Disappeared: 10,000 and Counting

“I am afraid all the time. Every time my dad leaves for work, I am afraid,” says a soft-spoken University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student who is the daughter of undocumented parents who came to the United States from Mexico decades ago in search of greater opportunity, new jobs and a better life. The reality for this […]

Vidal M. walked for four days and three nights at the age of 17 to pursue his dream of coming to America. He is now a married 29-year-old with a job and a dream to one day become an entrepreneur.   In 2006, Vidal told his parents he wanted to come to America to create […]

We compiled immigration data from multiple sources, including Syracuse University’s TRAC data and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections to determine when and how detainers are being issued from the Wisconsin county level to the national level. Presidential Administrations Using the TRAC data, we wanted to compare how many people were deported nationally and in Wisconsin […]

­­Media Milwaukee’s Amanda Maniscalco posed a series of questions to ICE Media Relations spokeswoman, Manda Walters. Here is what she said. What are some of the reasons that people in the community are brought in and detained? For instance. ICE is involved in departmental sec­­urity and most of this is available on the website. We […]

“You would think that revealing to all your friends and family about an aspect of who you really are would be easier the second time around. Well, it’s not.” There are nearly 700,00 DACA recipients as of September 2017. Most of them are of Mexican decent like Gachuz and most were brought over by family […]

El 1 de Diciembre del 2018, Voces De La Frontera sostuvo una reunión abierta al público en la Escuela Primaria Allen Field sobre la lucha para restaurar las licencias de conducir para personas indocumentadas en Wisconsin. La reunión comenzó con miembro de Voces, Ramiro, agradeciendo a la audiencia por salir y venir en sábado, y […]

On Saturday, December 1, 2018, Voces De La Frontera held a meeting open to the public at Allen Field Elementary School regarding their fight for restoring undocumented people’s drivers’ licenses in Wisconsin. The meeting opened with Voces member, Ramiro, thanking the audience for coming out on a Saturday, and lightly reminded everyone to become a […]

When he was Milwaukee County Sheriff, David Clarke was one of the most outspoken defenders in the state and even the country on the need for immigration enforcement. Media Milwaukee reached him by phone, and asked him about the topic. What laws are unauthorized immigrants breaking? It’s a violation of our sovereignty. They trespass into […]

Ana’s story is rooted in the events that happened long before she was born. In some ways, it begins where her mother’s story begins in rural Mexico. Her mother when she was just a baby, was dropped off at the doorstep of an orphanage. No name. No birth certificate. No identity. She was adopted by […]

“When we identify people, who are breaking the law, we arrest them and hold them accountable, and if my federal partners need assistance in doing that, and I can do it lawfully, I want to do that,” said Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson.             According to the Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287g Immigration and […]

The walls of the Sister Caille Kleibhan Conference Center were lined with people, and the chairs that sat all around the conference room followed suit. There were camera crews and crying babies, but the most important group sat at the center of the room. These are the people who were celebrated Dec. 6, 2018. They […]

Juan is from León, Guanajuato, Mexico. The first time he came here to the U.S. is when he was 18-years-old. The year was 2003. In an interview with Media Milwaukee, Juan explained that he came to the United States in the first place to help his parents and to get them a house. “That is […]

When she lived in L.A., Sandra Liliana Pucci’s bumper featured a sticker which read, “No human being is illegal.” Pucci, an associate professor and chair of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Linguistics Department, has spent 20 years in the land of lingo. But she has also spent time translating credible fear asylum interviews and listening to […]

Victor Huyke will tell you the “news gene” in his family skipped a generation. His great grandfather and grandfather both owned newspapers, but his father decided to follow the food industry all the way to Milwaukee. The Puerto-Rican-born owner of El Conquistador, an English and Spanish-language newspaper, started working at the Shepherd Express’ fore-bearer, the […]

Media Milwaukee gathered the opinions of several top immigration lawyers in Wisconsin. Here’s what they said: Aissa Olivarez, staff attorney at Community Immigration Law Center She began by saying that she’s noticed a lack of discretion by ICE, in that they are much more aggressive than ever before, disregarding certain precautions about pending charges and […]

At first, Jessica Cavazos, president and CEO of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County, Wisconsin focused on the broader Latino picture, rather than just immigration. She spoke a lot about the economic standpoint, and how the Latino community is an active contributor to the U.S. economy. “We really need a pathway to legalization […]

Two Mexican-born servers, both 41 years old, met about 10 years ago working at the same restaurant and as life often cycles in patterns they  are now working in the same restaurant once more. Though they’re not blood relatives, they now consider each other family. They’re both unauthorized immigrants, not being able to return to […]

Darryl Morin is the past national VP for the Midwest region for the League of Latin American United citizens, the oldest and largest Hispanic membership organization. They give out scholarships, distribute meat to families struggling with food insecurity, and raise money for Mexican Fiesta. He’s worked with national politicians on both side of the aisle, […]

Voces de la Frontera gave an insight as to how ICE is finding people who are unauthorized immigrants in the United States, but especially those in the state of Wisconsin.  Sarai Melendez is the worker’s center organizer and receptionist for Voces de la Frontera. They were founded as a worker’s center, where they were very […]

Media Milwaukee student journalists reached out to multiple Wisconsin county sheriffs and asked them about immigration. Here are some of those responses: Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney He began by saying that he has been enticed by ICE to apply to 287g, but he has refused on each occasion, not even applying. “I have no […]

A man is sweeping the tile floor after the customers left. He has just finished clearing the table of dirty plates and used napkins. He wipes it down, and prepares the table for the next customers. He walks to another table and fills their waters and their coffee, grabs his rag and starts to clear […]

Professor Joseph Rodriguez teaches US Latino History, US Urban history, and urban studies. He invited the student journalism in and said he had time to speak with me on the issues of immigration. Although he was modest in his delivery of his ideas, it was clear he knew a lot about immigration and how it […]

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) has 23,519 inmates in custody, according to a 2017 Inmate Profile report. Inmates with an ICE detainer are primarily undocumented and whose status often piques ICE’s interest. Around 46 percent of inmates who had detainers placed on them are registered sex offenders and convicted of serious sex crimes, Media […]

In November 2018, a panel of speakers came together at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to discuss immigration. Here’s what they said: Rachel Ida Buff, Dept. of History & Cultures and Communities Program Rachel was asked to confine her remarks to the past though she has a lot to say about the present. Act 1: Birthright […]

Previously, because of opposing views on immigration and other issues, when David Clarke was Sheriff, there was a rift between his department and the Milwaukee Police Department. Now, as Earnell Lucas is preparing to become the next Milwaukee Sheriff, he has been concentrating on bridging the gap between the two departments, working with new Chief […]

Jacqueline Nguyen, associate Professor of Learning and Development in Educational Psychology, at UW-Milwaukee, spoke about the effects on children from having their parents deported. Nguyen has two young children of her own and couldn’t imagine not being there for them everyday. She says the effects can be costly. “The uncertainty and unpredictability of a person’s […]