Plans to move ICE facility in Milwaukee have angered some activists, officials

Some activists and officials in Milwaukee are angry about plans from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to move its processing facility in the city.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, currently has a processing facility for detainees in downtown Milwaukee. Milwaukee Alder Larresa Taylor said she recently learned the agency plans to move that center to a building on the city’s northwest side.

A Tuesday statement from Taylor originally said the property would be used for an “ICE detention facility.” But during a Wednesday press conference, Taylor said the site would operate the same way it does in downtown Milwaukee.

A spokesperson for ICE also wrote in an email, “there are no ICE detention facilities listed or planned for the location in question.”

Even so, Taylor said she wanted to make her constituents aware of the plans during the press conference.

“It is so important that we are informed of things that are happening around us, especially when we’re talking about government agencies that are coming, that could potentially raise the anxiety level of the many citizens of our city,” Taylor said.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the immigrants rights group Voces de la Frontera, is also concerned about the plans. Neumann-Ortiz said the ICE facility in downtown Milwaukee is ICE’s statewide site for processing.

“Someone who is detained and in the process of deportation is sent there to be processed,” Neumann-Ortiz said.

From there, they’re often sent to other detention facilities, according to Neumann-Ortiz. That could include the Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau.

Plans for property have been in the works since 2023

The location for the proposed facility is in a business park on the city’s northwest side.

Plans for the property have been in the works since 2023, according to city documents. A 2023 proposal for the site from the previous owners said the building would be used for the “processing of immigrants.” It said that would include the processing of “non-detained report-ins and to process detainees for transport to holding facilities.”

It would also be the main southeastern Wisconsin office for “immigration officers and staff,” according to the proposal.

The proposal said there will be modifications made to the building for the “sally port drive.”

“A sally port, in respect to customs, will be used to transport prisoners to and from the facility,” Taylor wrote in a statement.

Taylor said she received an email in December from the Department of City Development notifying her of an application for modifications for the building.

A December email to Taylor from Kristin Connelly, a principal planner in the city, said Connelly believed the building was recently sold and the new owners are requesting the “same changes to the site.” Connelly wrote that the changes would likely be discussed during a city plan commission meeting in February.

The current owner of the property is Milwaukee Governmental LLC, according to property records.

Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said it’s still unclear what specific city approvals would be needed for the site.

“The federal government has a great deal of power/flexibility to do what they want irrespective of local zoning rules,” Fleming wrote in an email.

Neumann-Ortiz said she wants the community to fight back and oppose the plans.

“We have to resist these efforts completely,” Neumann-Ortiz said.

The Milwaukee School of Engineering owns ICE’s existing facility downtown. A spokesperson for the school said they’ve owned the building for nearly two years and are leasing it now.

Milwaukee Common Council President Jose Perez also said he was unsure about the plans. During the press conference, he said he was opposed to “any expansion of ICE type detention services in the city of Milwaukee.”

Donald Trump’s inauguration is set for Jan. 20. On the campaign trail, he promised mass deportations if elected.He also said Tom Homan, the former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would serve as his “border czar.”