MILWAUKEE — After watching the Trump administration’s immigration policies become more visible locally, activists in Milwaukee held a march and rally Sunday afternoon in protest.
The event led by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, comes after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made two arrests inside a Milwaukee County Courthouse.
Erica Steib and Emmanuel Weber told TMJ4’s Tahleel Mohieldin that those arrests and the revocation of student visas across the UW system pushed them to action.
“No one wants to see our immigrant neighbors under attack like this,” Steib said. “No one wants to see people — families torn apart."
Milwaukee County’s Corporation Council told TMJ4 News that there is no law prohibiting arrests within the courthouse, but protestors were still outraged by the move.
“This is not a place that we think people should targeted in at all,” Weber said. “It breaks down trust in our community."
Check out: Protestors oppose ICE arrests, UW student visa revocations
Protestors were also alarmed by the revocation of more than two dozen international student and recent graduate visas across college campuses in Wisconsin.
"We want people to be able to finish their degree,” Weber said. “They pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to come here to study here.
Weber, a UW-Milwaukee student and Jefferson County native, said the threat of deportation has brought about a sense of fear among students.
“There's a sense of, I guess, self-censorship regarding these policies,” he explained. “People are scared to speak out but that doesn't mean we won't speak out for them."
As a member of the UW-Milwaukee Sanctuary Campus Coalition, Weber wants campuses to be a haven for international students to voice their opinions.
It’s an issue protest organizer Steib said concerns the whole community.
“This is a frontline battle for our right to disagree with the government in general,” she shared. ”This is not just about Palestine, these visas getting revoked, it's about free speech.”
In a statement Monday, UW-Madison officials said the university does not believe the terminations on campus are specific to participation in free speech events or political activity. However, the precise rationale for these terminations is unclear.
On Wednesday, UW-Milwaukee echoed that statement. They said there is no reason to believe the terminations are specific to participation in free speech events or political activity, and the precise rationale for these terminations is unclear.
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