ICE spreads ‘fascist terror’ on Milwaukee’s south side, city officials say

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested dozens of people in Milwaukee in recent days as the agency says “many” of those arrested had criminal backgrounds. But Milwaukee officials and advocates paint a different picture — one where a “rogue” federal agency is using excessive violence on people to unleash “fascist terror.” 

ICE said it arrested 39 people over the weekend. The arrests have mainly been happening on the south side of the city. 

Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant advocacy organization, held a news conference on June 30 in wake of expanded ICE operations in the city. Multiple people gave firsthand accounts of their interactions with ICE. 

Voces executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz said the “overwhelming majority” of those arrested had no criminal record. 

Neumann-Ortiz described the presence of ICE as a “targeted ICE surge, that is targeting working class families, many of which are asylum seekers who are in the legal process escaping violence, some temporary protected status.”

Galo Suárez was detained on Sunday alongside his fiancée and her brother. He shared his experience through the use of a translator at the news conference. 

He said federal agents wearing masks pursued his family after leaving the El Rey grocery store on 13th Street. Suddenly, agents surrounded Suárez’s vehicle, before smashing the vehicle’s windows and ordering his family to comply, he said. 

“They had guns pointed at us. They didn’t ask us for our names,” Suárez said. “They didn’t ask us for an ID. They took us violently out of the car.”

Suárez said agents handled his fiancée violently before referring to her as a “dog.” 

Suárez said an agent told him that he would be released because he had money in his wallet and was a “good person” after trying to convince Suárez to say his work permit was fake. 

Suárez was freed but his fiancée and her brother remain in detention. They are all originally from Nicaragua.  

“They took the handcuffs off, and told me to run and not look back, because if I looked back, I would regret it,” Suárez said.

Other witnesses explained seeing people getting grabbed off the street or out of vehicles, with windows smashed, and then thrown into ICE vehicles. 

With arrests continuing to climb, a growing conflict is unfolding between Milwaukee leaders and ICE over local ordinances designed to limit the agency’s role in the city and county, but the agency is not following those laws. 

Six Milwaukee Common Council members, Alex Brower, Andrea Pratt, Mark Chambers, Larresa Taylor, Sharlen Moore and Marina Dimitrijevic, released a joint statement on June 30.

“We now have laws in place in Milwaukee that prohibit the use of masks for any law enforcement in our city. We believe that all law enforcement should be identifiable to the public and unmasked at all times, and we are requesting that Milwaukee Police and the Office of the City Attorney take the necessary steps to enforce these laws and to immediately address any observed violations,” the alders said. 

“We strongly condemn this fascist terror activity being carried out in our neighborhoods under the guise of ‘lawful’ federal immigration enforcement.

“Additionally, in accordance with another new law we have approved, we are doing everything we can to stop ICE from using city property for staging or any other activities.

“Together, we can stand up to ICE and help make Milwaukee a shining example of lawful and moral resistance to federal terror and tyranny.”

Dimitrijevic said she wants agents held accountable for not following the laws. “We will hold people accountable. There will be consequences for not following the rules that we set forth,” she said.

Dimitrijevic also revealed that ICE was stationed at the Police District Two parking lot on Lincoln Avenue in Milwaukee for a short period but have since been told by police not to. 

“Stay vigilant. Stay organized. Keep reporting,” she said.