I'm just going to turn this on up
here.
We are recording.
A surge of immigration and
border control arrests in Wisconsin
over the past few weeks is
part of a nationwide push on
the part of homeland security,
resulting in the detention of more
than 10,000 people,
according to national reporting.
In Milwaukee, Waukesha, the Madison
area, and elsewhere in the state,
dozens of arrests have been
confirmed by immigrant rights groups
and attorneys.
For reaction on this, we
turn to Milwaukee and Daryl
Maureen.
National President of Forward
Latino, and thanks very much for
being here.
Thank you for asking me to join you,
this will be.
So what is your reaction to this
recent surge of detentions in
Wisconsin and elsewhere?
Well, I'll tell you, tremendous
frustration and to a certain degree
anger, you know.
It would be different if they were
going around and detaining people
who were bad doers in the community,
but we're continuing to see that
operations are continuously
targeted, and people for the
most part who've been trying to do
everything the right way, who filled
out all their asylum papers, have
been showing up to all their court
dates, etc., that
came here with TPS only to see it
removed from them.
So it's really been a very
dark time for many in
our community and we appreciate the
support that we're
seeing come from all other
communities throughout the state and
the country, quite honestly.
Do you have the numbers of arrests
in Wisconsin in this most recent
search?
Well, I know that we've been able to
confirm 39.
Immigration's put out the number of
57. We're still working to confirm
that.
But 39 is what we're comfortable
reporting at this time.
What stands out to you as to
how these recent arrests are
physically being carried out?
Well, I'll tell you, there's plenty
of video out there to
support what I'm gonna be sharing
with you. We've seen families,
particularly mothers, even with
infants in the car,
have their windows being broken,
being violently pulled out and
thrown to the ground.
Having immigration agents
literally unholster
their weapon before they have a
chance to do anything and threaten
their lives.
It's been very, very
scary for many folks,
of both immigrant and citizen
alike, because we're seeing
this happen to people who are both
lawfully and unlawfully present at
this time.
So a lot of concern, especially
given what we saw helping previously
up in Minneapolis.
And now with the
shooting that's been ruled a
homicide that just happened down in
Houston, there's a lot of fear and a
lot of concern.
Because in your mind
the kind of police tactics
are not in
keeping with general
rules of such?
Yeah, generally we're used to seeing
law enforcement officers using rules
of de-escalation and
immigration officials are actually
doing quite the opposite right now.
And I think they've actually
realized this because what we're
seeing is instead of wearing vests
now that
say ICE or denote
them as being immigrant officials.
Uh they're now wearing vests
that now exclusively say police so
i think that's a self-admission
that they no longer have the trust
and credibility uh throughout our
country and are being forced to try
to steal or borrow
or take the trust in credibility uh
that people have with their local
law enforcement departments
How will this continue to unfold,
in your mind, given increased
funding to ICE?
Well, we know that we
had put out an alert about two
weeks ago because we had seen this
coming. So we put out a
community alert on it.
In fact, it just expired today.
But we're expecting to see, while
not at the same levels, we're
expected to see the
standard operating tempo of
immigration actually
step it up a little bit as we move
forward. We're now starting to see
that they are graduating additional
classes of agents through their
training program with the
recent funding increase that they
received yet again.
They are now, ICE is now receiving
more funding on an annual basis than
the United States Marine Corps is.
Just to tell you the
outrageous amount of resources that
are being thrown at this.
So we're telling everybody, well, we
have lifted, we've let the community
alert expire here in southeastern
Wisconsin.
It's still important for people who
are lawfully present, who are U.S.
Citizens, who are at risk of
separation, really to have an
emergency plan in place should
you be pulled over or run off
the road by unidentified vehicles
and be violently thrown out of your
vehicle and detained.
Because I was just going to ask
you what someone in your position
says to people you advocate
for in the midst of all of this.
Well, we're very fortunate
that as a community, we're strong in
faith.
We've had to overcome a lot
throughout our history.
Sadly, we thought chapters like this
were relegated to the past
and we're seeing them brought
forward to the future.
So we will continue to
persevere.
And as I mentioned, we are receiving
calls and financial support
and volunteers from all different
communities, many from
people who've never been involved in
any kind of such action.
And the one common theme I'm hearing
from them is this
isn't the America we grew up in.
This isn't right.
How can I help?
And that's what makes it easier to
get up every morning, quite
honestly.
We leave it there.
Daryl Maureen, thank you so much.
Thank you.
I have a question,
sir, that I didn't ask,
but have you
been in contact at all with Homeland
Security or are there
lines of communication between
organizations like yours and
that agency or no.
It's very limited.
I'll share with you, I do have a
letter going out to the
secretary of the Department of
Homeland Security.
Right now, we have DACA recipients.
I know you know who DACA Recipients
are, right? They were brought here
for no fault of their own.
They have a temporary status under
the program that was created by
President Obama.
And if you go to the DACA renewal
website, because they have to renew
every two years, it says
not to submit your renewal
application further than 150
days out.
Well, right now we're seeing it take
up to 180 days to process
those renewals.
So we have people who are literally
having to leave their jobs because
of the delays in
the processing of their renewals
and some of those individuals,
not here in Wisconsin yet, but in
other states, we know they've gone
and they've picked them up and
detained them and are trying to
remove them from the country and
they'd done nothing wrong.
They did everything that they were
supposed to do, et cetera.
So we're calling on the secretary.
We're reaching with him through
internal channels, asking
him to address that situation.
Others are being a lot more vocal
about the issue publicly,
but these are things we try to
do when we think there may be an
opportunity for some small movement.
That's the approach we like to take.
So just to let you know what we're
doing.
I appreciate that.
When is that letter going out?
Okay, just come away
Great. Thank you.
I'll take a look at that DACA
situation as well.
All right, okay appreciate it.
Okay. Try to have a good weekend,
okay?
I was just going to say that to you.
Okay, we'll do.
Bye-bye.