Milwaukee New Sanctuary Movement Exposes Sheriff's Dept & ICE Impact on Families

The Milwaukee New Sanctuary Movement and Voces de la Frontera in collaboration with other community leaders obtained a place on the agenda of the Milwaukee County Board's Judiciary, Safety, and General Services Committee Meeting on Thursday, July 15th. The issue was the collaboration between the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department and the ICE. The concern was the number of cases of individuals picked up for minor traffice offenses, individuals with no charges or individuals falsely charged and then having their charges dropped, being booked and then turned over to ICE in Sheriff's custody. This practice flies in the face of recently published DHS priorities for detaining criminals.

Jill Vonnahme, Sanctuary Coordinator, presented cases in detail of immigrants detained in the County Jail who fit the above categories who then were deported. A clinical psychologist and Milwaukee Public School teachers as well community leaders gave examples of clients and families who are suffering separation due to deportations as a result of the collaboration between the Sheriff's department and ICE. The County Committee asked for information from the Sheriff's department during the hearing and Voces de la Frontera will continue with their Open Records request from the Sheriff's department for more detailed information on immigrants detained by the Sheriff's department and subsequent deportation.

"Our action made some Milwaukee County Supervisors more aware of the immigration problem in general and of the relationship of the Sheriff to Immigration Enforcement. It was an effort of conscientizacion. The supervisors on the Judiciary Committee had questions they wanted answered by the Sheriff and so we will gain more information. It generated publicity in the local newspaper, The Milwaukee JournalSentinel. This is our first step in our effort to severe the relationship between the Sheriff and ICE in order to stop deportations of non-criminal immigrants," said Bill Lange of the Milwaukee New Sanctuary Movement