Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from a much longer Milwaukee Journal Sentinel front page article published on January 30. It appears that the article may not be behind a paywall.
Whitewater again finds itself the center of immigration, deportation spotlight
Sophie Carson Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
When Jorge Islas-Martinez first started getting calls from community members that federal immigration officers were conducting raids Thursday in his longtime home of Whitewater, he went out to try to find them.
After two hours, he phoned someone he’s close with to report there was no sign of any raids.
They asked: So it’s OK to turn the lights back on?
Islas-Martinez, a native of Mexico, is a fierce advocate for Whitewater’s Latino population. The symbolism behind the question struck him. Fear forces immigrants, even those legally in the U.S., to live in darkness, he said.
The next day, the situation slowly clarified. There were not raids in Whitewater.
It appears that officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, visited a person’s home and workplace in the area, but left without finding them. That’s according to Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Milwaukee immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, whose staff spoke to the person’s relative.
The rumor in the first week of President Donald Trump’s administration rattled Whitewater, a small community that’s been been in the national spotlight for the past year over its influx of mostly Nicaraguan migrants. And it exposed the substantial challenges ahead for cities of all sizes: discerning fact from fiction on the fly, and keeping residents’ trust in local law enforcement, even as federal agents carry out Trump’s promise of mass deportations.
“It’s not easy to be living like this,” Islas-Martinez said. “You cannot enjoy what freedom is.” …..
Marjorie Stoneman, the co-founder of the group Whitewater Unites Lives, said she was alarmed by what she heard through the grapevine. “But it must be absolutely terrifying for others” who could be personally affected by immigration enforcement, she said……
The incident also crystallized the challenge of verifying reports of immigration enforcement operations, and the delicate balance advocates face in deciding how to share them without stirring up unnecessary fear.
Voces de la Frontera is weighing all of that. Its emergency hotline got about a half-dozen calls about ICE in the Whitewater and Fort Atkinson areas last Thursday. It announced on Facebook that agents were “approaching homes and a factory” in the two cities. Over 1,400 people shared the post. Voces staff was able to confirm only that agents searched for one person and left without finding them……
With the threat of deportation looming, the best thing immigrant communities can do, right now, is understand their rights and prepare for what could happen, Islas-Martinez said. He is holding know-your-rights workshops in Whitewater and surrounding towns……
For some local law enforcement officials, the ICE operation in Whitewater was a preview of the uncomfortable position they may soon find themselves in…..
Whitewater Police Chief Daniel Meyer said his department will assist ICE if requested.
“That said, our preference is to have as little active participation in ICE operations as possible,” he said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel. “Our role as local law enforcement is not, and never will be, immigration enforcement.” ……
