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 somebody’s country and try to set up residency.
What did he do as sheriff to cooperate with ICE?
I’m following the law in terms of pretty clear. I have an ethical obligation to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies in pursuit of justice.
It doesn’t enforce immigration law in every authority, which is why we were applying for 287G. What I did was cooperate with ICE and you’ll have to ask ICE officials what they were doing, what they were looking for, what they found. All I did was turn over booking information. Anybody including you has the, uh, legal right to booking information every single day of the week.
On whether he was ever concerned that victims or witnesses to crime would not cooperate out of fear of deportation:
No, there is no empirical research to show that that is actually happening.
Is Wisconsin doing a good job on immigration?
It’s county by county. Waukesha county is doing a great job. Their sheriff applied for and received 287g.
Once a person was in the jail, how did he figure out they were not legally in the country?
We don’t. All we do is turn over the information. They go through all the bookings of people who were arrested and they decide who they’re going to investigate. We don’t ask anything. Booking information? Yeah. See, this is a propaganda, the myth that Voces is out there peddling.
I don’t know what every other sheriff was doing. I only have the authority over the Milwaukee County jail.
Normally that’s ICE. They’re the ones that determine the legal status, not us.
There is thing called a code of ethics, right? Such a thing called the United States constitution. I followed the Constitution. I followed the code of ethics. All of a sudden, that’s controversial.
What does he think should happen to people trying to get into the country on the border?
The southern border needs to be protected as part of the president’s solemn duty.
And like I said, it’s a, it’s a, it’s an issue of us sovereignty, a sovereign nation. We’re a sovereign nation because we have borders, we have identifiable borders. Borders have to be protected. Okay? And enforcing your duty that you swore to, like the president, becomes controversial? How come it wasn’t under Obama doing much the same thing? … He didn’t get blasted by the New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN for doing it. But now because the guy in the White House, they don’t like him [so] all of a sudden, they want to make a big deal about it.
This is a political situation is what it is. It’s a political argument. It’s a political hit job on this president. He’s doing what every other president before him, including Bill Clinton did. But now all of a sudden, it’s controversial. That’s the politics. The president, like I said, he’s right on the politics here though…he’s going to win the political war here. The only thing that is going to get in the way is this ninth circuit in the western part of the United States … Judicial activists are getting in his way, prohibiting him from doing his solemn duty. This is a political argument. Now he will win in court. You also have to pay attention to the politics and he’s doing a great job of paying attention to the politics.
Who are these people on the border?
No, not undocumented immigrants. Excuse me. They were illegally in the country. That’s a wordsmithing game by the left to try to confuse people who are not informed. They are not undocumented immigrants. They are trespassers, they are illegal aliens. That is a legal term. It’s used on firearms regulations or background checks [and] it’s used throughout the United States Department of Justice. But they came along, “they” meaning the left, including Obama and changed [it] to make them more palatable to people. They’re illegal aliens in the country illegally. They are not migrants. They’re not immigrants. They’re in the country illegally. They trespassed into the United States. If you did that to Mexico or you did it to Iran or you did that to China, you would be arrested and jailed. But all of a sudden the United States wants to enforce immigration laws and they become the bad guy. This is nonsense. That’s why I’m glad that this president is pushing back and pushing back hard on this issue.
Should the path to citizenship be reformed?
I don’t know.
It should be hard to become a United States citizen. Being a United States citizen is something special … You should have to demonstrate do you want to be in this country. You support this country, you’re going to live by law, then you’re going to be productive. That’s what every country does in terms of who they’re going to allow in. But again, United States does it now [and] we’re the bad guy. We’re not the bad guy.