Eleccted Officials Will Not Protect Us From ICE
On Monday last week the Milwaukee Common Council members with an incredible amount of fanfare held an “ICE Out” Press Conference announcing that they will be introducing legislation to help protect Milwaukee from a potential (though likely inevitable) invasion by ICE. It was an emotional press conference and made for a great photo op. People are rightly terrified of ICE coming to Milwaukee and are demanding their elected officials protect them. That being said, none of the announced legislation will do much to stop the ICE invaders. These elected officials are patting themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum to protect their constituents. Press conferences like these give us a false sense of hope that our elected officials will do anything to meaningfully stop ICE.
As of the time of writing, none of the exact details of the legislation have actually been released, but we can take a look at what was mentioned during the press conference.
Regulating ICE
The first mentioned proposal was to ban law enforcement (any legislation from the Common Council cannot single out Federal law enforcement and must therefore apply to all law enforcement) from using masks and requiring them to clearly identify themselves. Similar laws have been passed in California, though a judge recently struck down banning face coverings, so it is unclear even how effective this will be in Milwaukee. And even if we are able to force ICE terrorists to show their faces and identify themselves, it is similar to forcing cops to wear body cameras. It does very little to stop their brutality. The other way the Common Council is hoping to regulate ICE is prohibiting law enforcement from staging in publicly owned land (primarily parks). Milwaukee County recently passed similar legislation, though it should be noted that it just prevents ICE from staging (not patrolling, entering etc…) without a permit. While this certainly will make life just a little harder for ICE (if they even chose to obey it), private companies like Home Depot have no problem being used as a staging ground for ICE operations.
Protecting the Right to Protest
This measure was championed by professional grandstander Alderman Alex Brower. The idea, as described by Brower, is to modify the Milwaukee Police Department's Standard Operating Procedures so that the police would protect Milwaukeean’s right to protest and free speech in the case of an ICE invasion. It is unclear exactly how this would work in practice. And especially if it involves modifying police procedures, this means the Milwaukee Police Association would need to buy in and we all know how hard that is going to be. Brower of all people should know the police do not and will not protect us. Association President Alexander Ayala responded to Brower’s proposal with “We’re not going to sit here and arrest ICE agents at a protest. That’s not our job. That’s an illegal order," he said. "Who’s going to fine them? It’s not going to be MPD. How do you fine the federal government? An officer is not going to write a ticket and then give it to an ICE officer." So this proposal seems to already be dead on arrival.
The Office of New Milwaukeeans
Then there is Alderwoman Dimitrijevic's proposal for an Office of New Milwaukeeans which would provide resources for immigrant families. Again, on the surface seems like a good idea and makes for a great press release, but does little when confronted with reality. We already know ICE often uses “ruses” (i.e. blatant lies) in order to hunt people. In Minneapolis, there are reports of ICE officials following food distribution and mutual aid networks in order to find immigrants. Milwaukee Beagle reporters have even heard that ICE agents are going as far as impersonating mutual aid, posting fake flyers to try and trap immigrants. To respond to this, Minnesotan mutual aid networks have gone underground and decentralized, with distributors being instructed to write their delivery lists on paper and eat their notes if they are stopped by ICE in order to stop the address from falling into ICE’s hands. The irony of creating an explicit office to help immigrants in Milwaukee is that it literally paints a target on their backs for ICE. If such an office is created, you can bet it will be one of the first places ICE will go to to try and find immigrants. We know ICE agents will ask this office (or worse sue!) in order to get a list of everyone that has used their services. Given how litigation-shy the Common Council is now, it is hard to imagine that city officials will have the spine to resist when this moment comes.
These are all the details we have so far for these proposals. The only other potential piece of legislation not mentioned during the press conference (but appearing in the Common Council's legislation website) is a resolution relating to potential uses of the emergency communications system. One can imagine this might set up some type of warning system during ICE raids, which ironically enough, might actually be the most useful piece of legislation in this entire package.
So far, city officials are showing they will not take risks and do anything meaningful to protect us from ICE, but you can bet they will certainly posture like they are. We do not need more press conferences or town halls. We need meaningful legislation. The Common Council seems scared to propose any legislation that could lead to them being sued. You know who is not afraid about being sued? ICE. It is time to stop playing by the ‘rules’ that ICE refuses to follow. If city officials are too scared to take that kind of action, they should admit it and instead warn residents that we will be on our own to defend ourselves.
We spoke with someone doing on the ground work with immigrant communities in Milwaukee and they had this to say about the Common Council’s proposals (they requested to remain anonymous):
“The thing that is most striking about talks, legislation, or actions regarding ICE is that it rarely ever seems centered around what the immigrant community actually wants and needs. I doubt anyone on the Common Council reached out to the community. Instead they reached out to people who stood in as proxies. Democratic rhetoric rarely asks for action. There are actionable things to be done. It does not even have to be legislative things. They could volunteer their time. They could fight to allocate money to programs that keep people safe versus the Sheriff and MPD. The brutality and lawlessness of ICE has made people think police are really the good guys and will protect the public…Democrats choose to think that all of this started with Trump. This is a bipartisan issue that will persist. ICE is fairly new. The police are not. Their brutality is not. The things that are currently being recommended for ICE are measures put on police officers that did not affect the harm they caused. Body cameras did nothing. They don’t mask and still kill unarmed people at an alarming rate…This is just the song and dance of elected officials…I know the faces of so many electeds because I see them at every event that will have a photo op so they can prove that they care. I get to navigate those spaces without much notice because I do not carry much weight as an “important” person. I am also in a lot of spaces actually doing the work. Doing the trainings. Talking to impacted families. Figuring out how to keep children safe and pick up and drop off. Watching people retreat from the public out of fear.
The community keeps the community safe. We’re all we’ve got… It is just exhausting to have to say maybe you could not try to reform a system that was birthed from white supremacy, because it is working as it was designed to. This was what it has always looked like. It has just never been on such a public stage. And if you don’t know if I am talking about the police or ICE - there is probably a reason for that.”
We must protect our communities. We need bolder proposals from our elected officials and in the absence of this, we need to build a decentralized robust mutual aid and legal observer network to protect us from ICE. Talk to your neighbors, get involved in your community. And if you feel more comfortable doing this in a formal setting, Voces De La Frontera, Milwaukee Turners, and Comité Sin Fronteras are all great organizations providing training and preparation.
