The Milwaukee Police Department under Police Chief Morales including the Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission have failed to hold police officers accountable when engaging in illegal acts on the field.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
June 17, 2020
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - So far, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales and the Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission (F&PC) have failed to take any disciplinary action or to hold multiple police officers including supervisors from the Milwaukee Police District Station 2 accountable in connection with the September 23, 2019 frivolous arrest by police officers of Jose Alejandro de la Cruz-Espinoza, 38, an undocumented immigrant in the Southside of Milwaukee involving multiple rogue U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
To date, the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) hasn't released any information about the outcome of the De la Cruz-Espinoza investigation into the frivilous arrest by police and ICE fiasco, in which Police Chief Morales even tried to wrongfully justify De la Cruz-Espinoza's arrest by claiming during an October 2019 F&PC hearing that ICE agents had a federal warrant for De la Cruz-Espinoza, but as it turned out, ICE didn't have a legal judicial warrant signed by a judge to arrest him instead they had a federal ICE administrative warrant signed by an ICE agent making it invalid to arrest a suspected undocumented immigrant in a private property setting such as inside a vehicle or residence.
In brief, if ICE agents on September 23, 2019 had an active federal warrant signed by a judge to take De la Cruz-Espinosa into custody, why would police actually arrest De la Cruz-Espinosa instead after contacting his Wisconsin Department of Corrections Probation Officer Minerva Santiago-Gomez to revoke his probation for a prior misdemeanor conviction for carrying a conceal gun. At the time De la Cruz-Espinosa was taken into custody by police in the Southside of Milwaukee for a frivolous probation violation, he didn't have any active warrants, according to state court records.
Chief Morales in his testimony during the F&PC hearing in 2019 stated, that "The Milwaukee Police Department responded to a request for assistance from law enforcement officers from ICE on September 23, 2019. Officers assisted ICE in the apprehension of Mr. Jose De la Cruz who was in violation of probation and had an active federal warrant. Just want to clear the air, that Mr. De la Cruz has a criminal history of fire arms possession, delivery of control substance, battery, receiving stolen property, disorderly conduct and obstructing. Milwaukee police officers were able to engage in active dialogue with Mr. De la Cruz, which deescalated the situation and allowed them to take him into custody without incident."
"The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) does not engage in sweeps, there were no sweeps (immigration) in the last two years. This was assisting another law enforcement agency to make an arrest. An arrest that would have been made regardless, if you are a U.S. Citizen or not."
When police arrested De la Cruz-Espinosa, they immediately turn him over to ICE agents at the scene without any due process for the state probation violation.
Kristine De la Cruz told Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) that De la Cruz-Espinosa's lawyer confirmed that there was no active judicial federal warrant for her husband at the time of his arrest.
According to Ilrc dot com, "An ICE (administrative) 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. Federal regulations allow a specific list of federal immigration agents to execute administrative immigration arrest warrants."
A video taken by members from Voces de la Frontera when the incident occurred in September 2019 showed that police nor ICE agents had warrants and De la Cruz's wife even made it clear that when ICE agents were asked to show a warrant for her husband, ICE agents refused to show a legal judicial warrant signed by a judge, simply because they had none.
Today, Police Chief Morales is up for a 6 months review by the F&PC to keep his job, but Morales lack of taking any action to discipline officers or to hold those officers and supervisors involved accountable for the De la Cruz-Espinosa incident in 2019 draws scrutiny and questions on whether Morales should continue as Chief of Police.
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