'Day Without Latinos' Strike Brings Thousands To Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE, WI — Thousands of protesters from at least 25 Wisconsin cities are converging on Milwaukee for the annual “Day Without Latinos” march Monday, and Latinos are being asked to skip work and school, as well as withhold their spending power at businesses, according to media reports. Voces de la Frontera said the protests are in response to President Trump’s immigration policies, as well as an effort to “stop Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke from turning his sheriffs into immigration agents.”

The march will begin 11 a.m. Monday at Fifth Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee. Protesters will march to the Milwaukee County Courthouse.

“It’s very important that we organize,” Luz Sosa of Voces de la Frontera told WITI-TV. “And people from around the state are going to be coming to Milwaukee to show the power of the people and stop certain laws that are going to be put in place.”

Refugees have been invited to join Latinos in this year’s march “because Trump’s executive orders do target very much those two populations,” Christina Neumann-Oritz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, told WISN-TV.

Several Latino-owned businesses planned to close Monday to protest Clarke’s support of a federal proposal that would allow state and local law enforcement officers to enforce immigration law. As many as 150 businesses will close, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“Many of the people we serve are immigrants, and we don't want them to suffer because of this proposed program,” Jenny Contreras, the owner of a tax preparation business that will be closed Monday, told WISN. “Immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, pay taxes and are required to report them. So we are contributing to the economy and to the government.”

Clarke said in a January Facebook post that he intends to enforce the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program, which deputizes local and state law enforcement officers and gives the the authority to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.

“No more catch and release of criminal illegal aliens,” Clarke wrote. “I will assign as many deputies to this initiative as I can. It is a public safety priority.”

In a statement on the Voces de la Frontera page, organizer Jennifer Estrada of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, said she understands the fear many immigrant families have of being deported.

“My husband was deported,” she said. “I know what that feels like and the impact it had on my children. Immigrants are the backbone to the dairy industry in my area and without them, the economy would get worse for all of us. People should not be afraid of law enforcement, they should not live under the threat of their families being torn apart. I am proudly marching on Monday to say no to Sheriff Clarke's plan to enroll in 287g. If it starts in Milwaukee, it will spread to other counties.”

Photo of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. at the 2016 Republican National Committee by Disney | ABC Television Group via Flickr Commons