Hundreds of Milwaukeeans have not backed down on their stance against mass deportation as the list of people killed by federal ICE agents continues to grow.
On January 28, college students, parents, former veterans and even children gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office at 310 E. Knapp St. in downtown Milwaukee.
Alan Chavoya, organizer of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racial and Political Repression, kicked off the protest by listing some names that ICE officials have killed, including Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Victor Manuel Diaz, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz and Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceras.
“It’s not criminals being killed by ICE or CBP, it’s regular people that have done nothing wrong, it’s hard working people,” said Chavoya. “Wether they’re citizens, wether they’re immigrants or wether they have another status. That’s who this administration is attacking.”
The Instagram post promoting the emergency march was posted by various social justice groups: Comité Sin Fronteras, MKE Turners, Milwaukee Area Labor Council, No Kings MKE and Milwaukee Alliance. Protesters chanted, danced and marched around the MSOE campus through the night.
Fiona Evans has been to protests with her mom since she was in elementary school. She says it is important to exercise one’s right to protest and stand up for what they believe in. Today, she is a teacher in the MPS system and is protesting against ICE in support of her immigrant students who hesitate going to school for fear of being deported.
“I know that they’re scared, and they don’t come to school only to learn,” she said, “they come to school to get warm, to get fed and to be cared for by their teachers and their peers.”
As the march continued through downtown, the crowd grew, taking up two blocks. The line of people was so long that chants from the front could only vaguely be heard from the back.
Joette Rockow, an advertising professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been to several protests against immigration policies and for the Black Lives Matter movement. She reminisces on watching the protests against the Vietnam War in the 60s as a young girl and says she thinks this movement is more important.
“I’m here today because this is an incredible important moment in history,” she said. “This is about the foundation of our freedoms in this country.”