EDITORIAL: Wisconsin farms are unsafe (from ICE) workplaces

If squads of ICE agents raided Wisconsin workplaces to detain undocumented workers for deportation, some large dairy farms would likely be forced out of business and milk production in the state would decrease significantly.

Last week’s Ozaukee Press Good Living section featured a native of Colombia who is the UW-Extension’s dairy educator for a four-county area including Ozaukee. As part of his work, Manuel Peña writes a dairy agriculture newsletter. The newsletter is bilingual, he said, because “more than 80% of the farm workers in Wisconsin speak Spanish.”

Undocumented immigrants, mostly Hispanics, make up as much as 70% of the Wisconsin dairy farm workforce, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Workers.

A number of Wisconsin’s large dairy operations could not function without workers who are not legal U.S. residents. Most of the workers had visas that expired or were canceled.

The Trump administration has said that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement forces executing its mass deportation orders are prioritizing the capture of undocumented immigrants who are criminals. Recent raids on businesses with high numbers of immigrant workers, including a garment factory in California and construction sites in Florida, cast doubt on that claim. 

Records of ICE detentions show that most of the people who have been detained have no criminal record. According to data compiled by TRACreports, 71% of the 56,397 immigrants detained as of June 15 have not been charged with or convicted of crimes. Many of the other detainees have a record of only minor offenses, such as traffic violations.

Research by the Cato Institute found that 93% of immigrants detained by ICE since October 2024 had no convictions for violent offenses.

The picture is pretty clear: President Trump’s campaign promise was that millions of immigrants without legal status would be deported, and the border czar he appointed and his ICE enforcers are under pressure to keep that promise by rounding up undocumented immigrants wherever they can find them. The places where they work in large numbers are easy targets.

Identifying, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes is a reasonable policy. Even if the number of such individuals is not as great as the “millions and millions” the president has claimed, the possibility that there are many who were allowed to remain in the U.S. after committing crimes can be added to the list of Biden administration immigration blunders.

  But indiscriminate deportation of people who are not legal U.S. residents is an immigration policy that is both inhumane and contrary to the social and economic well being of society as a whole. 

The notion, promoted by deportation zealots such as presidential adviser Stephen Miller, that every person in the country without documented permission to be here is a criminal is a transparent ruse. Living in the U.S. without documentation is a civil, not criminal, violation. 

Nonetheless, as in a case in Wisconsin that drew nationwide attention, it is used as the justification for seeking to deport people like the woman born in El Salvador who lived in Milwaukee for 14 years and was a respected member of the community working as teacher’s aide while raising twin daughters.

There are estimated to be 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S. and, according to credible demographic reporting, most are responsible, contributing residents of their adopted country. Most are here to work—for the universal human goal of a better life for their families—and employers are happy to have them. 

Far from taking the jobs of American citizens, these immigrants, with and without visas, do the work that not enough native-born Americans are willing to do to sustain the nation’s economy. The construction, agriculture and meat processing industries, in particular, would struggle to get along without them.

For their part, these “guest” workers pay taxes that help pay the cost of American government and schools ($100 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, according to the Tax Policy Center). They support Social Security and Medicare with their paycheck contributions but cannot receive those benefits themselves.

Workplace raids, including some recorded in news videos showing masked ICE agents forcefully seizing and handcuffing workers, keep political campaign promises at the expense of the American economy.

If the ICE squads target the dairy workforce, Wisconsin will see that first hand.

  Rep. Glenn Grothman, who represents Ozaukee County as part of the Sixth Congressional District, sent a message to constituents informing them that “June is Dairy Month, and no one does dairy like Wisconsin!” 

He added, “I’m proud to stand with our nation’s dairy farmers in Congress. Agriculture is a significant contributor to our economy, and we must keep it strong to ensure our farmers can thrive for generations to come.”

The congressman is a devoted supporter of his party leader’s deportation campaign. Will he be standing with dairy farmers when ICE agents come for their workers?