A surge of immigration and border control arrests in Wisconsin over the past few weeks
is part of a nationwide push and a 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 Darryl Maureen, National President of
Forward Latino, and thanks very much for being here.
Thank you for asking me to join you this week.
So what is your reaction to this recent surge of detentions in Wisconsin and elsewhere?
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, et cetera, that
came here with TPS only to see the 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 surge?
Well, I know that we've been able to confirm 39, and immigration has 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 going to 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, and 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 help in previously up in Minneapolis,
and now with the shooting that's been ruled on the side that just happened down in Houston,
there's a lot of fear and a lot of concern.
Those 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, 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 throughout
our country and are being forced to try to steal or borrow or take the trust and credibility
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, well, not at the same levels,
we're expecting to see the Standard Operating Temple 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 US citizens, who are at risk of separation,
really to have an emergency plan in place, should you be pulled over, 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 strolling a 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 I have a question, sir, that I didn't ask. But have you have you been in contact at
all with Homeland Security or is there are there lines of communication between organizations like
yours and and 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, DACA recipients are right. They were brought here from 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've done nothing wrong. They did everything that they were supposed to
do, et cetera. So that's what we're calling in 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. Thank you. I appreciate that. When is that letter going out? Okay. Just come week.
Okay. 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.
Yes. Okay. We'll do. Bye-bye.