immigration

As COVID-19 persists, we continue to rely heavily on doctors and health care professionals to keep our communities safe. Many of these physicians will also be working under the stress of their immigration status, which limits the extent they can provide care.

International medical graduates, or IMGs, make up 25% of the total active physician population in the U.S., and just over 19% make up the workforce in Wisconsin.

There's been a lot of news recently about President Trump limiting immigration. On April 22, he signed an executive order suspending new green cards from being issued for immigrants looking to become permanent U.S. residents. There are some exceptions, like for children of U.S. citizens or for health care professionals coming to help fight the spread of COVID-19. 

As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise around the world, there’s been concern about people in detention centers and the continued arrests of undocumented immigrants. Although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot arrest people who are seeking care at hospitals, they are still making new arrests.

There are an estimated 86,000 people living in Wisconsin without permanent legal status. In our series, Living Undocumented In Wisconsin, we bring you the story of a man who's just established his own business and says he's here to stay.

Meet Jose Flores.

Jose was 19 when he came to the United States from Mexico 22 years ago. For 18 of those years, he worked for a Waukesha company as a painter. Jose says he often experienced racism from his coworkers.

Milwaukee is home to about one-third of Wisconsin’s undocumented immigrants — an estimated 30,000 people.  As part of our series about undocumented immigrants, we talk to a 21-year-old DACA recipient who's navigating the uncertain landscape.

Her name is Aimeé Navarro Villegaz, and she is a very busy college student.

It's estimated that there are 86,000 undocumented residents living in Wisconsin. About one-third live in Milwaukee. The majority of undocumented residents have been here for more than a decade. They come from a variety of countries. The top three are Mexico, India and China. 

In a three-part series, WUWM is highlighting the stories of three undocumented Latino immigrants from different families to learn more about the barriers and worries they face. 

Since the mid-1990s, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been engulfed by civil war. The UN estimates that more than 6 million people have been killed in the conflict, and more than half a million have fled the country as refugees.

Edumakono Zetho was among them.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments surrounding the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA. President Trump ran on a promise to do away with the program.

In Wisconsin, there are around 8,000 recipients of the program. On Tuesday, some of them gathered outside the courthouse in downtown Milwaukee in support of the program.

Over the past few years, the Trump administration has enacted controversial policies at the U.S.-Mexico border. That includes a family separation policy that led to more than 2,500 children being separated from their parents.

After public outcry, President Trump signed an order to end separation. But he continues to make the border a focal point of his administration.

Activists for immigration groups do not want the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to collaborate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They spoke out Thursday at a Fire and Police Commission Policies and Standards Committee hearing trying to change the department's standard operating procedures.

MPD also offered up changes of its own.

Now, the ball is in the Fire and Police Commission's court to decide what changes to make — if any.

Since President Donald Trump was elected, there has been an increased focus on the fate of undocumented immigrants in the United States. But long before Trump’s ascendancy to the presidency, the U.S. had ramped up deportation efforts. And in 2012, the National Immigrant Youth Alliance decided to fight these deportations from the inside.

The idea of the American dream is a core part of our national identity. Starting with nothing and working your way up is what many of us believe it means to be an American. But that dream has always been complicated, as Aarti Shahani experienced firsthand.