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City says its unable to challenge ICE facility move to Milwaukee’s far northwest side

City, county and state leaders, along with activists, gathered at the request of Milwaukee's District 9 Alderwoman Larresa Taylor to discuss plans for ICE to move in and modify the building at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive.
Maayan Silver
/
WUWM
City, county and state leaders, along with activists, gathered at the request of Milwaukee's District 9 Alderwoman Larresa Taylor to discuss plans for ICE to move in and modify the building at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive.

Update:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the City of Milwaukee can’t stop ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, from relocating from downtown to Milwaukee’s far northwest side.

According to city officials who spoke at a Common Council committee meeting Tuesday, when a federal agency aims to alter a building, federal law strips more local zoning laws of their powers.

That means, according to city officials, that the City of Milwaukee also can’t prevent the facility from possibly expanding.

The downtown office is currently a processing center. Immigrants are not held overnight there, but are soon taken elsewhere, including to a detention facility.

Currently, Wisconsin’s only ICE detention center is the Dodge County Detention Facility in Juneau. The Journal Sentinel reports that about 106 detainees are currently held there, according to data from the agency.

Original story from January 26, 2025:

Local leaders and activists are alarmed by a potential plan from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to move the agency’s field office to the northwest side of Milwaukee. They’re concerned about transparency and the possibility of increased detention and enforcement.

A large crowd joined Milwaukee District 9 Alderwoman Larresa Taylor on a frosty Wednesday to protest the possible ICE move. They carried signs saying “Keep Families Together” and “No ICE” as Taylor explained why she called the press conference.

Dozens of people showed up to the press conference in the Granville neighborhood, from organizations like Voces de la Frontera, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges and the African American Roundtable, and also people who were unaffiliated with an organization, but concerned.
Maayan Silver
Dozens of people showed up to the press conference in the Granville neighborhood, from organizations like Voces de la Frontera, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges and the African American Roundtable, and also people who were unaffiliated with an organization, but concerned.

She said that on Dec. 9, at 11:06 a.m., she received an email from the Department of City Development informing her about an application for proposed minor modifications to a detailed planned building development.

The building, located at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive, is a nondescript office building in Milwaukee’s Granville neighborhood. It’s also where Taylor held the press conference.

The building that may be a future ICE home is in an office park area in northwest Milwaukee's Granville neighborhood.
Maayan Silver
The building that may be a future ICE home is in an office park area in northwest Milwaukee's Granville neighborhood.

She said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to occupy the building and that the email informed her there would be modifications to the building, including a “sally port” and a “chain-link fence.” A sally port is typically a passageway used to drop off people in custody.

That made Taylor fear it would become a detention facility. “It is so important that we are informed of things that are happening around us, especially when we're talking about government agencies that are coming that could potentially raise the anxiety level of the many citizens of our city,” she said.

The anxiety Taylor referred to pertains to the mass deportations pledged by incoming Republican President Donald Trump. Immigration enforcement has been a rallying cry for Trump, and as he prepares to take office this month, he’s expected to sign about 100 executive orders—some likely to set his immigration policy.

Milwaukee Common Council President José Pérez reacted to ICE's proposal.

“Although we are not certain what type of federal facility might be planned here for this location, or how vague some of this information is at times, I am firmly opposed to any expansion of ICE-type detention services in the City of Milwaukee. People are scared. Kids are scared. This is the time to push back hard,” he said

WUWM reached out to ICE, which said the building is not, in fact, going to be a detention facility. ICE says it will be office space. When asked about the sally port and chain-link fence, an ICE spokesperson responded: “The information I have provided is what I have for now. If it’s not on the detention facility list, it’s not a detention facility.”

ICE has to move from its previous office location on Knapp Street in downtown Milwaukee because MSOE bought the property.

ICE currently has a field office at 310 E. Knapp Street in downtown Milwaukee. Activists and city leaders are worried about any movement towards building a detention facility in the Milwaukee area.
Maayan Silver
ICE currently has a field office at 310 E. Knapp Street in downtown Milwaukee. Activists and city leaders are worried about any movement towards building a detention facility in the Milwaukee area.

State Rep. Russell Goodwin, whose district covers the Granville neighborhood, explained why he felt ICE is getting pushback for its possible relocation there. “What's most troubling is the lack of consultation with the community,” he said. “The people who live here deserve a voice in what is built in their neighborhood. Decisions like this should not be made without the input and consent of the people who are most affected.”

Alderwoman Milele Coggs agreed. “I support Alderwoman Taylor and her position,” she explained. “Regardless, residents should be aware. There should be transparency, there should be conversations, but to be able to place an institution in a neighborhood in an area in the city, and it not be a conversation that those most impacted who live and work around it get to know about, hear about, or weigh in on, is wrong.”

But it was fear that immigration enforcement could be expanded in Milwaukee that Deb Patel finds extremely problematic. She doesn’t live in Granville but in the Milwaukee suburbs. She joined Alderwoman Taylor for the press conference.

“In December, I had the good fortune of being in the Netherlands, and I went to my first and probably only concentration camp—the Vught concentration camp. And it was a transit station, and every room that you walked through, they said, ‘What would you do if you were there?’ And in the Netherlands, it was a slippery slope, and I left resigned to be a helper,” she said.

Patel says that, to her, that means she has to show up, stand up and speak out against the Trump administration at every turn.

“If we give the Trump administration an inch, they will take a mile. And any time we can stop them or keep them from getting an inch or a mile, we should try to do that,” she said. “I think if they have to move, that's fine, but what I don't think we need is more large detention centers. And I think we need to keep calling them out and saying, ‘What exactly are your plans?’ And if we don't like them, we show up, we speak out.”

Six thousand officers within ICE are tasked with monitoring noncitizens in the country and then finding and removing those not eligible to stay. That’s compared to about 1.4 million people with final orders of removal in the United States and about 660,000 people under immigration supervision who’ve been convicted of crimes or are facing charges — who Trump intends to deport.

Common Council president José Pérez wants to make sure that local police do not help ICE with that job. “We'll push the envelope as far as we can to ensure that residents are treated fairly,” said Perez. “That includes ensuring that MPD follows its standard operating procedures that strictly prohibits assisting ICE agents.”

According to MPD standard operating procedure, Milwaukee Police officers are only intended to cooperate with ICE when there’s a criminal warrant issued for specific crimes.

Local police have no right of arrest for most immigration violations because most immigration violations are civil, not criminal. Also, the Supreme Court has indicated that immigration enforcement is the duty of the federal government, and state and local police may only carry out immigration enforcement if specifically authorized to do so by state law.

Maayan is a WUWM news reporter.
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