A processing center for people facing deportation could be moving locations from downtown Milwaukee to the city’s far northwest side, a move prompting outrage from local officials and advocates.
Milwaukee Ald. Larresa Taylor, in calling attention to the move in a press release Tuesday, characterized the potential new site as a “detention facility” for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But records from the city’s zoning committee indicated it would be a processing center where immigrants are not held overnight and are soon taken elsewhere, such as to a detention facility.
Taylor acknowledged at a news conference outside the proposed facility on Wednesday that the building would not be used as a detention center. She said she and her constituents are upset they were not involved in the decision process.
Milwaukee Ald. Larresa Taylor speaks at a press conference on Wednesday outside the proposed new location for an ICE processing center on the city’s northwest side.
“A facility is moving into the district without giving residents of the district any time to evaluate, to discuss, or to have any type of community organizing to discuss whether or not that facility is welcomed here,” Taylor said.
Her district already includes a future state Department of Correction 32-bed youth detention facility, which residents felt they had little input on either.
The current ICE office in downtown Milwaukee also processes immigrants and does not hold them.
The new office would be at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive, in the Park Place business park.
A 2023 proposal for the facility on the northwest side said the office would process detainees for transport to other facilities. It would also process people who are not detained but need to go to check-in appointments for their deportation cases.
Wisconsin’s only detention center is the Dodge County Detention Facility in Juneau. About 106 detainees are currently held there, according to data from the agency.
ICE generally detains two kinds of people: those under “mandatory detention” because they are convicted of certain “aggravated” felonies, and people who are suspected of violating immigration laws, like unauthorized crossing of the border, and are deemed a flight or public safety risk. Other immigrants may have ongoing deportation cases but are not detained, since they are not deemed a risk and they are not convicted of serious crimes.
ICE, part of the Department of Homeland Security, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Idea to move processing center in works since 2023
The ICE facility’s relocation to the northwest side office park was set in motion in 2023 when its downtown location was sold to the Milwaukee School of Engineering. ICE will still operate downtown until the move happens.
Also in 2023, the previous owner of the northwest side building proposed to modify its zoning to accommodate the ICE offices. In the proposal, the building owner said it wanted to add an 8-foot-tall privacy fence and build a sally port, which is a secure entryway.
Then the building was sold in October 2024 to a new owner: Lake Forest, Ill.-based WD Schorsch, which owns properties leased to federal government agencies.
The next month, the Milwaukee Common Council voted to place the 2023 zoning proposal on file, meaning they set it aside without taking action.
In December, the new owner applied for a city permit to renovate the building and its parking lot. It did not ask for a zoning change.
The building’s zoning already allows for government uses, so it wasn’t immediately clear if the renovation plans would need approval from the Common Council or the Board of Zoning Appeals. Jeff Fleming, communications director for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said city approvals might be needed.
“The appropriate departments are reviewing applications and how zoning will apply,” Fleming told the Journal Sentinel.
A representative for the U.S. General Services Administration, which oversees the federal government’s real estate operations, didn’t immediately respond to the Journal Sentinel’s questions.
Reaction from county officials
A coalition of Milwaukee County Board members, including Supervisors Juan Miguel Martínez, Caroline Gómez-Tom, Justin Bielinski, Jack Eckblad, Anne O’Connor, Sean Rolland, Sky Capriolo, Sequanna Taylor, and Priscilla Coggs-Jones and Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson, also blasted the proposal.
“This is not just a building; it represents a system that thrives on fear and perpetuates the suffering of families who are the backbone of our community,” the supervisors said in a prepared statement. “Building a facility designed to detain and deport these individuals is a direct attack on Milwaukee County’s values and priorities. It is unconscionable to support a facility that profits from tearing families apart and turning human lives into commodities.
Drake Bentley and Jessica Van Egeren of the Journal Sentinel contributed.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Plan to switch ICE processing center causes outrage in Milwaukee