Milwaukee Protest Draws Attention To Central American Deportations

Immigrants’ rights groups in Wisconsin gathered on Thursday to protest Obama administration’s deportation of Central Americans who crossed the U.S. border illegally.

Most of the raids by federal immigration agents have taken place in the southern U.S., but the Rev. Walter Baires, a Lutheran pastor who legally came to Milwaukee about 20 years ago, said there is fear in Wisconsin too. Baires defends Central Americans who came to the U.S. in the last few years to get away from bloodshed in their home countries.

“What can you do when your life is in peril?” he said. “When people are trying to kill you, you find safety, and the United States is a place where they can have a little bit of safety?”

Baires joined about 50 people from groups including Voces de la Frontera and the New Sanctuary Movement in a brief demonstration outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Milwaukee.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that U.S. borders aren’t open to illegal immigration.