Life as an immigrant is often clouded by fear and uncertainty. This past year’s federal immigration crackdown has only increased those feelings for immigrants living in our area.
Immigrants make up about 12% of Milwaukee’s population, and freelance writer Barbara Miner wanted to spotlight their lived experiences in a recent article featured in this month’s Milwaukee Magazine.
Her piece, “On Shaky Ground,” shares the stories of DACA recipients, undocumented parents, asylum seekers and more as they navigate various legal hoops to build lives, families and careers in the U.S.
“The irony of part of the immigration story is that you have many politicians who are pro-family, [who say] the family is everything. Well, here you have, in effect, immigration policies that literally tear apart families,” Miner says.
Miner joins Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski to talk about the piece, and begins by explaining some of the challenges she encountered covering the topic at a time when many potential interview subjects are afraid of being targeted by ICE.
"Trying to find people was the first difficulty. Convincing people to talk was the second, and the third was crossing my fingers and praying at night that the people I did interview wouldn’t bail before the article came out,” she says.
Miner hopes by sharing the stories of local immigrants, it can help others think about the roles we can play in advancing immigration reform and bettering our communities.
"Right now, understandably the focus is on ICE — [we] have to prevent people from being snatched up off of the street. But the real question is how do we get to immigration reform? ," she notes. "The real concern is the people who've built lives here, who are part of our community. Children are American citizens, maybe the parents aren't, you don't want to rip apart families, you don't want to destroy industries - you want to build upon what you have. And that's going to take bipartisan congressional action. Because fundamentally, in the end, it's about the people."
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