THOUSANDS MARCH IN WAUKESHA AGAINST SHERIFF SEVERSON’S 287G PLAN FOR IMMIGRATION ENFO

THOUSANDS MARCH IN WAUKESHA AGAINST SHERIFF SEVERSON’S 287G PLAN FOR IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

Posted by Susan Ruggles | May 2, 2018

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Over ten thousand people from Milwaukee and across Wisconsin marched in Waukesha on May 1 as part of A Day Without Latinxs & Immigrants, a statewide general strike and protest.

Marchers demanded that Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson not turn his deputies into ICE agents through the 287g program. Across the United States, dozens of cities held marches to protest the Trump Administration’s unlawful crackdown on immigrant communities.

“The 287g program is part of Trump’s white nationalist plan to divide working people and implement a cruel mass deportation program targeting people of color, immigrants and refugees,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera. “Sheriff Severson’s contract with ICE makes it clear that all immigrants will be targets for deportation.”

Over 100 Wisconsin businesses closed during the time of the Waukesha march. Thousands of students affiliated with Voces’ student arm, Youth Empowered in the Struggle, left class at dozens of schools in Waukesha, Milwaukee, and Racine.

Marchers rallied at Cutler Park in Waukesha before marching to the Waukesha County Courthouse, where speakers addressed the crowd. Elected officials and candidates including Randy Bryce joined the march. Protesters carried an enormous 100 yard banner visible from the air that read “They Tried to Bury Us, They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds.”

“I was a teacher at Waukesha North High School for 38 years,” said Diane Voit, representative at-large to the Waukesha Board of Education. “Students do not need the fear and anxiety that our current immigration policies add. That is not the learning environment in which you can become the best that you can be. They deserve better from our community – they deserve to feel safe. We urge Sheriff Severson, as a parent, to consider the fear of the children who don’t want to be separated from their parents. We urge him not to implement 287g. My grandparents came to America as immigrants for a better life, as did so many of your parents and grandparents. I firmly believe that immigrants make America great.”

Sheriff Severson signed the 287g agreement with ICE in February of this year. On April 25, Severson announced that his deputies will receive 287g ICE training from June 13 through July 18, 2018. The Trump Administration has massively expanded the number of local sheriff’s and police departments with 287g agreements nationwide from 29 in 2016 to 76 today, as part of an unprecedented effort to turn local law enforcement into an arm of “Trump’s campaign of terror against immigrant families.”

“The United States was founded on the principle of ‘all men’ being created equal, and the idea that we all are entitled to a chance to pursue ‘life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness,'” said Imam Noman Hassan of the Masjid Al-Noor, Islamic Society of Milwaukee West in Brookfield in Waukesha County. “That is all we are here to do. While the president talks about building walls, immigrants are building this country. Immigrants help grow the economy, and add to its diversity and its prosperity with our hard work, sweat, and tears. We are a valuable asset. We are woven into the fabric of this nation, its everyday life, and our absence is felt at all levels if we are not present.”

Imam Hassan led an interfaith circle in a closing prayer following the rally that included Pastor Teresa Rios of Casa de Restauracion Church in New Berlin in Waukesha County, Pastor Benny Khabeb of Ascension Lutheran Church in the city of Waukesha and the SOPHIA interfaith network, and Reverend Ralph Schultz of the First United Congregational Church in Waukesha.

“We have a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed,” said Anselmo Villarreal, President and CEO of La Casa de Esperanza. “It needs to be fixed through comprehensive immigration reform initiatives like 287g not only distract us from achieving our goal, but also hurt and confuse our communities. I encourage Sheriff Severson to do the right thing and not implement the 287g program.”

Since 2016, statewide “Day without Latinxs & Immigrants” strike actions organized by Voces de la Frontera in Wisconsin have defeated 287g in Milwaukee County and stopped proposed anti-sanctuary bills in the state legislature.

“As an educator in Waukesha, I feel the need march on May 1st with my students, their families, and the community, to speak out Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson’s efforts to turn his deputies into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agents,” said Gerardo Lemus, a teacher at Butler Middle School in Waukesha. “If Sheriff Severson follows through on his plans for 287g, many families in Waukesha will face trauma. How could my students ever focus on school when their families are under attack?”

Voces de la Frontera is a membership-based community organization led by low-wage workers, immigrants and students, whose mission is to protect and expand civil rights and workers’ rights through leadership development.

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Thank you Sheriff Severson! Shame on you teachers and others marching with illegal aliens! You're thinking only of yourselves and not your fellow citizens paying the bills and suffering lower wages and higher unemployment and taxes because of illegal immigration. SHAME ON YOU!!!

GRRRRR!!!!!!

Teachers want raises, they want school supplies, they want repairs to the school.

YOU WANT A RAISE? DEMAND ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE BOOTED OUT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. THEY COST TAXPAYERS OVER $15,000 PER ILLEGAL ALIEN PER SCHOOL YEAR...THERE IS YOUR RAISE DUMMIES!

They are foreign students with NO visa to attend our schools. Stop the Federal Government and the States harboring, aiding and abetting illegal aliens. Awarding them OUR taxpayer funded benefits is aiding and abetting!

Teachers support illegal immigration because the more students the more money allocated to their schools. It's all self-interest. DISGUSTING!!

The more money is NOT going into their paychecks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beezer

The more money is NOT going into their paychecks.

Yes, the more students the more payroll money available. If you cut the student enrollment by deporting the illegal alien students, then the payroll dollars are reduced along with other budget items. State and federal money pays the teachers salaries on that per head count formula.

They have been told to "let them go" for years in Waukesha, this is where it leads. IMO.

Teachers have turned into the new radical agitators. Poor dears----have to spend your time indoors when you could be out in the freezing cold or torrid sun. Then you don't get to work in the summer----and most every year is like that. Poor babes.

It is pathetic, because states, locals and feds are bankrupt paying $113 billion a year funding illegal aliens, teachers are underpaid, because even though they get more money per head, under the classroom size rules, it means more teachers to pay, so while the school budget grows with illegal aliens, so do the expenses, while the cost of illegal immigration bankrupts the counties, states and feds that could have otherwise paid fewer teachers nice raises to teach American citizens. It's not "simple math" for 3rd graders', a little more complicated than that, but it's at minimum easy math for 6th graders. College graduates, many of them with masters degree, should be able to figure this out, yet, they don't. Why? NEA union who is the only one who ultimately profits from illegal immigration, more students, more payrolls, more teachers, more NEA union dues. SAD!!