Thousands protest Milwaukee County sheriff's immigration crackdown

A sea of demonstrators on Monday marched from Milwaukee's predominantly Hispanic south side to the downtown courthouse to protest a plan that would deputize local law enforcement officers as federal immigration agents.

Busloads of demonstrators from about a dozen communities around Wisconsin arrived to join local protesters in the mile-long march. Parents with children in strollers, young men hoisting Mexican and American flags, and older supporters mingled as the crowd, estimated at 10,000 to 20,000 by police, moved through the streets chanting "Si, podemos!" or "Yes we can!"

Jose Flores, board president at Voces de le Frontera, one of the groups organizing the march, said he is fearful of the plan by Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke to enroll his deputies in a federal program that allows them to perform immigration law enforcement functions.

"Many peoples got to be afraid, you know. Like many families in this county, there's a lot of hard workers. They are not criminals. We are not criminals," Flores said.

Activists also marched against President Donald Trump's stand on immigration and his executive order that targets just about any immigrant living in the country illegally for deportation.

"There's a lot of hate in the country now with the new president and we march for that too," Flores said.

Organizers invited Latinos and others around the state to close their businesses, take their children out of school and march to stop Clarke from turning deputies into immigration agents.

In a statement, Clarke said the United States has an interest in controlling its borders, including for national and domestic security reasons, to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and to "control the number of another failed nation's refugees which would overwhelm America's limited public services."

January 31, 2017: The government announced it would spend $50 million to hire lawyers in the United States to defend Mexican citizens there illegally and faced with deportation. This is all about money and a lot more than $50 million. The Mexican central bank tracks how much money Mexicans abroad send home and in 2016 it was $25 billion, almost all of it from Mexicans in the United States and much of it from Mexicans in the United States illegally. That remittance cash accounts for more foreign exchange than Mexican oil exports. The remittance income is rising. It was nearly $22 billion in 2013 and is expected to rise to $28 billion in 2017, unless the United States enforces its immigration laws like Mexico does. Mexico has for decades tolerated illegal migration to the United States because the corruption and bad government in Mexico did little to provide jobs for the growing number of unemployed Mexicans and created a lot of potentially troublesome young men and women. Tolerating and, for many Mexican politicians, openly supporting the illegal migrants, was a popular policy and the government came to regard it as a right. But it was also about money and the remittances created a huge source of foreign currency flowing back to Mexico.
There’s more to it than money. After years of being accused of permitting the abuse of Central American migrants who enter Mexico the government agreed pay more attention to border security on its own southern border. Many of the illegal migrants from Central American are heading for the United States and that was not seen as a Mexican problem. But criminal gangs increasingly robbed and kidnapped the migrants and the government did very little to stop that. The gangsters often attacked Mexican citizens as well. Mexico has more severe laws against illegal immigration and illegal migrants than the U.S. It also enforces them more vigorously than does the U. S. By mid-2014 Mexico agreed to undertake Operation Sur which was supposed to curb illegal Central American migrants from entering Mexico. Operation Sur increased surveillance operations along Mexico’s southern border and improved border inspections. The government also tried to improve registration of legal migrants. In addition to the criminals, local police forces in southern Mexico have been accused of extorting money from illegal migrants and police corruption has long been a major problem. Despite Operation Sur, Mexico did little halt illegal migration across its northern border.
All this was noticed in the U.S. and politicians there found themselves under increasing pressure to enforce American migration laws as vigorously as Mexico (and Canada) did. By 2016 that brought to power an American government that seemed serious about applying Mexican practices to illegal migrants and actually did so. That was unpopular in Mexico and will probably lead to unexpected changes inside Mexico. But the practice of blaming your northern neighbor for your problems is losing its punch even in Mexico

don’t try to complicate it

Au contraire. The amnesty advocates seek to portray the majority of illegal aliens as law abiding, hard-working people. Supporters of amnesty like McCain, Flake, Graham, Ryan, and the Dems and the MSM push this narrative. So do even people like Sarah Palin when they discuss who should be allowed to stay, i.e., those who played by the rules. Trump has also made a similar distinction in terms of his priorities. He is going after the bad hombres as his priority. The fate of the rest will be decided later after the wall is built and our border secure.

The distinction as to what constitutes a "criminal alien" is the battleground that is being fought out to garner public support. Entering this country illegally is a misdemeanor. The three most recent amnesty bills, Hagel-Martinez in 2006, McCain-Kennedy in 2007, and the Gang of 8 bill all stated that if you only had three misdemeanors, you could be legalized. In fact the 1986 amnesty contained the same language. It is important in this fight to frame the issues and understand how language is being used to influence the outcome.

The Sensenbrenner enforcement only bill in 2005 ((H.R. 4437) was essentially killed by the Bush administration and a Dem poison pill to make illegal entry into the US a felony. It split the Reps and never went to the Senate. We are going to see similar issues over language and what constitutes a felony versus a misdemeanor and how it applies to illegal aliens. Should illegal aliens charged with DUI be considered "criminal" aliens in terms of setting the priorities on who should be deported?

And it is important to remember that 40% of the illegal aliens came here legally and then overstayed their visas.

For a Mexican, to be in Wisconsin is a crime from which all others rise. Just being is criminal The question to be or not to be resulted in illegal entry and becoming a criminal

I agree, but in the real world, there is a battle going on as to who can and cannot stay based on what constitutes a criminal alien. The almost 800,000 Dreamers who have been legalized unconstitutionally by the Obama administration's executive order present the Trump administration with a serious problem when it comes to deportation. They have been provided legal status by the federal government, including receiving a work permit and an SSN.

As ICE, DOJ, DHS, etc. start enforcing our existing laws, there will be an orchestrated, massive blowback by the pro-amnesty crowd. It will play out in the streets, the MSM, and the courts. One can only hope that Trump does not go wobbly.

“The U.S. allows dual citizenship. There are probably millions of U.S. citizens that have dual citizenship”

I understand that...Perhaps the time has come to rethink that position. But it is the country of origin that allows it not the country who the immigrant is migrating to.

The round turn would be to change our law and not grant citizenship to individuals coming from continue the practice. There are countries that are in fact democratic republics that do just that.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.