Hundreds of members of religious groups protest Trump immigration policies in Milwaukee

Maria Perez
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Hundreds of members of faith-based organizations marched Monday outside the Milwaukee office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to protest against the immigration policies of President Donald Trump's administration. 

Holding signs and banners that read "Classrooms, not cages," "Abolish ICE" or "Keep families together," protesters walked and chanted on the sidewalks outside the building. 

More than 30 religious leaders and faith-based organizations' members blocked for nearly half an hour the garage entrances to the building where, organizers said, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brings arrested immigrants for processing.

Most of the protesters belonged to the United Church of Christ, which is holding its general synod in Milwaukee.

Protesters march Monday around the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building at 310 E. Knapp St. after starting at the Wisconsin Center. Hundreds of members from United Church of Christ’s general synod and other local church groups protested deportations of undocumented immigrants by ICE.

Hundreds of UCC members marched from the Wisconsin Center to the DHS building to express opposition against deportations, the separation of immigrant families, the detention of minors, living conditions at the shelters where immigrant children are held, the separation of children from their parents at the border and what protesters saw as the U.S. failure to grant asylum to those who flee violence.

Traci Blackmon, associate general minister of Justice and Local Church Ministries for the UCC, highlighted the contributions that immigrants have made to the U.S., and said deportations and turning away asylum-seekers go against Christian values. 

"We will not be quiet in the face of injustice, not today, not tomorrow, not ever," Blackmon told the crowd outside the DHS building. "And as you begin your sanctions, we will build our sanctuaries. As you send your agents, we will send our disciples. As you load people up to carry them across, we will open our doors and take them in." 

Trump tweeted last week that ICE was going to escalate the number of arrests and removals of undocumented immigrants starting this week. Then Saturday, he tweeted that he would halt the escalation for two weeks to see if Democrats and Republicans could pass legislation "to work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border."

Blackmon said public protests against the immigration policies are necessary.

Protesters march around the building that houses ICE offices.

"If the people are silent, then our legislation and our politicians will not understand our outrage,"  she said.

ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said in a statement that ICE respects the constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions.

"That being said, ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy," the statement said.

Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, president of the Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, is one of the religious leaders who blocked one of the entrances to the garage. She said immigrant communities across the country are frightened.

"We are protesting today the anti-immigration policies of the Trump administration and the brutal way he's being treating children, families, the way he has been terrorizing immigrants,” she said.

Paula Hincapié, daughter of recently deported student pastor Betty Rendón, joined the protest with her 5-year-old daughter. Rendón, a pastor at Emaus Lutheran Church in Racine, and her husband, Carlos Hincapié, were deported in May.

The family had applied for asylum upon arrival in the U.S. from Colombia, saying Rendón had been threatened by guerrilla members. Their petition was rejected and the family was issued final orders of deportation a decade ago.

The orders hadn't been enforced when ICE arrested Paula Hincapié and her parents. Paul Hincapié, who is a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that provides temporary protection from deportation to immigrants brought into the country as children, was released, but her parents were deported after being kept for three weeks in detention.

Left to right, Bill Dahlk and his wife, Kathy Dahlk of Shorewood, Jan Gregorcich of St. Francis and Rosemary Huddleston of Shorewood take part in the protest.

Paula Hincapié said her parents' deportation has been tough, but she is grateful for the community support her family has received.  

"I feel amazing that all these people are coming here to support my family and other people," she said.

Linda Jaramillo, a member and former officer of the UCC from Portland, Oregon, said the way authorities are treating immigrant and refugee families and children is a sin, and goes against the family values professed by the country.

The protest was organized by immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera; the United Church of Christ Justice; Racine Interfaith Coalition; WISDOM and Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH). 

Christine Neumann, executive director of Voces, said acts of civil disobedience such as blocking the building´s garage gates are necessary to oppose the administration's immigration policies.

She added her group is still fighting to get state legislation passed to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses and is also preparing recommendations to the Milwaukee Police Department to adopt stronger language in its policy that would prevent the department from collaborating with ICE operations unless federal officers have a warrant.