MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Community members and local leaders are sounding the alarm after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agents arrested two people inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse, Friday.
"We do not want them walking in unnecessarily on an immigration matter. That is an interruption of our right to be free citizens," Forward Latino's legal advisor, Mark Thomsen, said.
RELATED CONTENT: ICE makes 2 arrests inside Milwaukee County Courthouse
Forward Latino is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the community on civil rights and immigration issues.
For months now, ICE agents have made public arrests nationwide; however, now that it happened inside the Milwaukee County Courthouse, many people are speaking up.
"Since then, there's been a dramatic increase in the fear and anxiety that many are feeling, and it's discouraging individuals from now participating in the Milwaukee County Courthouse system," Forward Latino National President, Darryl Morin, explained Tuesday.
Forward Latino, Latino community members, its supporters, and local leaders said ICE shouldn't be able to make arrests inside the courthouse.
Some county supervisors are even planning to propose new legislation for it.
Watch: Can federal agents make arrests inside the Milwaukee Co. Courthouse? The short answer is yes.
"To make sure that we have a coordinated and comprehensive plan in how to keep people safe as they enter our courthouse," Supervisor Caroline Gómez-Tom said.
"Can you please talk about and explain why a local ordinance would prohibit federal agents from coming into a public courthouse," Reporter Jenna Rae asked Gómez-Tom.
"Yeah, thank you for that question. The local legislation that we're considering is to work on what we've already started to work on in this last week, in reaction to what happened, which is a plan," Gómez-Tom responded.
It's a plan law enforcement experts said is out of bounds.
"It's foolish to make a law saying federal agents can't go in there," Larry Powalisz said.
Powalisz is a Milwaukee native. He spent decades as a Milwaukee Police detective and then served as a special, federal agent for nearly 25 years. He said ICE agents can make arrests at the courthouse because it's a public building.
Milwaukee County's Corporation Council agrees and sent us the following statement:
"The Milwaukee County Courthouse is a public building, and there are currently no prohibitions under federal, state, or local law that prevent arrests being made within its premises. Like other public spaces, lawful arrests may be made in the Courthouse."
Powalisz said it becomes an issue if ICE is detaining people without the required documentation.
"That's a violation of federal law, and they're subject to get fired and charged with misconduct in public office," Powalisz said.
"So you don't think that ICE agents are just going around Milwaukee just picking up random people, you think that they have the proper documentation to be doing so," Rae asked Powalisz.
"Oh definitely. Like I said, I made a number of arrests in Chicago and Milwaukee and Seattle with ICE agents, and they all had documentation, mostly some sort of warrant," Powalisz explained.
County leaders said the new legislation would be discussed starting next week.
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