At least 10 people have died during encounters with ICE agents since the Trump administration began its mass deportation efforts last year. Three of them have been killed in the past week. So community organizations, faith leaders, labor unions, and immigrant rights advocates organized an emergency community vigil yesterday night on Milwaukee’s south side. They protested ICE actions nationally, and in Milwaukee, where there was a recent surge in arrests.
"We were gathered on the first day of the month in response to the ICE surge in our city," Alan Chavoya, one activist and organizer, told the crowd of about a hundred. "We were gathered this weekend in response to the ICE murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. And now we're gathered here today in response to another murder of Joan Sebastián Guerrero in Maine. I love you all, but it sucks seeing you today."
Chavoya says he's seen plenty of videos, including here in Milwaukee, that show ICEs vehicular pursuits. "They seem to be able to track their license plates, and they tend to follow them," says Chavoya. "And when they think it's safe for them or right for them to stop people in the middle of the streets, they will. Oftentimes, blocking a car, breaking a window, snatching people out of their cars, which is what we saw happen here in recent weeks."
Chavoya notes that President Donald Trump made a declaration that they will stop all vehicular pursuits. "They were not going to be chasing people in the streets with cars. But then Trump [Wednesday] said, 'no, we're not going stand for that, and that they shouldn't back down.' I forget the exact language he used, but it was along those lines of we shouldn't do that. So where we stand today is unclear," says Chavoya.
He was born and raised in Milwaukee, not even three blocks south of Burnham Park, where the vigil was taking place. "So I grew up playing in this park, this is where I was playing soccer with my brother and my dad. My parents and my older brother came from Mexico, from Guadalajara, Jalisco in 1993. I was brought shortly after, so I and my sister, we grew up in a mixed status household, where I was afforded citizenship by virtue of being born here," he explains. "And so I had grew up with a lot of fear — of what would it be like, I mean, if cops pull us over, will they check my dad's paperwork, my mom's paperwork? What would happen to my brother, you know?" Chavoya says he sees his dad in Lorenzo, and he sees his brother in Joan Sebastián.
"It's important for us to be here [in Burnham Park]," he continues. "If you know where ICE has been active, you'll know that they've been active in this very community."
"The mile south of us and even the mile north of us, going from Lincoln all the way to around Greenfield and National even, from 35th to 27th, that sort of radius has been, or that grid has been witnessed a big surge of ICE activity since last year" Chavoya explains.
READ: What to know about ICE activities in Milwaukee and how to stay safe
Several Milwaukee Common Council members have put together helpful resources for citizens from the Milwaukee Turners and Voces De La Frontera. The city of Milwaukee also has a Know Your Rights & Resources website.
"People need to be prepared for what's to come or what is coming and what has continued to come, right?" says Chavoya. "We're also working with groups that do mutual aid for families that need support, right. Oftentimes, if one of the parents gets picked up or the breadwinner gets picked up [by ICE], what happens to the family? They lose access to a lot of resources."
He says ICE Out of Milwaukee can plug in and help support them as they navigate that. "And we're also looking for a lot legal support," Chavoya says. "I know that if you're interested in a career in this path, either volunteer in a legal clinic or something to help people with legal support because we're seeing a large influx of cases and a lot of people needing help. So those are just some of the ways that people can get involved."
Emilio De Torre, the executive director of the Milwaukee Turners at Turner Hall – Milwaukee's oldest progressive civic group, and a WUWM Radio board member, adds, "I need people to come together and express solidarity with one another across any perceived lines of division, to smile at their neighbors, and I need them to contact immediately their elected officials, all of them, and let them know how upset they are that this is happening and demand that they do something to change it."
