A scene from the nine-day march to the Wisconsin State Capitol in 2022. Marchers, organized by Voces de la Frontera, demanded immigration reform from the federal government. (Photo | Joe Brusky)
Some Milwaukee residents are alarmed over a plan to move an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into their neighborhood on the Northwest Side. Local officials said an ICE and Homeland Security building in downtown Milwaukee, which currently processes detainees, may move to 11925 W. Lake Park Drive, nestled in a neighborhood near freeway exits, a church, grocery store, and hotel.
Ald. Larresa Taylor, who represents the 9th District, spoke at a press conference Wednesday afternoon saying she wanted to properly inform residents of the federal government’s intentions. “We never want anyone to be caught off guard,” said Taylor. She received an email from the Department of City Development on Dec. 9, she said, informing her of an application for “proposed minor modifications” to a building in the Park Place business park.
The building is privately owned by Milwaukee Governmental LLC, which Taylor said requested the modifications to the building. The LLC is an affiliate of the Illinois-based WD Schorsch LLC, according to city assessment records, an entity that owns properties leased to federal government agencies, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Taylor said that although the 9th District – covering the uppermost northwest end of Milwaukee – is a growing district, this “doesn’t mean that we’re going to accept any and everything.”
“And it certainly doesn’t mean that we’re going to allow someone to come into our district without warning, or without knowledge,” she added.
Taylor said that the proposed facility would operate “exactly as they do downtown.” Although it is called the “Chicago Field Office”, the existing ICE facility in downtown Milwaukee is the one slated to move into the District 9 neighborhood. The facility is involved in processing ICE detainees, as well as immigrants who must come there for regular check-ins. Detainees who are being held for deportation are transferred to the Dodge County Jail in Juneau, where there is an ICE detention facility.
Local residents are worried that by using a federal exemption, the ICE office plans to bypass Milwaukee’s zoning laws which would require public notice and input. During the press conference Wednesday, several local officials and community leaders spoke in opposition to ICE’s plans. Others released statements to that effect.
“Milwaukee is the site for statewide processing of any person put in detention in Wisconsin,” Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrant-rights group Voces de la Frontera, wrote in a statement. “This move by ICE is an effort by the incoming Trump administration to implement their policies of mass criminalization and mass deportation of immigrant workers and their families.”
Neumann-Ortiz said her organization had a message for ICE and the incoming Trump administration: “our communities will not be intimidated. We are committed to working with others to see that this facility is shut down. We reject your divisive tactics to pit working-class people against each other. We will defend our dignity and rights and the dignity and rights of others whom you attack.”
Ald. José Perez, president of Milwaukee’s Common Council, said that he is “firmly opposed” to any expansion of ICE facilities in Milwaukee. Perez, who like many other Milwaukeeans is the child of immigrants, spoke to the anxiety felt by people across Milwaukee due to President-elect Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportations that could separate families.
“People are scared, kids are scared, this is the time to push back hard,” said Perez. He called on the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to follow its own standard operating procedures, which states that MPD officers “shall not detain or arrest an individual solely for a suspected violation of immigration law.” SOP-130, which governs immigration-related activities for MPD, states that “proactive immigration enforcement by local police can be detrimental to our mission and policing philosophy when doing so deters some individuals from participating in their civic obligation to assist the police.”
The SOP instructs officers to follow its guidelines “regardless of one’s personal opinion or political ideology on the issue of immigration.” However, the SOP does not prevent MPD from cooperating with ICE when a judicial warrant has been issued for individuals suspected of terrorism or espionage, those suspected of being involved in street gangs, violent felonies, sexual offenses involving minors, or people previously deported for felonies.
In 2019, MPD was embroiled in controversy after its officers were filmed arresting José de la Cruz-Espinosa outside of his home. MPD said that the Mexican-born de la Cruz-Espinosa was wanted for a probation violation, and was detained at the Dodge County ICE detention center. After weeks of media attention and pressure from local activists, de la Cruz-Espinosa was released and returned to his family. The arrest and organizing led to the Fire and Police Commission adopting new changes to SOP-130 regarding MPD cooperation with ICE.
Perez stressed that “we are not simply going to roll over and have residents be punished, families be separated, and children left to fend for themselves.” The common council president said that there’s a process for everything, and that “federal facilities simply popping up with no notice isn’t fair to the residents of Milwaukee.”
A coalition of Milwaukee County supervisors including Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and supvs. Juan Miguel Martine, Caroline Gomez-Tom, Justin Bielinski, Jack Eckblad, Anne O’ Connor, Shawn Rolland, Sky Capriolo, Sequanna Taylor, Willie Johnson Jr., and Priscilla Coggs-Jones also issued a joint statement. “This is not just a building,” they wrote, “It represents a system that thrives on fear and perpetuates the suffering of families who are the backbone of our community.” Undocumented immigrants contribute $198 million annually in state and local taxes to Wisconsin, the coalition noted, saying “our city thrives because of their presence and contributions — not in spite of them.”
Other elected officials joined the press conference, including State Sen. Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee), State Reps. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee) and Russel Goodwin Sr. (D-Milwaukee), as well as Milwaukee Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa. Anita Johnson of the African American Round Table in Milwaukee, whose church is “just up the street” from the proposed site for the ICE office, said, “We don’t want ICE in this state, period.”
“Find another place to put this building or another state, we have enough problems — local problems — of our own, we don’t need yours,” said Johnson.
Goodwin said communities in Milwaukee need “thoughtful, inclusive development” that brings “opportunity and growth.” Rather than bringing jobs, housing or investment, projects like the proposed ICE office “risk creating tension and instability where we need unity and progress,” Goodwin said. “The people who live here deserve a voice in what is built in their neighborhood,” he added, and “our community deserves development that uplifts and empowers us.”
Representatives from two of Milwaukee’s Business Improvement Districts (BID) also objected to the ICE facility. Mary Hoehne, executive director of the Granville BID, said the business park building should be used to generate jobs, not for immigration enforcement. “We can’t allow that in our neighborhood,” Hoehne said of the ICE facility. Stephanie Harling, executive director of the Havenwoods BID, said that local communities have been forced to address complex social issues on their own. With an ICE facility, “we’re not solving any problems here, we are displacing the problem,” she said. “This pattern has to stop, and this is the final blow.”
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