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 much involved in the workers movement. Along the way, immigration became part of worker rights movement and part of Voces.
Melendez mentioned that there are a few ways that ICE is finding unauthorized immigrants, but one of the most common ways is if the person has multiple reentries and have been contacted by immigration in the border. But, if they are caught by la patrulla (people in the military), fronteriza (people who work in the border) or ICE agents, they take them in to get their fingerprints printed in which it stays in the system forever.
“Here in the state of Wisconsin, if you are caught without a driver’s license three times, it isn’t a misdemeanor anymore, it becomes a felony,” Melendez says. “It is then up to the local police if they want to collaborate with the ICE.”
Another way that unauthorized immigrants are being caught is if they don’t have a driver’s license. Those who are unauthorized and are living in U.S. are unable to receive a driver’s license; and when they are caught or cited multiple times they are then taken to court.
Once they are done serving their sentence, most of the time they are handed to ICE. One other way that they are finding unauthorized immigrants is by intimidation. If someone comes to their door and begins to ask them questions about their legal status, most of the time they feel the need to answer because they can’t tell if it’s the police, ICE or an authority figure.
In Voces they teach unauthorized immigrants about their civil rights and how they are able to keep silent until they have attorney or lawyer to help them. A criminal to ICE is anyone who is here without proper documentation, they exceed their visa stay or if they don’t have a work permit, to ICE that’s a criminal defense.
A criminal to ICE is anyone that is here in the country without proper documentation. If the person came into the U.S. without a visa, or they overstayed their visa or if they don’t have a worker’s permit; that is enough for ICE to consider them as a criminal.
“The local police do not have the right to ask someone about their legal status,” Melendez says.
The last raid that happened in Wisconsin was around late October; ICE had a list of 250 unauthorized immigrants. But they rounded up only 83 unauthorized immigrants out of their 250 list of names.
The initial process of deporting someone from Wisconsin is that if ICE has a warrant of an arrest for person, they find them and then they take them to the processing center where they get their fingerprints printed. After that they either send to one of the two detention centers in Wisconsin, which is Kenosha County or Dodge County.
“They’ll stay in there for as long as a ruling is pending…it can take any time between months to years,” Melendez says.
Once the pending is done, the judge then decides if the person should be deported depending on the evidence that they have about the person. If the person is being deported, they then put them on a plane that will take them to a detention center that is closer to the border. Once the person arrives to the detention center, they pay a bus ticket that will take them inside Mexico; but the bus only drives the person 20 miles inside of Mexico’s border.
Then the Mexican consulate or Mexican government greet them and take them to a building where they are able to make one call to whoever and then they give them twenty dollars. After that is all settled, the unauthorized immigrant is them left to find its way back home.
When they are being deported, they put them on a flight that happens early in the morning. Family is able to come to the airport, only if they are a legal permanent citizen; they are able to give them as much cash as they want. Then they are able to give them a suitcase that can’t exceed more than forty pounds. After that they are able to say goodbye to their loved ones, but they only have one to three minutes to do so.
“From there, they don’t know what happens to them,” Melendez says. “They don’t know if they have family members.”
Melendez wants people to know that those who are coming here have low incomes and they aren’t able to afford visas; also most people don’t have the means to come here “the right way” because visas are expensive.