Construction of a new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility began on the north side of Milwaukee, according to Fox 6 Milwaukee. ICE is currently working out of a building on Milwaukee School of Engineering’s campus, according to Fox 6 Milwaukee.
Community members, including organizations such as VOCES de la Frontera and Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, protested outside the new building Nov. 15, according to Wisconsin Examiner. There has been concern about the lack of transparency and communication with local leaders by ICE, according to VOCES de la Frontera executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz.
“The position of the federal government has been that the local government doesn’t really have a voice in whether to move forward with this,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “In the current context, we’re witnessing an ICE and Customs and Border Patrol that has been profiling people, physically assaulting them for no reason and violating people’s due process in a myriad of ways.”
Neumann-Ortiz said the Trump administration’s “campaign of terror” is unwanted by communities as it is based on white supremacist ideas and is a misuse of tax dollars. She said the federal government is spending billions of dollars on this, while people go hungry and cannot access affordable housing and healthcare.
There has been tremendous solidarity and outrage from the community over the construction of the 36,000 square foot facility in Milwaukee, according to Neumann-Ortiz. ICE has been explicit that the facility is going to be expanded to hold more people for longer periods of time, she said.
“It’s been called the deadliest year in terms of ICE custody because they’re going after everybody, [including] seniors and people in our community who have health conditions,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “The conditions in which they’re [ICE] holding people are not good, and they’ve been notoriously not good, and we’ve seen an increase in death because of lack of medical care and suicide.”
Neumann-Ortiz said organizations and community members need to make sure this facility expansion does not take place through nonviolent activity and lobbying. VOCES de la Frontera is seeking policies that actually make the community better and support good immigration reform at the federal and state level, Neumann-Ortiz said.
Milwaukee is home to the largest population of immigrants in Wisconsin, and many are a part of mixed-status households, according to UW professor in the School for Workers Armando Ibarra. The expansion of this facility is perpetuating uncertainty for immigrants and individuals who come from immigrant households, Ibarra said.
“This idea that there was a facility that was going to be expanded in Milwaukee was announced in January of 2025, and even back then, there were elected officials and some organizations that were speaking up against this,” Ibarra said. “ICE used a federal exemption to avoid the city approval process, and they modified this building into this processing slash detaining center.”
There are many individuals on campus in precarious situations because the Trump administration has designated certain immigration statuses as less stable than in the past, according to Ibarra.
Ibarra said that there is increased uncertainty for international students, international professors on H-1B visas and individuals under DACA. Immigrants and individuals from mixed-status families are also at a heightened risk and experiencing a lot of fear, according to Ibarra.
Ibarra said many people are pushing back against what is happening with ICE expansion nationwide, namely in cities such as Chicago, Charlotte and Los Angeles. Some people who were not politically active in the past are now participating in these movements, according to Ibarra.
“They’re [protesters] protecting their neighbors, they’re protecting the community, they’re protecting their loved ones or [they have] just a sense of patriotism that is inclusive of their neighbors, loved ones and people that are positive members of their communities,” Ibarra said.
VOCES de la Frontera considers the Keeping Families Together and State Driver’s License bills as important areas of advocacy in Wisconsin, according to Neumann-Ortiz. Both of these are important pieces of legislation for holding ICE accountable, she said.
Neumann-Ortiz said that by calling the ICE facility a processing center, it whitewashes and scales down the abuses that often occur in these facilities. She said these facilities are essentially jail since they do not allow freedom of movement, and often lead to people being moved to other facilities and then deported.
“It is about building a larger facility for processing,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “It could mean we’re going to move you to another detention facility in another state, which is happening right now, where people are not able to access their attorneys or connect with family.”
