Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales Has Yet To Publicly Denounced Officers Decision To Assist And Honor U.S. ICE Non-legal Binding Administrative Warrants On The Field

Editorial:

Chief Morales during a Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission hearing in October admitted that police officers from the police district station 2 were on September 23 assisting U.S. ICE rogue agents in the Southside to arrest an undocumented immigrant who was on a State probation sentence for a conceal carry misdemeanor conviction. 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

November 12, 2019

Milwaukee, WI - Apparently, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales including the police department administrative management, supervisors and its own police officers don't know the difference between a non-legal binding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) administrative warrant (federal civil matter) and a judicial warrant signed by a federal court judge, which on September 23, 2019, police officers assisted rogue ICE agents in arresting Jose Alejandro De la Cruz-Espinosa on a frivolous State traffic violation without actually having a valid warrant or an order of probation violation at the time of the incident until the probation violation call was made by police to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections parole agent from the scene. According to Chief Morales, De la Cruz-Espinosa had an "active federal warrant" to take him into custody, but Morales failed to realize that it was just a federal civil ICE warrant created by an ICE agent, not from a federal judge, which it doesn't have precedent nor Constitutional authority to take custody of a person on probation for a State of Wisconsin misdemeanor conviction for carrying a conceal weapon who at the time of the arrest had not violated any condition of his probation. 

Here's the scenario, on September 23, Milwaukee police officers including a K9 unit from the 2nd Police District Station were assisting rogue ICE agents who didn't have a judicial warrant to take De la Cruz-Espinosa into custody, ICE used police officers to arrest De la Cruz and turned him over to ICE agents at the scene without processing De de la Cruz-Espinosa for a traffic violation and then allow his State probation agent and a Milwaukee County judge decide, if in fact De la Cruz-Espinosa had violated any conditions of his probation. It didn't happened and police officers who have not been identified failed to protect De la Cruz-Espinosa's due process rights and did a disservice to the Latino community including the State of Wisconsin justice system by illegally turning over De la Cruz-Espinosa to ICE and not allowing De la Cruz-Espinosa to finish his state conviction sentence for the misdemeanor conviction at the time. De la Cruz-Espinosa still has an open debt to pay society for his State conviction some might argue.

So far, Chief Morales continues to press that De la Cruz-Espinosa had an existing federal warrant, now the public and the Latino community has learned that Morales wasn't telling the whole truth, but actually didn't know the difference between a U.S. ICE agent administrative warrant and a judicial warrant signed by a court judge.

Chief Morales wants to get a new contract to continue to work as chief, but before he gets rehired by the Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission, Morales needs to abide by the law himself and not assist ICE rogue agents in enforcing their non-legal binding administrative warrants in the City unless they have a legal federal warrant signed by a judge to detain a resident of Milwaukee. Chief Morales believes in working with the community to help them to prevent crime and to solve crime cases, but assisting ICE agents to arrest undocumented immigrants without due process does a disservice to our communities of color including the Latino community by creating a distrust of police. 

Also, the Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission should approved Voces de Frontera version of the Milwaukee Police Standard Operating Procedure 130 that prohibits the Milwaukee police from assisting ICE agents in honoring and enforcing ICE agents administrative warrants unless they have a judicial warrant signed by a federal judge.

Chief Morales deserves a new contract, but not until he publicly acknowledges that U.S. ICE administrative warrants will not be honored by the Milwaukee Police Department in taking any city resident into custody in the City of Milwaukee.

According to U.S. ICE, "Under the Immigration and Nationality Act as passed by Congress, ICE detainers, removal orders issued by federal immigration judges, and ICE immigration enforcement in general, is conducted under civil law. The "judicial warrant" demanded by a sheriff (police) only applies to criminal cases and does not exist for civil law matters. "However, for every detainer ICE issues the agency also provides an accompanying administrative warrant, or a warrant of removal along with the detainer, which is the warrant that does exist for matters governed under civil law." The ICE warrants are not legal binding to enter private property to arrest a suspected undocumented individual or a vehicle, which is private property as well, but ICE attempts to deceit the public by making it seem that ICE administrative warrants are legal to execute on private property and force a Sheriff's Department or Police Department to turn over an individual. Law enforcement agencies do neglect to honor such ICE detainers and administrative warrants to avoid being liable by an individual due to the non legal binding ICE warrants and detainers. 

In other words, ICE warrants are issued for civil violations of immigration law, not criminal charges. They are also sometimes called “administrative warrants.” An “ICE warrant” is not a real warrant. It is not reviewed by a judge or any neutral party to determine if it is based on probable cause. An ICE warrant directs various federal immigration enforcement agents to arrest the person named in the warrant. Because it is not issued by a judge, an ICE warrant does not give the immigration enforcement officer the authority to demand entry to a home or private space in order to make the arrest. ICE warrants do not generally provide a basis for a local or state law enforcement officer or agency (LEA) to arrest or detain anyone. (Immigration Legal Resource Center - ILRC)