June, 17 2016, 02:45pm EDT
Immigrant Community Responds to Wisconsin ICE Raids
MILWAUKEE
Today Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced they had arrested 39 people in raids throughout Wisconsin in the past month. Voces de la Frontera issued the following response:
"ICE claims their raids make communities safer, but in fact ICE makes us all less safe by traumatizing families, robbing children of their parents and making immigrant community members afraid to cooperate with law enforcement to report crimes," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera. "In these raids ICE arrested the son-in-law of one of our members, and the only offense on his record is a 10-year-old conviction for working with a made-up Social Security Number. He is not a threat to anyone. His crime was working to support his wife and 2 children, and he was only arrested because of a racist, Arizona-type workplace raid, where ICE went to the Star Packaging Factory in Whitewater in 2006 and racially profiled all the Latino workers. Contrary to what ICE claims, he is not a priority for deportation. He is a victim of civil rights violations and his case should be closed immediately."
Voces de la Frontera is Wisconsin's leading immigrant rights group - a grassroots organization that believes power comes from below and that people can overcome injustice to build a better world.
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