The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced Wednesday it arrested 34 undocumented immigrants throughout the state last week as a part of a two-week operation.
The operation, which was conducted from Oct. 13-24, occurred in several cities, including Milwaukee, Whitewater, Kenosha and Waukesha, according to a statement.
The DOJ statement said a majority of the immigrants arrested in the operation had criminal histories, including sexual assault, battery and cocaine possession.
“Criminal illegal aliens do not belong in Wisconsin … my partnership with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and local law enforcement continues to remove these threats to public safety and the neighborhoods and citizens they victimize,” Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said in a statement.
Carolina Ortega, a member of MEChA, a UW-Madison organization aimed at educating the campus community on Hispanic-related issues, said she feels raids like these create a bad perception of undocumented immigrants in Wisconsin.
“You just have to take a step back and admit that yes, some people do criminal activities, but that doesn’t mean that everybody is the same,” she said.
Ortega added that immigrants in Wisconsin are innocent and that mass arrests like these create fear among the immigrant population, leading to unwanted effects in the workforce.
“They are just trying to work and make a living,” she said. “And when these raids happen, people get scared and stop showing up for work and this hurts both their employers and the employees.”
Van Hollen said in the statement he feels raids like these ultimately improve the safety of Wisconsin communities, and plans to become more active with the issues surrounding undocumented immigrants in the future.
“The success of this operation speaks for itself,” he said. “These criminals are now out of Wisconsin neighborhoods and off the streets.”
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