University of Wisconsin Police investigating stickers promoting violence against ICE

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police are investigating stickers that appeared on campus encouraging violence against federal immigration agents.

Republicans are pointing to the imagery as another example of the hostile climate conservatives face on college campuses.

UW-Madison is removing the stickers and condemns violence of any kind, university spokesperson John Lucas said. He said he was aware of two or three stickers being removed.

One of the stickers showed a man wearing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shirt and face mask, with red streaks that appear to be blood near his head. “The only good fascist is a dead one,” the text read.

Freshman William Hong spotted a sticker on a lamp post outside Memorial Library on Nov. 13. He said he was disgusted because he believed ICE in most cases is just trying to keep America safe. He ripped the sticker off but chalked it up as protected speech.

Hong is a board member of the UW-Madison chapter of Turning Point USA, the conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September. He said the campus climate since then has been mixed, with some progressive students celebrating Kirk’s death in chalk messages left around campus and others who were more respectful. He said most instructors have created an unwelcome environment in his classes, but many students are open to civil conversations.

Howard Schweber, a UW-Madison professor who is an expert in free speech, said the stickers were unlikely to be constitutionally protected expression. The question of criminal charges would hinge on whether the person putting up the stickers either intended for the work to be perceived as a threat or acted recklessly by taking the chance that it would be perceived that way.

“Ask yourself whether it is likely that an ICE agent seeing this sticker would feel threatened,” he said. “If that is likely, then it is not hard to say that the person putting up the sticker was at least reckless about the possibility that a threat would be perceived.”

Schweber said the state would have a strong case for a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. He was less sure about a new law adopted in February making it a felony to threaten judges or law enforcement officers because it seemed to need to be directed at a specific individual or group.

“That might be a question Wisconsin courts have to figure out,” he said.

The imagery was first reported by the Madison Federalist, a new student newspaper.

Both Republicans running for governor condemned the sticker on X, formerly Twitter. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany said UW-Madison “cannot keep quiet and pretend it’s normal” Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann said he wasn’t surprised by the rhetoric and said it degraded the state flagship’s reputation.

Kelly Meyerhofer has covered higher education in Wisconsin since 2018. Contact her at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.