Over the past few weeks, ICE agents arrested two men at Milwaukee’s county courthouse — a space once considered sensitive and safe for all people regardless of status. As the immigration landscape changes, WUWM’s news team is introducing a new segment called, The Check-in: Voices from Milwaukee’s Changing Immigrant Landscape.
WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez looks at how the arrests took place by ICE agents and spoke with Caroline Gómez-Tom, Milwaukee County Supervisor of the 14th district.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Over the past couple of weeks, ICE has detained multiple people at the courthouse. What do we know about what happened, and how it happened?
So what we know is that ICE came into the courthouse and detained two individuals on two separate days. Beyond that, we know very little about if they had a judicial warrant or not, which shouldn't be allowable if they don't have a judicial warrant.
We don't really know, well, we didn't know that they were in the building until it happened. Especially the second one that happened on April 3. My understanding was not even the sheriff's department knew that they were in the building.
What authority does ICE have in the Milwaukee County Courthouse to make these kinds of arrests?
Essentially any law enforcement technically has the right to make arrests in public spaces. However, it's unprecedented that ICE would make arrests in a sensitive public space, which we consider the courthouse to be. So having them in our hallways unknowingly arrest someone who was there for their own due process is just really unfathomable and frankly, loses a lot of trust from the public.
Last week, you were a part of a cohort of elected officials and immigrant attorneys that came together to have this press conference at the courthouse to speak out against these actions. And something that the lawyers brought up was the procedure of "due process." I know you're a county supervisor and not an immigration attorney, but what exactly is due process and why does it matter here, regardless of status?
So due process is the right that we all have under the Constitution that we cannot be deprived of life, liberty and property without ensuring fair government procedure and figuring out if we are guilty or not of said crime. Essentially, our freedom can't be taken away at a given whim. It also adds that the government cannot act arbitrarily or unfairly.
And the way that ICE has functioned, especially as of these last several months, where we're hearing of U.S. citizens being detained, which is absolutely ridiculous. And what we're trying to do at the county board is to make sure that we are protecting our county run spaces, especially the courthouse, where thousands of people come in every day for a various number of resources and services and that they don't feel that their freedoms are at risk.
I think when people think of the courthouse they think of it as solely a place for criminal or civil proceedings. But there are a lot of other reasons why someone would need to utilize the courthouse. What are some of those reasons that community members, again, regardless of status, would need to access resources at the courthouse?
Absolutely. So there could be people going there for jury duty. People could be going to the register of deeds to get a birth certificate or a land deed. People could be going to the treasurer’s office to pay off some of their taxes on their property. People could be going to get a marriage license from the county clerk.
People could be reporting an issue regarding domestic violence that they're experiencing. There's also a lot of legal support resources at the courthouse. So if they have a legal question even in some cases around their immigration status, they could be coming in for legal advice with some of the clinics that host office hours at the courthouse.
Really, there's so many different resources that people go to the courthouse for and we want people to come to the courthouse for. And if they feel that that space is no longer safe, they're not going to.
That also includes for people who are going through the court system. We want them to show up. We want them to attend their hearings and attend because that is part of the justice system. And by people not wanting to participate in that system, we're making our whole community less safe.
What have you been hearing from constituents in this time where ICE’s presence is so much more visible, both in the city and these sensitive places like the county courthouse? And what can be done in a time like this?
That's the question at hand, isn't it? How people are feeling. And this has been the case since there's been word that there were going to be more ICE raids, but there's people just not engaging at all in our communities.
I come from a public health background and I help people access Medicaid and other health coverage, and we hear of people not enrolling or not enrolling their U.S. born children from these programs because they're concerned that it puts them at risk for being identified and targeted and profiled and then potentially separated from their families. And that's just because of what's happening in the news.
So, when we actually have evidence of something like this happening in our community, and for me as a county board supervisor in a space that I technically represent and connect people to, I can only imagine how my constituents and community feel. So for me, this is serious, and I'm thankful that our county board is taking this very seriously. So we are introducing a resolution on Tuesday to help draw some limits to how ICE can maneuver in our public spaces, because at minimum, we would like to not see any more detentions in the courthouse. But if for some reason they show up in our public spaces because that's how they are deciding to maneuver now, we are going to have limitations to address that.
And so we're going to be asking the chief judge of the First Judicial District, along with the office of the county executive and the sheriff's department, to work together to come up with a plan on how to proceed and safeguard people coming into the courthouse. We want ICE to operate inside the limits of the law, and that means if they're going to come to the courthouse, having a judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. And we want to make sure that we're putting out resources across the courthouse and other county locations that educate people on their rights so they have information about what to do in all situations where they encounter ICE.
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