transactions near a Boys & Girls Club. ICE lodged a detainer against him.
And in Waukesha County, prosecutors charged Chilean nationals Leandro Pino Uribe, Enjerbet Rojas Silva and Luciano Silva Cifuentes in connection with an organized burglary operation targeting luxury homes in the Town of Delafield.
Investigators recovered fake identification, burglary tools and 26 Wi-Fi signal jammers allegedly intended to interfere with home-security systems. Immigration holds were placed on all three men. The cases resulted in convictions, including five-year prison sentences for Rojas Silva and Silva Cifuentes.
What Crowley’s Immigration Position Actually Means
Crowley’s “accomplice” remark is more than just an off-hand soundbite or a poor choice of words. Taken alongside his broader record on immigration enforcement, it reflects a policy philosophy that has consistently favored limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities — even when ICE is seeking custody of people who have entered the criminal justice system.
The cases above illustrate the stakes of that debate. They include people who had previously been deported, had prior criminal records or became the subjects of ICE detainers after their arrests. In Dane County, records in multiple cases show immigration holds that were declined.
Crowley has defended those kinds of policies in Milwaukee County and, as a candidate for governor, has opposed efforts to expand cooperation between Wisconsin law enforcement and ICE. Tiffany has taken the opposite position, pledging to end sanctuary policies and increase cooperation with federal authorities when criminal illegal immigrants enter the justice system.
That is what gives Crowley’s “accomplice” remark significance beyond a 30-second campaign ad. It is not simply what Crowley said. It is what his broader record suggests that word means in practice — and the kind of immigration-enforcement policies he would bring with him to the governor’s office.
Wisconsin’s next governor should not be an “ally” nor an “accomplice” to people who are in this country illegally and commit crimes in our communities. The governor’s first responsibility is to the law-abiding people of Wisconsin — families who want to raise their children, put down roots and live safely in the communities they call home.
Crowley has told Wisconsin exactly where he stands: “I’m going to be with you no matter what.” Unfortunately, that commitment is not to the Wisconsin families asking their leaders to put their safety first.
