Hundreds protest ICE in Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI – On Wednesday, July 1, hundreds gathered at Kosciuszko Park to protest the recent spike in ICE activity in the area. Since the end of the previous week, ICE had arrested dozens of people in Wisconsin, with most cases happening in Milwaukee.
ICE agents had been terrorizing the city’s Southside, where many immigrants reside, breaking car windows and kidnapping people from inside their cars. These aggressive tactics quickly led he ICE Out of MKE Coalition to launch broad outreach efforts and Wednesday’s action. The community’s response was clear – we need to educate our people and show strong leadership and unity against ICE’s threats.
Despite the severe heat warning, the crowd gathered to hear brief remarks from community leaders and a family member of one of the people detained by ICE this week.
Galo Suárez detailed how ICE agents followed him, his fiancé (Reyna Elizabth Garcia) and her brother, from a local grocery store as they drove away. Blocks later, five cars detained them, broke a car window, and forcefully removed everyone from the car, insulting and threatening them if they didn’t cooperate. As Suárez relived this terror, he concluded with important messages of unity and the need to do something as a community, stating “We cannot live in peace while masked agents kidnap our people.”
Julie Velazquez, co-chair of the Immigrant Rights Committee of the Milwaukee Area Labor council, and Luz Hernandez, vice-president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, both offered informative messages about what to do when detained by ICE and how to prepare families in case of detention and deportation.
Hernandez, an immigrant herself, provided an additional message of resistance and hope in the community, stating, “They can be here for a week. They can be here for a month. Well, we have one message for them: they cannot intimidate us! We will not give them that satisfaction. This immigrant community and its allies resist these tactics and protect our immigrant siblings.”
The crowd proceeded to march through different areas of the Southside where people had recently been taken by ICE. Passing by a mixture of business strips and residential areas, the crowd grew larger as new participants joined and as volunteers went up to businesses and homes to distribute Know Your Rights flyers. As the crowd passed the last stretch of residential areas along the route, the participants remained silent while Alan Chavoya of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke about the rights to people in the neighborhood and explained how to interact with ICE in case of detention.
The action proved that Milwaukee is committed to resisting ICE’s terror. A united and organized community is the best line of defense.