Galo Suárez, 25, was in a car near the El Rey Food Market on 13th St. in Milwaukee with his fiance Reyna Elizabeth Garcia and her brother Teodoro last weekend, when they realized they were being followed. A truck stopped in front of them and four more pulled up behind them. Suárez, related the experience  in Spanish as members of Voces de la Frontera translated during a Tuesday press conference. He said  masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began breaking their car windows and threatened them with “several heavy consequences” if they didn’t comply. 

“They had guns pointed at us,” Suárez said, as he sat beside other witnesses of ICE arrests, Voces de la Frontera leaders and local elected officials at the Voces office in Milwaukee. “They didn’t ask us for our names, they didn’t ask us for an I.D. They took us violently out of the car.” His fiance was put against the car “in a very violent way” said Suárez. The agents called her a dog, he said, and told her “that is what happens to you.”

The encounter was not an anomaly. As of Tuesday, Voces de la Frontera’s hotline had corroborated 26-28 ICE detentions over the last few days in Wisconsin. “We know that many of the people are being held in Dodge, Waukesha County, Chicago-Maywood, Kentucky, Miami, Florida,” Voces said in a statement. Even as the press conference played out, two more confirmed ICE reports came in from Fitchburg, a suburb of Madison.

Some detainees have serious medical conditions, Voces director Christine Neumann-Ortiz said, adding that the detentions have been traumatic. She said Voces has documented four cases of excessive use of force and two cases of people who were crime victims actively going through legal proceedings when they were detained by ICE. “One of which is a U-Visa applicant, that is not supposed to be deportable,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in an email statement that ICE arrested “39 illegal aliens” in Wisconsin over the weekend, stating that “many of them” had criminal histories including sexual assault, driving under the influence, obstructing police, domestic abuse, property damage, “dangerous drug possession,” and other crimes. The spokesperson said that all detainees receive due process, and that pending applications for protected status or asylum “do not confer legal status in this country.”

Neumann-Ortiz called this “a targeted ICE surge” hitting “working-class families” including those seeking asylum from violence in their home countries and people with Temporary Protected Status. The “overwhelming majority” of the people ICE has swept up in Wisconsin over the last several days have no criminal record, Neumann-Ortiz said, though some have deportation orders. Voces is partnering with the Community Immigration Law Center to review cases, help families locate their loved ones and to prepare legal support.

Violence, insults and trauma from federal agents

Suárez said that he and his family were handcuffed by agents who refused to tell them where they were going and would not allow them to speak. “They said I didn’t have the right to know anything, “perro” — dog,” said Suárez, his words translated into English by Alexandra Guevara, communications director for Voces de la Frontera. “We stopped at a parking lot. They took my belongings. They took my wallet, found my working permit. They were trying to force me to say it was fake. I insisted that it was real and that he could check online, so he did.” Most of the agents behaved this way, Suárez told Wisconsin Examiner. 

He kept asking the agents about his fiance, as they had been separated by the agents. “The agents said that she definitely would be detained and not come back yet,” he said. When one of the agents found his documentation and said he’d be freed, another reneged the assurance because they also wanted to look for drugs among his belongings. When the agents questioned why he had money in his wallet, Suárez said it’s because he works. They checked the work permit again, said, “You’re a good person,” and agreed to release him. They took the cuffs off and told him to “run and not look back, because if I looked back I would regret it.” 

His fiance, who also has a work permit, and her brother were kept in detention. Although Suárez has been able to contact his fiance, who was taken to Kenosha, he hasn’t been able to find her brother. “We don’t know where he is,” said Suárez. 

Jacqueline Eckstrom, a resident of the suburban city of Greenfield, witnessed another arrest. On Friday afternoon she has just left a market where she was buying  food  when she saw SUVs with Illinois license plates blocking the road. She chose to park behind the vehicles instead of driving into oncoming traffic. “They did have police vests, but they also had masks,” Eckstrom said, adding that she knows Milwaukee well enough to know that police officers don’t wear masks. “They proceeded, they smashed the window of the car and grabbed the mom aggressively out of the car. And it all happened real quickly, and they took off.” 

Eckstrom remembers crying children, and walking up to the car’s broken window. “There’s shards of glass everywhere,” she said, “and there’s two kids in the backseat.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.  Eckstrom recalled that “the sister was hugging her brother. It broke my heart.” Neumann-Ortiz translated Eckstrom’s words, her voice also strained with emotion. Eckstrom recalled meeting a child  whose mother had been deported and who came through her foster home a decade ago. “He had trauma, but he never watched his mom smashed and grabbed out the car,” said Eckstrom. “I can’t get it out my mind, this weekend, the trauma that these kids are going to think, with someone wearing police vests, that’s not the police, with masks on their head, taking their mom.”

 

 

A neighbor and the fiance of Estenderly Marte Polanco, from the Dominican Republic, also spoke at the Voces office Tuesday. Polanco was arrested on Saturday. The neighbor said she’d gotten a call from her 11-year-old son, who was crying because he didn’t know how to console Polanco’s distraught son, who was in the backseat when agents removed his mother from the car. Her neighbor said that Polaco fainted at one point, and that she was telling agents they were hurting her as she was taken to the car. The arrest was captured on video. 

The masked agents took the keys and made the father and the son walk home. The neighbor said she’d lived near Polanco for two years, and sees her as a dedicated mother who is not a threat to the community. Her fiance called her “a very good person” and said the arrest has been “very devastating for our family.” She added that the agents busted Polanco’s lip, threw her on the ground, called her names and choked her. “They had her face in between her legs where she couldn’t breath,” Polanco’s fiance said, stating that she had to bite one of them to make him let her go.

The sister of a Nicaraguan man who was arrested on Friday also spoke at the press conference. She said that her brother has kidney disease and is sick. “It’s a serious problem,” the woman said in Spanish as Guevara translated. She described him as a shy, hard worker who supports his kids and takes care of his mother. She said that she has been trying desperately to reach him. “He is in urgent need of medicine or his kidneys could collapse and he could even die,” Guevara translated. “He really needs special attention and special food.” The arrest has devastated his family and his sister. Unsure of what to do, they are begging for assistance.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said that ICE agents are trained to use “the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations,” and that agents prioritize the safety of detainees, the public and officers. All use of force incidents are documented and subject to review, the spokesperson said. Although the spokesperson said that detainees get “comprehensive medical care,” deaths in ICE custody in 2026 are outpacing those from 2025, when 32 people died, making it the worst year for deaths in ICE custody in two decades. 

Broken trust and promises with Milwaukee PD and sheriff 

Like Neumann-Ortiz, Milwaukee city Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic and Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez — who also attended the Tuesday press conference — became emotional while listening to the stories of witnesses. Dimitrijevic shook her head, looking disgusted. Neumann-Ortiz cried at one point, and Martinez looked weary and sad. 

Video of the arrests shows ICE agents violating the city’s prohibition on law enforcement wearing masks. The prohibition is part of Milwaukee’s “ICE Out Package,” which local officials passed almost unanimously after watching the scenes of violence during the ICE surge in Minnesota.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said that such local orders are unconstitutional, that federal law trumps state or local laws, and that agents wear masks to protect themselves and their families from “real-world threats,” claiming that assaults on agents are up more than 1,300%, vehicular attacks by more than 3,300%, and death threats death threats by 8,000%. Dimitrijevic said that masked agents are unidentifiable and are terrifying to local residents.

Dimitrijevic said that the recent arrests do not make the city safer. She also said that city officials were shocked to learn that some of ICE’s activities were filmed taking place at a Milwaukee Police Department station. “We didn’t believe it, we couldn’t believe it,” she said. Not only did the ICE Out Package prohibit that sort of thing from happening, but MPD has its own long-standing policy of not cooperating with or participating in immigration enforcement in order to preserve the community’s trust in local law enforcement. 

An MPD spokesperson confirmed that ICE agents used the District 2 station on Milwaukee’s South Side. The spokesperson said that MPD has asked ICE to not use the parking lot, and that the department did not know in advance that ICE would be using it. MPD also said that no one, including the district’s command staff, gave ICE permission to use the parking lot or allowed them in. 

Suárez said that he was confused by the use of MPD facilities by ICE. “It’s very confusing to think that they’re taking us to a parking spot that is the police’s parking spot,” said Suárez, as Guevara translated, recalling his arrest. “And knowing that they’re not supposed to collaborate, but all of a sudden we’re there in front of that area. And so it does make me think and wonder if they’re not really collaborating.”

 

 

Martinez said that the county board learned that ICE had staged in a county park, violating a local ordinance. Sheriff Denita Ball said that she only found out after the fact, and that deputies will communicate to ICE in the future that the agency can’t stage in the parks. 

Martinez urged residents to continue documenting these instances so that the county can sue ICE in the future for not complying with local ordinances. 

“These are kind of small things that we’re trying to get done,” said Martinez. “Not allowing them in our parks is the idea here to slow them down or stop what they’re doing to terrorize our communities as much as possible. Just hearing these stories…My brain is a little bit scrambled right now. I feel like we’re not dealing with people. I feel like we’re dealing with some kind of entity that’s just here to terrorize, and disrupt, and break apart our way of life.” 

Dimitrijevic said that moving forward the city will need to trust what MPD says about ICE activity, but also verify it. “And there is now going to be more questions and an investigation into what happened, who knew, etc.” She told the Examiner. Martinez said he’s been skeptical of law enforcement ever since officers pulled guns on him when he was 11 years old. “I would hope that they would do what they’re supposed to do,” he told the Examiner. “And all I can do is just keep pushing and making sure that they’re going to do what they’re going to do.”

He also rejected a suggestion  from a reporter that  the ICE Out Package was a bad idea and put a target on the city. Pointing to President Donald Trump’s promises of a mass deportation campaign, and internal ICE memos saying that judicial warrants aren’t needed to enter homes, and other examples, Martinez said, “We had to prepare for what was coming and what we were going to be dealing with.”

A Homeland Security spokesperson said that “being in detention is a choice.” The agency encouraged “all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App,” adding that immigrants without documents are being offered $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport. “We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

Neumann-Ortiz said that ICE needs to be abolished. “It’s a fairly new agency,” and yet it has a “long record of functioning like a rogue agency,” she said. 

She said ICE has been one of the worst agencies in terms of oversight and accountability. “And I think that has just reached its most extreme level, and clearly the priorities are not safety. It is white nationalist ideology, and it’s using violence to enforce this,” Neumann-Ortiz said. She called for comprehensive  immigration reform and said Wisconsin’s political importance is also a reason why the surge is happening now.

“I want people to know that they are lying,” Suárez told the Examiner. “They’re saying that they are only detaining criminals, but the truth is my fiance and her brother are good people, they’re hardworking, they have no record, and those lies are being used against us and to confuse us.”

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Credibility is central to the criminal justice system.

Who is telling the truth? Who do jurors and judges believe? 

A year ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch published the Milwaukee County district attorney’s list of law enforcement officers with integrity violations, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges. 

It was the first time the full list had been made public. 

Prosecutors must share information about witness credibility, including that of police officers, with defense attorneys. Then the attorneys decide if they want to try to raise those credibility concerns in court. 

Often called the “Brady/Giglio list” because of landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, the list is meant to help ensure people get a fair trial and prevent wrongful convictions. 

Since the list was published last year, local defense attorneys say they’ve noticed prosecutors giving more frequent Brady notifications. But they argue that Milwaukee County’s criteria of what gets an officer on the list remains too narrow – excluding officers who should qualify – and that there is still too much inconsistency among county prosecutors about when and how they share Brady material. 

District Attorney Kent Lovern said his office has always fulfilled its legal and ethical obligations, but he acknowledged making changes to improve the list’s accuracy. The most significant was appointing two executive staff members to help maintain the list.

The first list his office released to reporters in September 2024 had inaccurate, incomplete and outdated information.

Some examples: an officer wrongly described as involved in a custody death, another listed for a criminal case that had been expunged, and others listed with the wrong agency. A handful of officers were deceased.

A new list, released in October 2025, did not have those kinds of problems.

“We put more eyes on the list that were beyond my two eyes,” Lovern said, adding: “We think that’s enhanced, at least, the information, making it as current as possible.” 

In the last year, the District Attorney’s Office added 13 officers and removed two. Most of those officers were added because of internal, not criminal, investigations, and about half remain employed with their agency, according to public records. 

For Caitlin Firer, a defense attorney, the public list has served as a backstop.  

“If I’m watching a body camera and it’s striking me as something’s not right, I will run that officer’s name on the Brady list,” she told TMJ4 News, later adding: “It’s a resource now where we see those names, and we know they’re on the Brady list.” 

Last year, the city’s largest police union, the Milwaukee Police Association, criticized the district attorney’s decision to release the list and news organizations’ decision to publish it. Others in policing praised the transparency. 

“We’re given so much more credibility and respect when we take the stand as opposed to the average citizen,” said David Thomas, a Maryland-based policing consultant and expert.

The Brady list, he said, “goes to the very question of integrity.” 

District attorney’s office using same strict criteria to add officers to the list

What has not changed is the strict criteria used to get an officer on the list. 

Officers are added only if they have a pending criminal charge, a past conviction or an internal investigation “that brings into question the officer’s integrity.” 

Experts told the Journal Sentinel last year the policy appeared improperly narrow and omitted other potential Brady material, including when a judge finds an officer not credible. 

Lovern stood by that practice. His office still does not track those judicial decisions, commonly known as adverse credibility rulings. 

“Credibility determinations, which are frequently made by courts, don’t constitute judgments of untruthfulness,” he said in a recent interview. 

When prosecutors are weighing whether to call an officer to testify, it makes sense to distinguish between overt dishonesty and credibility rulings, said Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, in an interview last month. 

But an officer who was found not credible in court still belongs on the Brady list, she said.

“An officer who has misstated information in his police report, that’s exculpatory regardless of whether the officer intended to do it,” Moran said.

With long internal investigations, it can be years before an officer lands on the list

If an officer is referred to prosecutors for a potential criminal charge, he or she is placed on the Brady list immediately. 

But when it comes to internal investigations, police departments often notify prosecutors at the end of the process, if an officer is found to have broken any department rules.

That can leave a gap. 

Milwaukee police officer Eian West was added to the list in 2025, two years after he and three other officers came under investigation for their response to two domestic violence calls days apart that involved the same couple.  

The officers were accused of failing to make mandatory arrests or file prompt reports, despite the woman saying the man had threatened her with a gun and tried to set her on fire, according to department records. 

West and another officer went to the second call, on April 11, 2023, after two witnesses reported a man beating a woman in a front yard. The officers called her an ambulance.

Later that day, the woman woke up in the hospital and called Police District 4, prompting a sergeant to send two different officers to reinterview the woman and file a report.

Two days after that, the woman had a miscarriage.

Internal affairs asked West why he waited until his next shift, on April 12, after the other officers had been dispatched, to write his report. West’s report also listed the woman as the suspect and did not document the fact that she lived with the man, which is one of the elements of domestic violence, according to a summary from internal affairs.

West maintained he “was not trying to cover up that he was sent to a battery (domestic violence) and did not file it,” police records show.

Still, the officer agreed that he had violated the core value of integrity because he was not completely honest and accurate about all relevant facts in the case, the records say. 

The domestic violence calls took place in April 2023. Internal affairs interviewed West that July. But the internal investigation did not end until 2025, and only after that was West added to the Brady list.

During those two years, prosecutors did not know his integrity was under question in an investigation that ultimately resulted in a 20-day suspension. 

Since prosecutors did not know, they could not disclose it to defense attorneys. 

Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman acknowledged it sometimes takes years to complete internal investigations, depending on the complexity. 

“We are not trying to delay for delay’s sake,” Norman said in an interview. “It is unfortunate that we have a number of investigations on our plate.”

More urgent internal investigations, such as police shootings, can take priority, and the department must respect the officers’ due process and collective bargaining rights, the chief said.

Angel Johnson, a regional attorney manager with the State Public Defenders Office in Milwaukee, said that the office’s clients also have rights. 

“If there’s an officer that has credibility issues and they’re going to testify in a proceeding against my client, (my clients) have the same right to due process,” she said. 

Why some officers were removed from the Brady list

The Brady list is fluid. 

As officers come on, others come off. 

Kenton Burtch and Elric Erving, both of the Milwaukee Police Department, were removed in the last year. 

Erving was investigated for disorderly conduct in 2019. No criminal charges were filed, and his name came off the list, Lovern said. 

Burtch was accused of improperly filing his time card and claiming an estimated $1,700 he was not owed. He was demoted from sergeant and suspended for six days.

He appealed to the city’s Fire and Police Commission, which found the situation was a mistake related to the officer’s remote work arrangement and confusion over how to handle it. The commission overturned his discipline, finding “no indication or evidence of intentional misconduct,” and restored his rank. 

Because of that, Lovern said, his name came off the list. 

In the past, Lovern has removed officers who complete deferred prosecution agreements or who win appeals to get their jobs back. 

Some defense attorneys have argued that officers should only rarely, if ever, come off the Brady list.  

“Once you’re placed on the Brady list, if you continue to testify in court, you should not be removed,” Johnson said. 

As of September 2025, the list had 217 entries involving 190 individual officers. The district attorney’s office released the list in October in response to a public records request. Reporters filed records requests to gather more information about new individuals on the list. Some of those requests remain pending. 

In the months since, the list continues to change. For example, the district attorney’s office added a Milwaukee officer recently charged with accessing sensitive license plate data for personal reasons, despite tagging the purpose of his searches as “investigation.”

It was not the first time the officer, Josue Ayala, had been accused of dishonesty on the job, with one defense attorney even telling a federal prosecutor that Ayala exaggerated so much that it seemed to be a “compulsion,” the Journal Sentinel previously reported. Ayala has since resigned.

Defense attorneys continue to rely on media reports, decisions from the city’s Fire and Police Commission and civil lawsuit judgments to identify officers with questionable credibility – and that’s a problem, Johnson said. 

“It should be happening from the DA’s office, but we are still finding ourselves doing that legwork and it’s not our obligation or ethical duty to do so,” she said.

This story is part of Duty to Disclose, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch. The Fund for Investigative Journalism provided financial support for this project.

Milwaukee County’s list of officers with integrity issues became public. What’s happened since? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A federal lawsuit filed Feb. 23 by the legal nonprofit group Protect Democracy alleges the Department of Homeland Security used facial recognition technology unlawfully to track legal observers and label them domestic terrorists. 

In Milwaukee County, law enforcement representatives are addressing facial recognition technology-related fears from residents. They’re concerned about a potential collaboration with a company called Biometrica, which provides access to facial recognition search results.  

In August, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball signed an “agreement of intent” to enter into a contract with Biometrica, said James Burnett, director of public affairs and community engagement and acting chief of staff at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. 

“But the contract is still considered to be in draft form – not fully signed, executed or valid – and has to proceed, like any other proposed contract, through the county’s statutory signing process,” Burnett said. 

There currently are no services or technology being provided by Biometrica, and Biometrica does not have access to any sheriff’s office data, Burnett said.

County Supervisor Sky Capriolo, member of the county’s Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee, said she and residents have serious concerns.  

“It warrants more consideration, education and discussion,” Capriolo said. “I certainly am not ready to green-light a contract.”

Capriolo said she’s waiting to hear whether the contract will go to her committee again. 

Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman took a different step and banned the use of facial technology by his department in early February. 

On Feb. 24, Norman announced the suspension of MPD officer Josue Ayala for the improper use of a different tracking tool, the Flock camera system, to track a dating partner and a former partner. 

“I am extremely disappointed to learn about the incident and expect all members, sworn and civilian, to demonstrate the highest ethical standards in the performance of their duties,” said Norman in a statement.

Ayala was charged by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office with one count of attempted misconduct in public office. Norman said he immediately directed MPD to create additional auditing mechanisms.

Concerns remain high

Social justice and civil rights advocates have expressed grave concerns about the use of the technology by both agencies, citing evidence of inaccuracies, racial bias and privacy violations. 

Facial recognition technology uses artificial intelligence to identify someone by comparing a photo of an unknown face to some database of images of known faces, said Katie Kinsey at the Feb. 5 Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission meeting during a presentation by the NYU Policing Project. 

The image databases can include mug shot collections, driver’s license records or images found on the internet, Kinsey said.

Facial recognition technology and local law enforcement

In spring, MPD acknowledged it used outside agencies’ licenses for facial recognition search results for two to three years without a written department policy.

The department also announced it was considering an agreement with Biometrica – an agreement that would have provided access to facial recognition technology to the department in exchange for approximately 2.5 million Milwaukee County Jail booking photos.

This proposal prompted months of public pushback before the announcement by Norman in February that the department would no longer pursue the technology.

ACLU preaches vigilance

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin welcomed Norman’s announcement but also expressed concerns about MPD’s past decision making.  

It is “extremely concerning that MPD secretly used FRT (facial recognition technology) searches for years without any standard operating procedure – or any written guidelines – in place,” an ACLU spokesperson said in an email to NNS.

The organization is urging Milwaukee residents to remain vigilant.

“Countless Milwaukee residents and community leaders have engaged in thoughtful community education, spent hours upon hours in public meetings and contacted their local elected officials to voice their unequivocal opposition to the use of (facial recognition technology), and they will still be watching,” the spokesperson said. 

The MPD spokesperson told NNS the department could revisit the issue in the future when a policy is in place that aligns with both public safety benefit and public concerns.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Milwaukee law enforcement faces growing scrutiny around facial recognition technology use is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.