In the lead-up to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, Elliot Magers, 41, called Public Investigator with a question:
"Is Milwaukee a sanctuary city?" he asked.
Trump's anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric and promises to deport undocumented immigrants made Mager, a Voces de La Frontera organizer, wonder what protections the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County provide for people who are undocumented.
Over the last four decades, Wisconsin has drastically changed its position on being a sanctuary for immigrants, said Sergio González, an assistant professor of history at Marquette University. In 1986, under former Gov. Tony Earl, Wisconsin became one of the first states to declare itself a sanctuary state for El Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees.
In recent years, however, Republican state lawmakers banned undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses, which advocates say further complicated immigrants' relationship with police, and have attempted to ban sanctuary cities.
Now, Milwaukee and Madison are the state's closest examples of sanctuary cities.
What is a "sanctuary city"?
"Sanctuary city" is a political term, not a legal one, said Melissa Soberalski, founder and attorney at Soberalski Immigration Law.
There isn't a cut-and-dried definition of a sanctuary city. According to González, the term stems from the religious and political 1980s sanctuary movement. As part of that movement, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church on Milwaukee's south side and other churches throughout the state sheltered and protected the identities of undocumented asylum seekers.
Today, for the most part, the term refers to cities, counties and states that pass ordinances, policies or legislation declaring themselves sanctuaries for immigrants and promising to limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's efforts to detain and deport people who are undocumented.
"It's a tricky term because it helps the immigrant community feel more comfortable moving around within their own homes, their schools, their workplaces and whatnot, but it doesn't necessarily mean any one specific thing," Soberalski said.
For example, Chicago's sanctuary city ordinance — called the Welcoming City Ordinance — prohibits its city government and police department from inquiring about and disclosing a person's citizenship status to ICE. Illinois state law and Chicago law both prohibit police from detaining noncitizens unless the person has a federal criminal warrant.
Are Milwaukee and Milwaukee County sanctuaries for immigrants?
Technically, neither the City of Milwaukee nor Milwaukee County have ordinances or resolutions that explicitly state they are sanctuaries for immigrants. The City of Milwaukee hasn't designated itself a sanctuary city, said spokesperson Jeff Fleming.
That being said, the city doesn't restrict services based on citizenship and doesn't ask residents for their citizenship status unless they are applying for a job with the city, he said.
Neither the Milwaukee Police Department nor the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office ask for people's citizenship status, nor do they detain people solely because of their immigration status.
People who are booked at the Milwaukee County Jail are required to state their birth country and citizenship, but these responses are self-reported and not confirmed, Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office spokesperson James Burnett said in an email.
ICE also lists the Milwaukee County Jail as one of two "non-cooperative institutions" in Wisconsin. That means the jail generally does not alert ICE about noncitizens in custody who are about to be released, nor will the jail commit to holding them until ICE can take them into custody. The other "non-cooperative" institution is Dane County.
ICE identifies Winnebago Correctional Center as a "limited cooperation institution," meaning it notifies ICE before releasing a noncitizen but does not necessarily hold the person long enough for ICE to take them into custody.
In addition, Milwaukee Public Schools in 2017 passed a Safe Haven Resolution that says actions taken by ICE on school grounds "will be opposed by all legal means available."
Do Milwaukee law enforcement ever cooperate with ICE operations? Is Milwaukee part of the 287(g) program?
There are circumstances where the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office will cooperate with ICE.
They will detain, arrest, and share personal information of undocumented people with ICE — such as home and work addresses or the person's custody release date — if that person is suspected of terrorism, gang activity or arrested for violent felonies.
Local law enforcement agencies can go further by applying to participate in the 287(g) program, which gives officers the authority to carry out immigration duties under the direction of ICE. These officers have the authority to interrogate possible noncitizens who are detained, issue immigration detainers and transport arrested noncitizens to ICE-approved detention facilities.
Seven counties in Wisconsin, including Waukesha and Sheboygan, are a part of the program.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and Milwaukee Police Department are not.
Does this mean Milwaukee is a de facto sanctuary city?
To Soberalski, Milwaukee's stance on immigration enforcement is an indirect way of being a sanctuary city.
"I think it's good that Milwaukee is a little more quiet about it because I think they can effectuate a lot of the protection by not participating quietly," Soberalski said.
And Milwaukee County Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez considers the county a sanctuary, he told Public Investigator.
But to leaders of Comité Sin Fronteras, a branch of Voces De La Frontera, the county and city still aren't sanctuaries.
Deisy España — one of the committee leaders — said for one, the county could prohibit immigration officers from making arrests at the courthouse. The state of New York, for example, prohibits ICE from making civil immigration arrests in its courthouses.
Could sanctuary cities be federally penalized once Trump takes office?
Trump has repeatedly promised to enact the country's largest deportation of people who are undocumented once he takes office. Last month, Trump's border czar Tom Homan said the deportation plan would start in Chicago, and that he would prosecute Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson if he "knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien," CBS News reported.
Going forward, it's still unclear whether Trump will legally be able to penalize local agencies that don't cooperate with ICE, Soberalski said.
In 2017, defunding sanctuary cities was among Trump's first executive orders, but it didn't hold up in federal court.
"That's something we'll wait and see what happens once Trump takes office," she said.Story was updated to add a photo and a gallery.
Gina Lee Castro is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at gcastro@gannett.com.
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