When Joshua Liston-Zawadi’s wife, Symphony, delivered their fourth child, Harlem, at home, the 31-year-old felt excluded.
The midwife would check on Symphony frequently, but not him.
That experience prompted him to do something for the fathers.
In 2021, Joshua launched Dad Doula University to provide non-birthing parents with free workshops on emotional changes, pregnancy and personal growth.
“As you go through becoming a parent, no one educates the non-birthing people or men on how to navigate changes within yourself,” Joshua said.
Doulas are certified individuals who provide emotional, physical and informational support during the prenatal, birthing and postpartum process.
From struggles to lessons
Symphony and midwife Dr. Lakeeta Watts encouraged Joshua to take his struggles and turn them into lessons for others.
Symphony helped create curricula, co-facilitate sessions and coordinate, while Watts provided Joshua with certified doula training.
“To see him commit to supporting other families in his unique way has been a pleasure to watch and support,” Symphony said.
A male perspective
Watts noticed Joshua often stepping back to elevate women’s voices in different environments but reminded him that his perspective matters, too.
“I told him that even though that’s very honorable of him, we often lose the voice of men in these spaces as well,” Watts said.
Dad Doula University initially started as a virtual program via Zoom and Clubhouse because of the COVID pandemic.
The program eventually secured a spot inside the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace, 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., Milwaukee, where in-person sessions are held.
(Joshua said the virtual option is still being offered to dads seeking support abroad.)
“Any dad who needs support, regardless of where you are, I got you,” Joshua said.
A safe space for dads
Among the participants of Dad Doula University is 34-year-old Markus Thompson, a single dad of two daughters who joined the program to connect with other fathers.
Thompson described the program as a great emotional space to release anxiety, fears and self-doubt.
“The men I was around were there during the times I felt alone,” Thompson said.
Throughout the program, Joshua taught Thompson about a birthing plan, a document created before labor to tell hospital staff one’s preferences on how the birthing should go.
“I teach men that it’s their job to be in charge of this process, and the only way they can do that is if they involve the person that they’re caring for,” Joshua said.
Thompson said the birth plan included things you’d never think of like whether the mother wants music during labor or how to advocate for her when she can’t herself.
“Raising children isn’t a one-parent thing,” he said.
Thompson is now a 2025 alumnus of Dad Doula University’s two-week program and encourages other dads to join.
At the end of the program, graduates get a certificate, take their first family photo and receive free baby essentials and a year’s supply of diapers.
For fathers hesitant about seeking support during pregnancy, Joshua lives by a motto that says: “If I’m not OK, then nothing I touch will be.”
After passing through the suburbs of Milwaukee, Eric “Shake” James realized there was a lack of bikes in Milwaukee’s underserved communities, prompting him to launch an annual bike giveaway called “Black on the Block.”
James gave away 500 bikes on June 21 at 1935 W. Hampton Ave., along with free resources and food for families.
James realized North Side children lacked exercise opportunities when he saw suburban children in Whitefish Bay and Oak Creek had tons of bikes and bike racks at their schools.
“Those kids are riding to school, but when you come to the inner city, the kids here are getting to school solely on buses, and childhood obesity is like a real thing,” James said.
The giveaway was organized by JAY Academy, his nonprofit organization that provides wellness, arts education, professional development and more to support Milwaukee youths.
Community support boosts efforts
Each year the quantity of bikes has increased by 100. To get the bikes, James partnered with local organizations like Bader Philanthropies Inc. and received donations from community members like UFC fighter Montel Jackson.
“Montel saw me at Walmart getting the bikes, and he just gave me $5,000 right there on the spot and told me he liked what I was doing,” James said.
Additional support came from Ald. Andrea Pratt and Mayor Cavalier Jonhson, who have visited the event before and helped promote it.
Those in need
During the bike giveaway, Dannetta Jones and her two daughters, 12-year-old Iyanna and 9-year-old Tianna, returned to get new bikes.
Dannetta hopes that her daughters and other children take care of their new bikes.
“Last year, their bikes got torn up fast,” Dannetta said.
Tianna felt bad when there was a hole in her tire after letting her cousin ride it, and no one would share theirs with her.
“I didn’t like that it was messed up, so I really wanted a new one,” Tianna said.
Tianna plans to visit her cousin’s house with her new bike.
More than just a bike
For Iyanna, she sees her new bike as a new form of transportation and a sense of independence as she typically goes to her local store and rides alone.
“I’m excited to have this new bike because I can go anywhere now without having to walk,” Iyanna said.
“It’s a gift that someone got for me and I’m thankful for it,” Iyanna said.
James finds joy seeing the children receive their bikes because he thinks it’s better than being on the phone or a video game.
“They got to get outside and start enjoying all these different things that the city of Milwaukee has to offer,” James said.
Better resources for a new generation
Alecia Ball is a McGovern Park resident who brought her three grandchildren to the bike giveaway. She has full custody of them because of the death of their mother.
Ball’s grandchildren had toys at home but no bikes. Initially, she aimed to purchase one for them, but found out about the event through Facebook.
Ball hopes that all the children actually use the bikes and have fun with them as they’re receiving resources she never had.
“When I was raised, we didn’t have any assistance like this, so this free giveaway makes a difference in the community,” Ball said.
Plans to improve
James has plans to expand the giveaway by arranging a neighborhood group ride for the children by next year.
In addition, James is seeking help to promote bike safety for the children by bringing back free helmets.
During the first year of the giveaway, helmets came with the bikes, but they were excluded in later giveaways because of costs.
“I’m trying to find somebody to deal with, with the helmet situation, because those run about $20 to $40,” James said.
According to James, “Black on the Block” is his second-largest event where hundreds of people are in line waiting for something good.
James wants parents to know that he understands their situation and wants what’s best for the children.
“I know it’s tough right now, but we’re going to fight our way through it together,” James said.
The Social Development Commission, or SDC, is asking the federal government to reverse a decision made by the state that could alter the anti-poverty agency’s funding options.
Here’s what we know.
The community action decision
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families decided in May to remove the SDC’s community action agency status, effective July 3.
Although the department believes SDC has not been operating anti-poverty services since it shut down in April 2024, despite reopening in December, SDC’s leaders have said the state did not follow the proper process to make this decision.
Without this designation, SDC will not be eligible for a Community Services Block Grant, which is a small portion of its budget but significant to its efforts to pay back employees and rebuild its service programs.
How does a federal review work?
When a state decides to rescind community action status or the related block grant funding from a local agency, the agency can request a review from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services within 30 days.
SDC submitted a request for a review of the state’s community action decision to the department on June 9, citing concerns about due process.
The Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, will evaluate if the state’s determination process followed the guidanceon the termination or reduction of funding for entities eligible for the Community Services Block Grant, according to a spokesperson from the department.
The Division of Community Assistance, which is part of the Office of Community Services within the federal department, oversees block grant funding for community action agencies.
“I think that HHS is concerned about the process that was used to de-designate SDC, and so my expectation is that they will be talking to the state about the process,” said William Sulton, SDC’s attorney.
The Department of Children and Families received notification on June 11 from the Office of Community Services that SDC requested a review, but did not receive the request itself, according to Gina Paige, communications director for the department.
The review will be completed within 90 days of receiving all required documentation from the state, according to federal law. If not completed in the 90-day time frame, the state’s decision will be upheld.
As part of the request, SDC is asking the Department of Health and Human Services for direct financial assistance.
According to the CSBG Act, if a state violates the de-designation process – by terminating or reducing funding of an eligible entity before the state hearing and the secretary’s review – the Health and Human Services secretary is authorized to provide financial assistance to the entity affected until the violation is corrected.
SDC’s concerns
SDC raised two main concerns with the state’s determination process in the request, based on state and federal laws.
The first concern is that the public hearing on SDC’s community action status, held by the Department of Children and Families on April 4, did not meet the legal requirements of a “hearing on the record.”
“You’re supposed to be permitted to call witnesses and present evidence,” Sulton said. “… We were given seven minutes to make a speech, and that was it.”
SDC also says that both the Department of Children and Families’ secretary and the legislative bodies of the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would have to sign off on the decision, based on a state statute that requires the legislative body that initially granted the agency community action status to approve rescinding it.
“They didn’t go out and get position statements from the city and the county’s legislative bodies,” Sulton said.
The department did not comment on these claims. (Paige previously said it has worked closely with the Office of Community Services and Milwaukee County to determine the process needed to move forward with de-designating SDC.)
Although Milwaukee County’s Office of Corporation Counsel submitted a letter to say it found no records of the Board of Supervisors taking action on SDC’s status as a community action agency, Sulton said that doesn’t mean there are no records.
He argues that this provision of the law, added in 1983, was put in place to protect SDC from arbitrary state action.
Funding deadline
In May, three state lawmakers asked SDC to consider voluntarily de-designating, which would allow the state and Milwaukee County to more quickly find an interim service provider to use SDC’s allocated funds in Milwaukee County.
The $1.18 million in 2024 block grant funding could be recouped by the federal government if not spent by Sept. 30, 2025, according to the Department of Children and Families.
However, Sulton said when he reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services before filing the review, an employee told him the 2024 funds had to be obligated by 2026.
“To the extent that anybody has the impression that this money has to be obligated by September or it’ll be lost, HHS says it’s not the case,” he said.
States and subrecipients usually have two years to distribute funds, but it depends on state-specific policies, according to HHS.
The state’s Sept. 30 deadline marks two years after the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year in October 2023, according to Paige.
Though Paige said that SDC’s request for review is perpetuating the lack of services in Milwaukee County, she added that the department plans to seek a six-month liquidation extension from the federal government.
“It’s quite possible that we’re gonna be on a really tight timeline to get that money out the door, so that’s why we’re hoping that we can work with the federal government and see if they can allow us an extension to expend it a little bit longer,” Paige said.
Board member changes
The SDC board added two commissioners in May – Milwaukee Public Schools appointed Michael Harris, and the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee appointed Peter Fetzer, an attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP.
In the last seven months, the SDC board has expanded from three to 10 commissioners, thanks to several appointments to vacant seats. The board is designed to have 18 members at full capacity.
Commissioner Lucero Ayala’s term has ended, according to Sulton. Ayala was nominated and selected last year to fill the remainder of Serina Chavez’s term as an elected commissioner.
Like the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), the sheriff's office is considering acquiring facial recognition applications from the company Biometrica, but civil liberties advocates are raising concerns about the technology. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin is calling on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to reconsider plans to adopt the use of facial recognition technology. Like the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), the sheriff’s office is considering acquiring facial recognition technology from the company Biometrica. The company has offered MPD free access in exchange for 2.5 million images, jail records, and other related data of people who have passed through Milwaukee’s criminal justice system, including many who presumably haven’t been convicted of a crime.
“Given all the public opposition we’ve seen to the Milwaukee Police Department’s push to expand their use of facial recognition, the news of the Sheriffs office’s interest in acquiring this technology is deeply concerning,” Amanda Merkwae, advocacy director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, wrote in a statement for an ACLU press release. “Law enforcement’s use of facial recognition software poses a number of serious threats to civil rights and civil liberties, making it dangerous both when it fails and when it functions.”
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Just days ago, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball revealed that her office was looking into adopting facial recognition software. Ball told county supervisors during a June 17 meeting of the Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and General Services Committee Urban Milwaukee reported, that she was assessing a data-sharing agreement for the technology. MCSO did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Like MPD, the sheriff’s office is exploring an agreement with Biometrica, a company which has pushed back against concerns about privacy and the use of its surveillance tools. Biometrica offers a third-party facial recognition algorithm to agencies like the Milwaukee police and the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office states that rather than using the technology for untargeted surveillance, it aims to use facial recognition software to identify people once investigators have an image of a criminal suspect. Ball says that facial recognition would never be the sole basis for an arrest or charges, Urban Milwaukee reported.
On Thursday, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors will vote on a resolution requiring the creation of a regulatory process for adopting facial recognition technology. Both at the county and city government meetings, however, law enforcement agencies have been met with public skepticism about their exploration of facial recognition technologies.
Tension bubbled up during a hearing before the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission last week. Police department Inspector Paul Lough said that facial recognition could provide important leads for investigations similar to those derived from confidential informants and information databases used to run names. During the hearing, MPD officials presented examples of cases in which facial recognition technology helped solve crimes. “Whether or not they would’ve…may or may not have been solved without the use of facial rec., it’s hard to say,” said Lough. “Some probably would have been, some might still be open. But the important part of it is that all of the ones that we’re going to go over are very predatory in nature where there’s exigent circumstances to solve them quickly.”
MPD Capt. James Hutchinson went over two investigations from March 2024 which utilized facial recognition technology. One involved a drive-by shooting, where a passing car opened fire on a pedestrian, who died on the scene. Hutchinson explained that MPD obtained images from surveillance cameras, which were then sent to partner agencies with the ability to run facial recognition requests. Within 16 hours, the police captain told the commission, a potential suspect had been identified.
“We don’t know who they are when we get those pictures back, but we have ways of vetting that information, confirming the identification provided to us,” said Hutchinson. “And that’s what we did in this case.” Unique tattoos helped narrow the search to a man who was wearing a GPS bracelet. When officers went to conduct an arrest, they found two alleged shooters, their guns and the car they are believed to have used. Hutchinson said that a trial is pending for both suspects arrested in that case.
Facial recognition was also used in a sexual assault case, which occurred two days before the shooting. A victim had been followed home in the rain by a man offering her his umbrella, and asking for money. He mentioned that he’d already tried asking for money at a nearby gas station. As they walked, he held a gun to her head and forced her into a garage where he assaulted her. Officers were able to locate the garage with the victim’s help using Google Maps, and later the gas station the man had mentioned before. Surveillance camera photos potentially capturing the man were sent to other agencies for facial recognition assistance, which came back with images of a man who was on probation for sexual assault. He was identified both by the probation agent and the victim, and was sentenced to 20 years of incarceration.
MPD listed 13 additional cases where it used facial recognition, including a string of taco truck robberies on Milwaukee’s South Side involving a group of masked assailants. Although they appeared careful to cover their faces, one suspect let his mask down briefly, which was seen by a camera, and sent to a partner agency for identification. In that case, three to four potential suspects were identified by the technology, each with a certain percentage of certainty such as 97%, 95% and so on. After further investigation, detectives identified those responsible for the taco truck robberies as people flagged by the facial recognition search with the lowest percentage of certainty.
The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. A surveillance van, or “critical response vehicle” is in the background. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
During public testimony, several people expressed concerns about the accuracy of facial recognition technology. Facial recognition software has been shown to have trouble identifying non-white faces, and is prone to errors particularly when identifying people of color. Some feared that defendants might have trouble learning how facial recognition was used in their cases, and felt that police oversight was lacking. Others pointed to the 2.5 million images MPD would give to Biometrica in exchange for the software licenses, and argued that such a move would only further harm community trust in the police. Because the images include mugshots, it’s possible that people whose images were included in that transaction will not be convicted of a crime after being arrested or detained at the jail for a period of time. Other questions included what access federal agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), would have to MPD’s facial recognition system.
“As we recently found, MPD has been using facial recognition technology on the faces of Milwaukeeans for years, without being transparent with the public or the FPC,” Krissie Fung, a member of the Milwaukee Turners and Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission (FPC), said during public testimony. “Because there’s no standard operating procedure to provide guidelines around their process, relying on MPD to follow their own gentlemen’s agreements and internal process is just not how oversight works.”
Fung also said MPD Chief Jeffrey Norman acknowledged when he was reappointed that there is no way to guarantee the safety of the data and faces of Milwaukeeans, and that the data would be going to a third-party company the city does not oversee and which uses algorithms the city will not be able to access. “MPD’s proposal is to trade 2.5 million mugshots in exchange for this license which, by the way, includes my mugshot,” said Fung. “I believe that there are serious legal concerns that have not yet played out in the courts, and that would open us up to significant lawsuits.”
The Milwaukee County Courthouse. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
“I cannot help but wonder if the reason Biometrica is so thirsty to trade 2.5 million ‘jail records or mugshots’ in exchange for free access to this technology, is that they assume that those jail records are Black faces, and they clearly need more Black faces to train their inaccurate algorithm,” Fung added. “But we don’t need to let them get those Black faces from Milwaukee.”
“I don’t know a single person in this city that trusts the police,” said Ron Jansen, who has testified about law enforcement at previous city and county meetings. “So the last thing Milwaukee needs to do is hand this department a tool that creates even greater opportunity to harm the people of this city.”
“This is not free,” Jansen added. “… the cost is 2.5 million mugshots of residents, non-residents, whatever. Anybody who’s been through the system here in Milwaukee…2.5 million human beings…Human beings, maybe half of which or more, were never convicted of a crime. This includes people who were wrongfully arrested, or accused, or just anyone who was ever booked into their custody. And while I was writing this, I thought, ‘that also includes people who’ve already been victimized by this department.’ People who have been beaten by the police. People who have been wrongfully accused by the police. This is your biological data, my biological data, everyone’s biological data, and it is being sold to a private company without your consent, all so that they can expand their surveillance network.”
Jansen asserted that the millions of images could include protesters, teachers, even state Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), who was wrongfully arrested by MPD during a curfew. “His arrest record is likely in there,” said Jansen. He also raised the 2025 case of officer Juwon Madlock, who used his access to police databases to pass intelligence about confidential informants and the home addresses of targets to gangs searching out rivals. “If this is already happening, imagine what will happen when their abilities get expanded,” said Jansen.
As the Milwaukee Police Department moves to expand its use of facial recognition technology, a June report from the federal government finds this technology continues to disproportionately misidentify people of color.
Elected officials and civil rights groups have been raising this concern as a clear reason why MPD’s plan should be paused or rejected entirely.
MPD says there are ways to address this limitation.
The Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission on Wednesday, June 18, will hold a public meeting to assess potential discrimination-related risks.
The report
In 2019, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology released a major report evaluating how demographics affect outcomes in facial recognition systems.
The report found skin color and ethnicity often had an effect.
With domestic law enforcement images, for example, the system most often led to false positives – when someone is incorrectly identified – for American Indians. Rates were also elevated for African American and Asian populations.
On June 2, the agency issued a report showing that facial recognition systems were more likely to mistake people from predominantly darker-skinned regions for someone else. This included people from sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean, compared with people from Europe and Central Asia.
Higher rates of misidentifications for people of color raise concerns that facial recognition could lead to more wrongful stops and arrests by police.
MPD’s plan
MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough, speaking during an April meeting of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, said the department has used facial recognition technology in the past in coordination with other police departments.
She stressed its crime-fighting benefits.
“Facial recognition technology is a valuable tool in solving crimes and increasing public safety,” Hough said.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson supports the use of this technology for the same reason, Jeff Fleming, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, wrote in an email.
“Identifying, apprehending and bringing to justice criminals in our city does reduce crime,” Fleming wrote.
During the commission meeting, Paul Lau, who oversees MPD’s criminal investigations bureau, said the department is considering an official agreement with a company called Biometrica.
“We anticipate this usually being used by our detective bureau in the investigation of major violent felonies,” Lau said.
Community response
Emilio De Torre, executive director of Milwaukee Turners, cited some of the 2019 federal findings in an op-ed, arguing that “entrusting facial recognition to routine policing is not public safety; it is an avoidable risk that history shows will fall hardest on Black Milwaukeeans.”
Milwaukee Turners is one of 19 organizations that sent a letter to the Milwaukee Common Council expressing concerns about surveillance technology. The letter urges the council to adopt an ordinance ensuring community participation in deciding if and how it is used.
Some members of the Common Council have come out in strong opposition to MPD’s plan as well.
“It’s both embarrassing and dangerous for false positives to occur at such a high rate,” Alderman José G. Pérez, Common Council president, told NNS.
Such flaws would likely lead to due process violations, he said.
Addressing flaws
Hough said MPD knows there are people in the community who are “very leery” of police using this technology, adding that their “concerns about civil liberties are important.”
“I want to make it very clear: Facial recognition on its own is never enough. It requires human analysis and additional investigation.”
MPD is committed to a “thoughtful, intentional and mindful” policy that considers community input, Hough said.
Lau said MPD will look into racial bias training provided by Biometrica, and people using the technology will need to have training on best practices.
The company says errors identified in 2019 stemmed from several flaws that can be countered with, for example, anti-bias training for analysts who review facial recognition alerts.
Who gets to decide?
Since Wisconsin Act 12, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman is free to develop any official policy he chooses. The Common Council has the only formal check that exists.
By a two-thirds vote – or 10 of Milwaukee’s 15 aldermen – the council can block or modify MPD policies. But it must wait for a policy to be officially implemented.
The state Legislature could pass a statewide ban or restrictions, and the Common Council could adopt an ordinance regulating or banning its use.
Alderman Alex Brower told NNS he will be doing everything in his power, as a member of the Common Council, to oppose MPD’s acquisition of facial recognition technology.
What residents can do
People will have an opportunity to share their opinions about MPD’s plan – for and against – at an upcoming meeting of the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission.
Commission members will use testimony about facial recognition to help determine the discrimination-related risks it may pose, said Tony Snell, chair of the commission.
“We want to listen to as many people as possible,” Snell said.
The commission can make recommendations to the Common Council, the mayor, MPD and the Fire and Police Commission.
The commission meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, at Milwaukee City Hall, 200 E. Wells St.
Those who wish to speak must register by emailing ERC@milwaukee.gov. Each speaker will have up to three minutes. People can also send written testimony to this email address so it can be included in the public record.
Yessenia Ruano as she prepares to self-deport to El Salvador (Photo courtesy of Voces de la Frontera)
A Milwaukee teacher’s aide has decided to self-deport back to El Salvador, following moves by the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to remove her from the country. Yessenia Ruano, who worked at the Academia de Lenguaje y Bellas Artes bilingual school in Milwaukee, is the mother of 10-year-old twin girls. Although the girls were born in the United States, Ruano took her daughters with her back to El Salvador on Tuesday, choosing to self-deport and keep her family intact rather than being forcibly removed by ICE.
On Friday, federal immigration officials denied Ruano’s request for an emergency stay, which would have halted the government’s attempts to remove her while her visa application was considered, WPR reported. Ruano’s attorney Marc Chirstopher said that ICE gave a one-sentence rationale for denying the stay.
Christopher said that ICE officials claimed that Ruano “did not warrant a favorable exercise of discretion.”
“Quite frankly, if she doesn’t warrant it, I don’t know who does.” Christopher said. Ruano did not have a criminal record. She crossed the southern border in 2011 to escape gang violence after local gang members murdered her brother. Christopher added that “she’s very involved in the community,” as a teacher’s aide for kindergarten teachers, owns her own house and pays taxes into a safety net system she is not eligible to access.
“I am extremely disappointed in ICE’s decision to deny an emergency stay for my constituent Yessenia Ruano,” U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) said in a statement. “It is outright cruel to force a human trafficking victim to return to the place she was fleeing from.” Ruano was applying for a T-visa, which confers legal status on victims of human trafficking. “T-visas are meant for people like Yessenia, but sadly, she wasn’t even given the chance to have her case heard,” said Moore. “Yessenia is a wonderful person and her and [her] children’s removal from Milwaukee will be a loss to our community.”
Ruano received a letter telling her to self-deport on June 3, spurring condemnation from Milwaukee residents, immigrant rights advocates and elected leaders. At the time, Ruano’s attorneys said that it appeared that ICE was abandoning policies of waiting for T and U visas — which protect victims of trafficking and crime victims who are cooperating with law enforcement— to be processed.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley wrote on the social media website X that “deporting valued members of our community who are raising and educating our kids, assisting law enforcement in their important work, and giving back to our neighborhoods should alarm us all. It is wrong and unjust.” Crowley added that “these individuals are victims of a broken immigration system. The Trump Administration told the country they were only going after ‘the worst of the worst’. But time and time again, we see them targeting the very people who contribute the most — our neighbors, coworkers, our friends.” The county executive warned that “I am deeply alarmed that our country continues to turn its back on our most vulnerable. By not standing up and protecting our neighbors, we’re not just failing them — we’re failing our entire community. Due process is under attack, and that should concern all of us in Wisconsin and across the country.”
During a May 30 hearing, ICE officials told Ruano to self-deport by June 3. During that hearing her attorneys filed for an emergency stay, beginning a wait-period of several weeks until a decision was finally made, WPR reported. Attorney Christopher said that few emergency stays are being granted under the second Trump administration.
Earlier this month, the Milwaukee Common Council released a statement opposing Ruano’s impending deportation, and held 14 minutes of silence to honor her 14 years in the United States. “Yessenia has developed roots here,” the council stated. “She is a wife with two Milwaukee-born daughters. She is an educator. She is a volunteer. She is a contributing member of our society. All of us should be outraged by this decision and what it means for Yessenia and her family, and other immigrants who could be facing similar fates.”
“If there is one thing this case has made crystal clear,” the statement continued, “it’s that the immigration laws and systems in our country are broken, and the administration at the federal level is more concerned with scapegoating hard working immigrants than fixing the process so it is fair and works for everyone.”
Before Christopher took on Ruano as a client about two months ago, Ruano had paid over $14,000 in legal fees to file the T-visa application to a different team of Ohio-based attorneys.
“From what I’ve been seeing consistently through other cases and hearing from other attorneys, they’re not granting hardly any stays for anyone really,” said Christopher. “I am more than positive that she would have been able to remain in the U.S. while the T-visa was pending…under previous administrations.”
Despite arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Milwaukee County Courthouse complex, many county officials want residents to know that courthouse services remain available regardless of citizenship status.
Israel Ramón, the Milwaukee County register of deeds, sees access to his office at the courthouse as a fundamental right of every resident in the county.
“I work for 950,000 people,” Ramón said.
What is a register of deeds?
When people think of essential county services, the register of deeds might not come to mind. But Ramón has a way of making his office sound impossible to live without.
If people want to drive a car, prove legal identity, apply for Social Security or access food benefits in Milwaukee County, among other tasks, they need documents maintained by Ramón’s office.
When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, the register of deeds was established as one of a handful of constitutional county offices – positions created by the state constitution and filled by local elections.
Like a sheriff or a judge, people needed a register of deeds to help organize aspects of their daily lives.
It’s the same today, Ramón said.
“Most of the time, people don’t think that my office impacts their lives. But from birth to death and throughout their tenure in the county – my office does it all.”
Ramón’s office issues birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates – documents known as vital records.
His office also records and archives real property documents for Milwaukee County. Real property includes real estate – the physical land and buildings – as well as the legal rights associated with owning, using and transferring it.
Altogether, Ramón said his office maintains an archive of about 12 million documents.
Access to courthouse complex
All residents of Milwaukee County, Ramón argues, deserve access to these records – regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or immigration status.
If, for example, an undocumented mother needs to obtain a birth certificate for her U.S.-born son to enroll him in school, she has the same right to that document as any other parent, according to Ramón.
These arrests also threaten access to the full range of services offered in the complex, said Alan Chavoya, outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racism & Political Repression, a community group critical of the immigration policies of the Trump administration.
“People don’t realize that this complex actually houses so many different services,” Chavoya said. “The county supervisors are here. People pay some taxes here. I served jury duty here.”
“A restraining order – you’re supposed to be able to get help here to file one,” he added. “People who might need one but have mixed status probably aren’t going to come here to get one, right?”
ICE at the courthouse
The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution on April 24 calling on the county executive, chief judge and sheriff to work together to ensure access to courthouse services.
However, the resolution does not impose any new restrictions on immigration enforcement.
Ramón remains focused on what he can do. He said he will ask anyone not conducting official business in his office to leave, including ICE agents without a judicial warrant.
A judicial warrant allows officers to make arrests in both private and public areas, while administrative warrants – typically used for immigration-related arrests – permit arrests only in public areas.
As a constitutional officer, the register of deeds has authority over how services are provided, in accordance with state and federal laws, said a spokesperson from the Milwaukee County Executive’s Office.
Failing to remove barriers that prevent people from accessing his office, including fear of immigration enforcement, would mean failing to uphold the oath of office he took, Ramón said.
This includes legal documents such as power-of-attorney forms, which people fearing family separation can use to ensure someone else is able to legally care for their children or manage their finances.
But, again, Ramón makes clear that this service is for every resident of the county.
In addition to what he sees as his public duties, he draws on his personal background to underscore his commitment to accessibility.
He told NNS he is a U.S. citizen born in Mexico, the first Latino constitutional officer in Wisconsin and one of the first openly LGBTQ+ ones.
Gesturing to the LGBTQ+, U.S. and Mexican flags displayed on his bookshelf, Ramón said, “That’s who I am.”
For more information
Milwaukee County residents can request records in person, online or by phone, depending on the type of record.
As they hit the streets, members of 414LIFE, a community and hospital-based violence intervention program, know their efforts could literally mean the difference between life and death.
That theory was put to the test recently when 414LIFE members showed up to diffuse a neighborhood dispute that also involved law enforcement officers on Milwaukee’s North Side. If not for that intervention, Lynn Lewis, executive director of 414LIFE, believes the incident could have ended in tragedy.
“Frontline workers go into situations where emotions are high, where people are riled up and thinking about retaliation,” Lewis said.
As temperature rises, so can violence
Lewis said her 414LIFE team of 15 violence interrupters and outreach workers has hit the streets hard in recent weeks, responding to an uptick in violence.
“There have been about seven shootings and four homicides in the last 72 hours,” Lewis said during a community pop-up recently near Milwaukee Fire Station 5 on the North Side.
Reggie Moore is the director of violence prevention policy and engagement at the Comprehensive Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, which implements the program for the city of Milwaukee.
He said shootings over the past three weeks have kept the 414LIFE team busy.
Many of the shootings, he said, involved interfamily conflict or intimate partner violence. And while the violence typically rises with the temperature, Moore said, it’s the sheer volume of guns on the streets that presents the biggest problem.
“The presence of a firearm increases the risk of arguments or conflicts resulting in serious injuries or death,” he said. “People are losing their lives and freedom over a moment of anger.
“Our team along with our partners have been working around the clock responding to scenes and hospitals to support impacted families and neighborhoods.”
‘Life is bigger than just the hood’
Lewis said the group held several pop-ups recently along with staff from Credible Messengers, a Milwaukee County violence intervention program. One was at Tiefenthaler Park, 2501 W. Galena St., where a shooting occurred after a vigil recently.
“We talk to people in hot spots like that about the need to change up before they end up incarcerated or dead,” Lewis said. “We need to stop the bleeding.”
The interrupters are well versed in the street lifestyle, having lived through the same challenges that people in the community face now.
One message they share, whether it’s with youths or adults, Lewis said, “is that life is bigger than just the hood.”
They talk about goals and share resources such as information on jobs, food and other programs to help the people they serve build social capital and eventually change their attitudes toward gun violence, she said.
“Milwaukee, we need to stop shooting and start healing,” Lewis said.
Community violence intervention programs like 414 LIFE take a public health approach to reducing violence and improving community safety, Moore said.
He said the 414LIFE program, which was inspired by the Blueprint for Peace, is the longest community violence intervention program in Milwaukee.
“Our colleagues at Froedtert Hospital are also feeling the weight of these shootings just as much as our street teams on the front line,” Moore said. “Working in the streets and hospitals, 414LIFE has been engaging with families and others impacted by shootings across the city.”
The 414LIFE community team was involved in 49 conflict mediations in 2024, with nearly 90% being resolved, Moore said during a May 22 presentation on the program to the Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee.
The team spent 1,388 hours on conflict resolution activities and 2,678 hours on behavior and community norm change activities and worked with 25 youths in 2024.
Aside from mediations, team members also have active caseloads of individuals referred to them by hospitals, the Office of Community Wellness and Safety and individuals they’ve met during outreach.
Data from 414LIFE’s April monthly report shows that caseloads have increased recently, from 36 in January to 50 in April. The team has logged more than 1,200 hours so far this year on behavior change and public accompaniment efforts and more than 100 hours on direct violence intervention.
Evidence of the program’s effectiveness, according to Moore, is that last year’s 414LIFE priority neighborhood, Old North Milwaukee, experienced a 31% decrease in homicides and a 6% decrease in nonfatal shootings in 2024, based on data from the Milwaukee Police Department.
So far this year, homicides are down 50% and nonfatal shootings 43% in Old North Milwaukee.
During his presentation to the Public Safety and Health Committee, Moore said each homicide in Milwaukee costs the city more than $2 million in hospital, criminal investigation, incarceration and other costs, while each shooting costs the city over half a million dollars.
Who are 414LIFE members?
While lived experience helps 414LIFE’s street team talk the talk and walk the walk, it’s the extensive training the members receive that gives them the tools to walk into a volatile situation to prevent bloodshed.
Lewis said her team operates under the Cure Violence model, which works to reduce the risk of retaliation, revictimization and other community violence through credible messengers.
To strengthen those skills, each member goes through the Academy for Transformational Change training, which uses a community asset approach to serve neighborhoods most impacted by crime and incarceration.
Members also receive shooting response, Narcan, Stop the Bleed, Mental Health First Aid and other training, she said.
“The team is highly trained,” Lewis said. “They also have passion and grit.”
Challenges for violence interruption programs
While violence interruption efforts continue in Milwaukee, funding cuts, particularly at the federal level, threaten the future of violence prevention programming.
According to a report by the Council on Criminal Justice, the Trump administration has cut federal funding for community safety and violence intervention programming by more than $168 million.
David Muhammad, deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services for Milwaukee County, addresses a crowd last month. (Edgar Mendez / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
“This work is under attack,” said David Muhammad, deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services for Milwaukee County, during a pop-up event. “We have to fight for the resources we have.”
In addition to 414LIFE and other local community violence intervention programs, a key to help maintain the reduction of violence that Milwaukee has experienced over the past two years is residents, Moore said.
“Peace starts with the people, and we must ensure that firearms are securely stored and not accessible to individuals prohibited from having them,” he said.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz (left) stands with Anna Morales, daughter of Ramon Morales Reyes'. (Photo courtesy of Voces de la Frontera)
Ramón Morales Reyes, a 54-year-old Mexican-born man living in Milwaukee who was framed for writing a letter threatening President Donald Trump, has been granted a $7,500 bond by an immigration judge. The news came early Tuesday morning, as immigrant rights advocates from Voces de la Frontera held a press conference to call on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to clear Morales Reyes’ name, and issue a retraction of a press release denouncing him for threatening the president’s life.
Morales Reyes’ daughter Anna joined Voces executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz on the press call and became emotional at the news of her father’s release. “I’m so very grateful, thank you so much,” said Anna, who spoke during the virtual press conference but did not appear on camera. Since DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued a press statement describing Morales Reyes as an “illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump,” his family has received online harassment and death threats.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
“I’ve always been my dad’s little girl who grew up with a hardworking dad that always was making sure his family has food on the table, having a roof over our heads,” said Anna Morales. “He loved to take us to the park every weekend and go for walks as a family.” She recalled cookouts with her dad, who worked as a dishwasher in Milwaukee for the last nine years. Morales lamented that her father is now facing the threat of deportation based on false accusations. “He is not a criminal. He is a hardworking man, a provider, and most importantly a father who holds family together,” she said. “Without my dad, me and my siblings wouldn’t be where we are today — his sacrifice and his drive to give us a better life.”
“If he were taken from us, it wouldn’t just be a financial loss, it would be an emotional one that we honestly don’t know how to recover from,” she added. “My siblings and I rely on him not just for the roof over our heads or food on the table, but for his presence, his advice, and the way he keeps our family united.”
“My dad is not a threat to anyone. He is a good man who got caught up in a terrible situation.”
Despite the decision to release Morales Reyes, after the real author of the letter threatening Trump confessed that he had tried to frame Morales Reyes to prevent him from testifying against him in a criminal trial, the Department of Homeland Security has not removed a press release from its website accusing Morales Reyes of being the author of the letter.
Ramón Morales Reyes during his virtual bond hearing. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded to Morales Reyes’ release on bond, saying, “while this criminal illegal alien is no longer under investigation for threats against the President, he is in the country illegally with previous arrests for felony hit and run, criminal damage to property, and disorderly conduct with domestic abuse. The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and fulfilling the President’s mandate to deport illegal aliens. DHS will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country.” In 1996, Morales Reyes was arrested for a hit and run and property damage, but was not charged. In another 1996 incident he was ticketed for disorderly conduct and criminal damage after a dispute with his wife in which no one was injured, NPR reported.
“It’s a disgrace that we have a government that is promoting false information of a very serious nature against a man who is a victim of a crime, and has been falsely accused,” Neumann-Ortiz told Wisconsin Examiner.
Morales Reyes’ family does not feel safe, Neumann-Ortiz said. “This just shows that this administration is not interested in safety. They’re interested in this propaganda campaign to demonize immigrants, and to do with them whatever they will, to accuse them of anything and put them in jail and throw away the key.”
Protesters gather to support Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Just before the bond hearing, attorney Cane Oulahan, who represented Morales Reyes during immigration proceedings, said that he was hoping for a “just result, which would be for Ramón to get out on a fair bond and rejoin his family, so they can start to heal from all the trauma they’ve been through.” Oulahan thanked Anna Morales for her bravery in coming forward with a statement Tuesday morning. The attorney said that factors which the judge would consider, including danger to the community and flight risk, were low for Morales Reyes. “I think it’s clear that Ramón is not a dangerous person at all,” said Oulahan. “It’s been over 30 years since he’s had any minor incidents, he’s a responsible husband and father, hard worker, someone who contributes to our community.”
Oulahan said that Morales Reyes had no reason to be considered a flight risk. “He’s got every interest in staying here,” said Oulahan. “I mean, he’s been here almost 40 years. He has family here, this is his home, and he’s actively cooperating in a U-Visa investigation still, and so he has every reason to show up for his hearings.” A U-Visa is a form of immigration relief intended to encourage crime victims to cooperate with law enforcement investigations and court proceedings, while also providing a path to permanent residency.
Neumann-Ortiz said in a statement that the bond decision was “a meaningful victory not only for Ramón and his family but for our entire community.” The decision she added, “reflects the courage and strength of community organizing, solidarity, and collective action. We thank all who stood with Ramón, and we urge continued support as the process ahead remains long and challenging. We also continue to demand that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fully clear Ramón’s name and correct the false allegations against him.”
Morales Reyes was the victim of an attempted armed robbery in September 2023. The man accused of the attempted robbery, Demetric Scott, told investigators that he penned a letter claiming to be Morales Reyes and threatening to use a large caliber rifle to assassinate Trump. Scott believed that the letter would result in Morales Reyes’ deportation, and prevent him from testifying against Scott in court.
Protesters gather outside the Milwaukee FBI office holding pro-immigration signs. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Morales Reyes was born in a rural part of Mexico where he received very little formal education. He cannot speak English, and cannot read or write proficiently. The letter penned by Scott and later elevated by Noem’s press release was neatly written in fluent English. CNN reported that after he was arrested by immigration agents, Morales Reyes was questioned by detectives from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), who had already suspected that someone was setting him up to be deported.
Scott claimed that he carried out the plan to get Morales Reyes deported on his own, without any assistance. He has now been charged with identity theft and felony witness intimidation. Because Scott admitted to forging the letter, Oulahan said that he didn’t expect the letter to be relevant to the judge during Morales Reyes’ bond hearing.
A staff member for U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) read a letter from Moore during the virtual press conference. Morales Reyes lives in Moore’s district and Moore visited him in the Dodge County Jail. Moore has issued a letter requesting DHS to retract the accusations against Morales Reyes and remove Noem’s statement claiming that he threatened to assassinate Trump from the DHS website.
The Milwaukee County Jail. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Another potential riot at the Milwaukee County Jail was quelled by guards in April, Wisconsin Examiner has learned through open records requests. On April 12, correctional officers were notified of a “mass refusal,” with jail residents refusing to enter their cells. One occupant was placed on administrative segregation for attempting to incite a riot, according to emails obtained by Wisconsin Examiner.
This marks the second known instance this year that unrest has occurred within the jail. Emails sent by Sgt. Tiawana Thompson indicate that at about 12:30 pm on April 12, Officer Brenden Zollicoffer radioed the jail’s master control to report the mass refusal. According to the email exchange, Thompson arrived with Officer Billy Howled and saw that additional Milwaukee County Sheriff Office (MCSO) personnel were already responding to POD 5D, where the refusal was occurring.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
“I noticed occupants either running to their cells, laying down, or standing at their cells,” Thompson wrote in the email, adding that personnel advised that occupant Corey Kirkwood had “incited a riot by closing all cell doors not allowing inmates to get into their cells.” Kirkwood, who was charged in January with sexual assault and trafficking of a minor, was one of several jail residents who appear to have been transferred to other parts of the facility after the April unrest.
Thompson’s email also reported that “due to this action, occupant Kirkwood will be placed on administrative segregation (Ad-seg), pending discipline as well as being an ongoing investigation.” Another officer was tasked with completing a rules violation report, the email stated.
The Milwaukee sheriff did not respond to questions about the incident and whether Kirkwood remains in administrative segregation, or how he was able to control whether cell doors were open or closed.
Ten days after the mass refusal, MCSO Correctional Captain Kerry Turner emailed Sgt. Thompson and asked whether paperwork for those moved to administrative segregation had been finished. Turner asked, “Also, have all violations been completed and signed off on by a supervisor? Have the occupants all received a copy of their violation? Please let me know the status of these concerns of mine.”
It’s unclear what triggered this particular mass refusal incident. Another potential riot was quelled by jail staff in mid-February after one jail occupant, 49-year-old Keenan Brown, allegedly attempted to incite a riot by “shouting to the entire housing unit that the inmates needed to stick up for themselves and that they would not be taken seriously until they started assaulting staff.” Jail staff had learned that Brown used his jail-issued tablet to contact his mother, urging her to reach out to Fox6. When jail staff talked to Brown, he said jail residents weren’t being let out of their cells enough, and that their rights were being violated. At least 20 people were transferred to other parts of the jail after that incident as well.
During the late summer of 2023, nearly 30 jail residents were charged with disorderly conduct after they barricaded themselves in a library area and refused to return to their cells. The mass action was done to protest “dissatisfaction with their gymnasium time coming to an end and expressing that, generally, they wanted more ‘open’ recreational time,” according to an MCSO press release issued weeks after the unrest occurred.
The jail has come under increasing scrutiny under multiple sheriffs in recent years. Over a 14-month period from 2022 to 2023, six people died in custody at the jail. In late May, 33-year-old Gabriel Muniz-Jimenez became the second person to die in 2025. A third party audit detected severe problems with the physical condition of the jail’s booking areas, housing units, use of force policies and practices for monitoring people placed on suicide watch. A recent review by the auditor, the Texas-based company Creative Corrections, found the jail to be in compliance with 71.2% of proposed corrective actions, with another 28.8% being in partial compliance.
The aftermath of the battle between the 28th Division and German troops in Gathemo, France, in August, 1944. (Screenshot from National Archives film)
The liberation of Gathemo, France, won’t be found in many history books about the Second World War.
After all, it was one town among hundreds on a map that needed to be taken from the occupying Germans in the slow, methodical, grinding Battle of Normandy that began on D-Day: June 6, 1944. That’s when the Allies landed soldiers on five beaches and airborne troops dropped behind enemy lines as part of the war to wrest Europe from Nazi Germany.
Public perception may condense what happened after the invasion into simple terms: The Allies landed, established a beachhead and the fight was over. Tragically, it did not all end in a matter of days and the cost was steep – nearly 210,000 Allied casualties, and around 400,000 German losses.
American soldiers head ashore during the D-Day Invasion of the French Coast. Troops ahead are lying flat to avoid German machine-gun fire. (National Archives)
Throughout the summer, the Allies pushed the German Army back through tiny villages, cities, farmland, hedgerows and plains in a war of attrition. U.S., British, Canadian, and other allied forces gained ground – sometimes only in mere yards — each day.
By August, the Germans were retreating and desperately attempting to avoid becoming encircled. Gathemo soon found itself in the midst of the maelstrom.
For the first time in the war, Pennsylvania’s own 28th Infantry Division was leading the way to try to liberate the town, flanked by the veteran 4th and 29th divisions.
Two soldiers from the 28th Division walk amid the ruins of Gathemo, France, in August 1944. (Screenshot of National Archives film)
The men and women of Gathemo have never forgotten the men who wore the red keystone patch – dubbed the “bloody bucket” by the Germans – on their shoulders.
Nearly 81 years later, the community will show its gratitude on Saturday by unveiling a memorial honoring nine men from the 28th who gave their lives so Gathemo could be free and are renaming a street after the division.
At a time when international relations are tense and some American leaders are questioning alliances in Europe, the gesture is a reminder of how deep the bond runs between the French and their liberators. And the commemoration that will take place Saturday began because one man wondered what happened to his great-uncle in the war.
He could never have imagined where his search would lead.
‘Filling in the blanks’
Fifty-year-old Shaun Nadolny doesn’t have any ties to Pennsylvania.
The assistant airport operations manager for Milwaukee County in Wisconsin is a self-described history lover, whose grandfather Leo Nadolny fought in the Pacific Theater with the Marines against the Japanese.
Shaun Nadolny’s dad, born four years after the war ended in 1949, was named after Leo’s brother Jerome Francis, who was one of nine men killed in Gathemo. The two brothers never knew each other’s whereabouts while in combat, so Leo didn’t learn about Jerome’s death for nearly a year.
Letters from his parents informing him about the loss weren’t reaching him, so tragically, he kept asking about his brother when writing home.
Pvt. 1st Class Jerome Nadolny, 109th Inf. Regt. 28th ID, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was killed in Gathemo, France, in August 1944. (Courtesy of Shaun Nadolny)
Like most families at the time, the Nadolnys didn’t know much about Jerome’s service, except that he died in France. A family member has the Purple Heart that was issued posthumously.
“I’ve learned a lot about my grandpa, Leo, because in about 2001, I sent a letter to the government saying, ‘As part of the Freedom of Information Act, I was wondering if you could share his military file.’ And they did,” he said.
The packet arrived about 18 months later and provided him with a window into his grandfather’s wartime experiences – where he fought, the battles he survived and even the ships he was transported on in the Pacific.
“It kind of led me down this path about his brother Jerome, that we knew nothing about. We just literally had a picture of his cross on his grave over in Brittany (France), and a picture of him. That’s all my dad ever had,” he said. “He just knew that, ‘Hey, I was named after my uncle who I never met who was killed over in France.’”
About a decade ago, he wrote the government again with a request for Jerome’s military file. He wasn’t as fortunate this time around. The records were believed to have been destroyed in a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis in 1973. It was one of up to 18 million service members’ files lost.
He did receive some basic information: Jerome’s draft enrollment card and where he was originally buried in France before his remains were repatriated in the Brittany American Cemetery.
Another key detail came from a picture of Jerome’s grave marker. He served in the 109th Infantry Regiment, as part of the 28th Infantry Division. Prior to the war, the 28th was a Pennsylvania National Guard unit based at Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County. It was nationalized by the federal government in February 1941.
“I just started kind of looking into that unit in that division,” Nadolny said. “A friend said, ‘Hey man, you’re kind of at a dead end with this research on your great uncle. You should look at a 28th Infantry Facebook group or a family group, because you’re not going to get anything more from the government.’”
Jerome Nadolny’s draft registration card. (Courtesy of Shaun Nadolny)
So in the group, he ended up in touch with a Frenchman, Christophe Clement, who works in logistics. But, his real passion is World War II history. When he was 15 or 16, he would ride his bike from cemetery to cemetery to make sure the graves of Allied soldiers were well kept. He’s studied in Canada to be a historical adviser and volunteers with the Mike Pride Mobile Museum. Clement’s Facebook page is filled with pictures and videos – historical and current – of his efforts to keep the memory of Allied soldiers alive.
But, he has always felt a connection to the men wearing the keystone symbol on their uniforms and helmets. His hometown of Senlis was liberated by the division. During WWI, a soldier from the 28th died there and another five were killed in the same area during the second worldwide conflict.
Clement connected Nadolny with a retired lieutenant colonel from the 28th – Corey Angell, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and who has a passion for documenting the history of his beloved unit.
Angell soon was able to add a few more pieces to the puzzle for Nadolny – Jerome’s company, his death from a gunshot wound and how he was identified by his paybook.
“So, they kind of started filling in just some of the blanks,” Nadolny said. “And all I ever was doing for the last 15 years was just learning a little bit more about my family history.”
‘Just another guy’
Clement had an idea after corresponding with Angell and Nadolny – to build a memorial to the 28th’s fallen in the nondescript town of Gathemo in Normandy. The idea blew Nadolny’s mind. He figured his great-uncle was just a typical grunt doing his job. After all, he wasn’t part of the D-Day landings or some super soldier that earned a chestful of medals.
Christophe Clement holds a WWII-era sign for the French town of Gathemo. (Courtesy of Christophe Clement)
“He’s just another guy. He came after the invasion, and was killed very early in – Aug. 12,” he said. “Nothing heroic about it.”
Nadolny didn’t want his relative to be singled out, so Clement did some digging and learned the names of eight other members of the 28th who were killed in the fight to liberate the townspeople from four years of German occupation.
“When you search for information about soldiers or about combat actions or whatever, it really is like a police inquiry,” Clement said, speaking through a translator.
Clement is an old pro at working to honor the memory of Allied soldiers who paid the ultimate price on French soil. About a dozen years ago, he started working to create monuments to members of the 28th around his part of France.
He will turn 40 on Saturday, the same day as the ceremony, which will have special significance because Clement says it will be the last monument he helps build. Organizing the tributes is becoming increasingly complicated, said Clement, who has worked to preserve the memory of 15 members of the Bloody Bucket who were killed in France during the world wars and an estimated 400 other Allied soldiers.
The Battle
The 28th Infantry Division didn’t enter the conflict until about a month-and-half after D-Day – July 22, 1944 – and landed at Omaha Beach. At that point, the Allies were building momentum toward a breakout inland.
The division found itself in hedgerow country (known to the French as “bocage”).
The fighting across the terrain – made up of farm fields broken up by a series of overgrown hedges and trees that towered above walls of dirt that could reach up to six feet in height— was slow, brutal and hindered any sustained advance.
Six days after arriving on French soil, the 28th suffered its first casualty when an officer was seriously wounded.
But its biggest test to come was in Gathemo, beginning on Aug. 7.
“The 28th Division troops got their first experience in hedgerow warfare during the fighting at Percy and Hill 210, but they faced a far more intense test a week later at Gathemo and Hill 288, just outside the town,” said Walter Zapotoczny an author, Army veteran, former command historian of the 28th Infantry Division and president of the 28th Infantry Division Association.
A cemetery in Gathemo, France, stands amid the ruins of the town in August, 1944. (Courtesy of the National Archives)
Jerome Nadolny and his fellow soldiers in the 109th regiment were among the first American troops moving toward the town around 6:30 a.m. Waiting for them, according to Zapotoczny, was at least half of the German 84th Infantry Division, an 88-mm anti-tank battalion, the 84th Division artillery and other enemy forces.
After hours of heaving fighting and nightfall approaching, three battalions of the 28th dug in – without much forward progress. But, the Germans weren’t done. As the Allies had learned through Africa, Sicily, and Italy, their enemy utilized the counterattack as a favored tactic.
Major Paul F. Gaynor, who was commanding the regimental anti-tank company described what happened next:
Three German tanks accompanied by more than 100 infantrymen came out of Gathemo. The tanks were equipped with searchlights which were used to illuminate the area where the men were digging in. Direct fire from the tanks’ guns and machine guns at ranges of 60 to 75 yards caused heavy casualties. The accompanying infantrymen, who were equipped with a large number of automatic weapons, took advantage of the confusion.
Bazookas were quickly brought into action (by U.S, troops)….the tanks and their infantry support withdrew to Gathemo upon meeting this resistance.”
A soldier with the 28th Division stands amid the ruins of Gathemo, France, in August 1944. (Screenshot from National Archives film)
The next day didn’t yield much gain in ground. The 28th advanced another 300 to 400 yards. The Germans may have been in retreat, but continued to fight tenaciously. It wouldn’t be until the morning of Aug. 10 that American troops entered the town, and by the afternoon Gathemo was liberated.
“The battle of Gathemo caused the greatest losses and the most resistance up to that point in the 28th Division’s experience,” Zapotoczny added, “It was at Gathemo that the 28th Division endured its most brutal battle of the Northern France campaign.”
The cost in and around Gathemo was the lives of nine members of the 28th, including three from Pennsylvania:
An estimated 235 men were wounded.
On Aug. 19, the 77-day Battle of Normandy came to an end with the Germans in full retreat and tens of thousands captured when the Falaise pocket was closed by Allied troops.
“Although not directly involved in the fiercest fighting at Chambois, where Polish and Canadian forces sealed the pocket, the 28th Division’s aggressive advance helped prevent German units from escaping to the east or regrouping, effectively pressing the western and southern flanks of the pocket,” Zapotoczny said.
A mere 10 days after the German defense of Normandy collapsed, the men of the Bloody Bucket were taking part in the liberation day parade throughout Paris.
American troops of the 28th Infantry Division march down the Champs-Élysées, Paris, in the `Victory’ Parade.” Poinsett, Aug. 29, 1944. (Courtesy of the National Archives)
Tracking down the relatives
As plans for the dedication ceremony took shape, Cory Angell, the retired 28th Division officer, continued to try to reach as many families of the nine soldiers killed in Gathemo as possible to give them a chance to attend in-person or watch it online.
He spends his spare time researching photos and videos throughout history of the men and women who served in the country’s oldest Army division.
“We’re kind of a small group, right? A lot of people just retire and move on. There’s some of us that are just diehards and I’m one of them,” Angell said. “I’m an old soldier, retired from the division which I grew up with. Really, the beginning and end of my career was in the division wearing the keystone patch.”
Since Pvt. Irwin S. Fox was from Pittsburgh, he turned his attention to trying to find his relatives.
Military records show Fox enlisted in the Army on Jan. 9, 1944, just months before the invasion. He was assigned to the 110th Infantry Regiment with the 28th Division.
Angell started by Googling the names of the nine soldiers. With Fox, he was able to make a connection to Pittsburgh. He then reached out to the Heinz History Center, who put him in touch with the Pittsburgh Jewish Genealogy Society.
“The guy said, ‘Last I can tell, that family moved to Columbus, Ohio. Let me put you in touch with a guy for Jewish history in Columbus, Ohio.’ And that’s how they go, ‘Yeah, we got him. Here’s her phone number.’”
Soon, he was on the phone with Evelyn Fox Weiner, Irwin’s 89-year-old niece.
“What was a real joy to me and I hope that all those that are involved can really appreciate it when we do find the family members, the three that we found have been amazed and thrilled,” Angell said. “People are like, ‘What? You’re kidding me.’”
‘My grandmother became a Gold Star mother’
Fox was a first-generation American. His grandfather was from Ukraine and his grandmother grew up in Latvia. He graduated from Schenley High School in Pittsburgh’s North Oakland neighborhood. His mom, dad, sister and brother eventually moved to Squirrel Hill. He was married to Josephine Greenberg. A picture from 1944 shows a striking couple – Josephine sporting a knee-length skirt and a clean-shaven Irwin in uniform with his right arm casually, but firmly around her hip.
He was 29 when he died in combat.
“He was very loving and nice,” said Weiner. “He was revered enough that my family had another son who was named after him.”
His namesake, Irwin S. Fox, is 77-years-old and lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife.
He didn’t know much about his uncle until about 1964, when he came across some old photos.
“All I knew was that he was killed shortly after D-Day. I didn’t know any of the details until I saw the gravestone,” Fox said. The headstone is marked with his uncle’s date of death, Aug. 13, 1944. “I just knew from history that he was in hedgerow country in France.”
Irwin Fox and his wife recorded a message on a record to his parents, after Passover in the spring of 1944. The audio and photos were provided to the Capital-Star by his namesake, Irwin S. Fox. (Audio slideshow produced by Tim Lambert)
Fox’s death in Gathemo hit the family hard and Weiner isn’t sure her grandmother ever recovered from the loss of her youngest child.
“I remember the Blue Star in the window in their apartment and their home at that time, if you had somebody in the service, it was a small banner,” said Weiner, who still has the telegram from the War Department informing the family of his death. “Then my grandmother became a Gold Star mother after he was killed.”
When the war was over, families had to decide whether to bring the remains of their loved ones home or whether they would remain buried in Europe. Fox’s mother chose to have his body returned to the U.S.
In March 1949, he was buried at Shaare Torah Cemetery in Whitehall in Allegheny County.
A family photo dated Sept. 15, 1964, shows his mother standing in front of his grave marked by an American flag. Her graying hair peeks out from her yellow headscarf and she’s wearing a long, black coat. Her hands are clasped and her face is grief-stricken.
“I think that’s the most poignant picture I have,” Irwin Fox said.
Bubba (Rebecca) Nathan’s and Irwin’s mother at gravesite September 1964
The family is grateful to have learned a little bit more about Irwin’s short time in France, but will not be able to make the ceremony.
“It meant enough, and Irwin was revered enough, then when we found out about it, which was only two weeks ago, that there were 15 members of our family that were ready to go to France, really, to be there at that dedication, that’s how quickly we all wanted to be there to honor and to share what we could with him,” Weiner said. “Due to logistics and complications due to travel, it’s not happening. We all revered Irwin’s service to the United States and what he did and the sacrifice that he made. It totally changed several generations.”
She and Irwin are touched by the gesture of the people of Gathemo.
“The people actually cared what Americans did and the sacrifice they made (It) had an effect on the world. That is wonderful,” Irwin said. “It kind of renews in me to want to make a difference in the world.”
Weiner said it’s gratifying that the town is remembering the soldiers who died to liberate it from the Germans.
“It never replaces a life, but does it give hope or meaning or set something up for generations to come,” she said.
‘Such a rewarding feeling’
The next puzzle piece was tracking down another fallen soldier with Pennsylvania connections.
Not much is known about Pfc. Merritt Boyle’s military service. He was from Chinchilla, Lackawanna County, and served in the 109th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division.
He’s buried at the Shady Lane Cemetery in Dixon City.
Merritt Boyle is buried at the Shady Lane Cemetery in Dixon City, Lackawanna County. (Courtesy of the 28th Infantry Division)
Angell had a lead on another namesake – 53-year-old Merrit Boyle of Old Forge,, who trains athletes, owns a gym and does life coaching.
It turns out, though, that Merrit doesn’t really answer his phone.
So Angell reached out to the 109th Infantry Regiment Association in Scranton and one of their members just showed up at Boyle’s doorstep.
“I came back from walking my dogs and I locked both doors and I’m setting up my schedule for the day and I heard a banging on the back door. I’m like, ‘Who the hell is banging on my back door?’” he said. So, I’m looking at him and he said, ‘Are you Merrit?’”
The two talked for about 90 minutes about the division, about where Merritt was killed and the upcoming ceremony. The talk started to fill in some blanks for the younger Boyle.
He had heard some stories about the man he was named after – like how he loved his country and was only in France a short time before his death.
Like, how his grandmother, Marjorie, who was Merritt’s mother, asked her daughter, Mary, to name one of her children after her fallen son.
“They weren’t planning on having another kid. I’m the youngest by six years, so I was kind of like a surprise,” he said. “Marjorie went to my mom and said, ‘Look, it would mean a lot for me to keep his legacy alive,’ because Merritt was a very special person to her. You could tell just from talking to her, telling me stories, and I remember sleeping over at her house and she’d be telling me great stories on how he was always into trouble.
Video of tank crews and members of the 28th Infantry Division in an around Gathemo, France, during the Battle of Normandy in August 1944. (From the National Archives)
The twist is they spelled his name wrong on his birth certificate. As his namesake, he has one “T” in his name.
“I love that I have that legacy. I’ve always felt a connection to him when I pray at night, I always have that connection that there’s someone watching me,” Boyle said. “That’s why it was such a rewarding experience to find out a little bit more of his history and I learned a lot from talking to many people that were very helpful and getting me up to pace with some of the details of where he was and what happened.”
Boyle said his uncle didn’t get a chance to live his life.
“I feel him live through me in many regards. … That I was named after him and (in) his honor and that just hearing how they spoke of him, it made me want to do better,” he said. Merrit does have a wooden carving Boyle made when he was in service and the flag that was put over his coffin when his remains were returned to Pennsylvania.
He is grateful to know his uncle’s memory will live on in the land where he fell.
“We kind of sometimes today get caught up in the politics and the cynicism a lot of times of Republican or Democrat, all this kind of stuff. To see 80 years later that there’s still appreciation for what those great men did gives such a rewarding feeling,” he said.
Tomorrow, read about Shaun Nadolny’s trip of a lifetime, as Gathemo prepares to pay tribute to the 28th Division and the men who died to liberate it. If you would like to watch the dedication ceremony, it is set to begin at 5:00 a.m. EST and will be livestreamed on the Mike Pride Museum YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@grpicardie3945.
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.
Protesters gather outside of the Federal Building in Milwaukee to denounce the arrest of Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A Milwaukee man was charged Monday after writing a letter to the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that threatened to assassinate President Donald Trump. Demetric Scott told investigators that he wrote the letter claiming to be 54-year Ramón Morales Reyes, a Mexican-born Milwaukee resident who does not have permanent legal status. Scott was already incarcerated in the Milwaukee County Jail for armed robbery and aggravated battery and allegedly victimized Morales Reyes when he committed that crime.
WISN 12 reported that Scott told investigators that he wrote the letter framing Morales Reyes because he didn’t want Morales Reyes to testify against him during his trial in July. Scott reportedly told a person during a recorded jailhouse call that if Morales Reyes “gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial so they will probably dismiss it that day. That’s my plan.”
The letter Scott authored was written in perfect English, with only a few misspellings. “We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” it stated, adding, “I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 (sic) to shoot your precious president in the head – I’ll see you at one of his big ralleys (sic).” The letter was likely referring to a .30-06 (pronounced 30 ought six) high caliber rifle round, and appeared to be an assassination threat against the president.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
On Friday, lawyers representing Morales Reyes and local immigration advocates from Voces de la Frontera held a press conference, asserting that Morales Reyes could not have authored the letter. The 54-year-old father, who works as a dishwasher, comes from a rural part of Mexico where he received little formal education. He does not speak English and cannot read or write proficiently even in Spanish.
After Morales Reyes was arrested by ICE, his daughter contacted Voces de la Frontera and shared information about his background. Days after the arrest, Department of Homeland (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem issued a press statement, condemning Morales Reyes as having threatened President Trump’s life. Noem said the letter was part of a series of dangerous threats to the president.
Morales Reyes’ attorneys and Voces de la Frontera called on DHS to retract Noem’s statement and clear his name. It’s unclear why Noem issued the statement, as CNN reported that MPD was investigating the likelihood that the letter was a fake on the day Morales Reyes was arrested. Scott told investigators that he did not receive any help in writing the letters.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Gween Moore and Mark Pocan visited the Dodge County jail, Wisconsin’s only ICE detention facility Monday, on a congressional oversight visit. They were not permitted to talk to anyone incarcerated there and did not receive any response to their questions from ICE.
“In this facility, ICE is still detaining Ramón Morales Reyes despite being wrongfully accused of a crime,” Moore and Pocan said in a joint statement. “ICE is also working without transparency to Congress, which was only magnified by today’s visit when we tried to call the local Milwaukee field office number on its website, but the number was disconnected. It is unacceptable for ICE to be inaccessible to Members of Congress. As members of Congress, we will continue using all tools available to conduct oversight.”
This article has been edited to correct the labeling of the .30-06 (pronounced 30 ought six) rifle cartridge.
Voces de la Frontera Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz (center) discusses the arrest of Ramón Morales Reyes with attorneys Kimi Abduli (right) and Cane Oulahan (left). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A strange turn of events followed the arrest of Ramón Morales Reyes, a 54-year-old Mexican-born man, who was living in Milwaukee as he sought a U-visa — a type of visa available to victims of crimes.
On Friday, advocates from Voces de la Frontera joined immigration attorneys representing Morales Reyes to dispute accusations made by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Morales Reyes — who does not speak or write in English — drafted a neatly handwritten note in English threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump. Voces de la Frontera and Morales Reyes’ attorneys are calling for DHS to correct the record and clear his name.
The affair began on May 21, when Voces de la Frontera received a hotline call reporting a possible sighting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Milwaukee. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, said during the Friday press conference that one of the group’s “trained community verifiers” contacted local residents who confirmed the sighting and also provided video footage of Morales Reyes being detained.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
“His vehicle was left on the side of the road, and using the license plate we were able to identify the owner and communicate with his family,” said Neumann-Ortiz. “Shortly after, Ramón’s daughter came to our office to seek help. We assisted her in completing a power of attorney and ensuring that her father received the essential medication that was critical to his health. We immediately contacted attorney Kime Adbuli, who has been representing Ramón in his ongoing U-visa case.”
Neumann-Ortiz explained that a “U-visa” is a form of immigration relief for crime victims who have suffered emotional or physical abuse and who have helped law enforcement or government officials in the investigation and prosecution of a crime. “It provides a temporary legal status, and a pathway to permanent residency,” said Neumann-Ortiz. “In the past, the Morales Reyes family had sought resources from Voces.”
Days after the arrest, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem provided statements for a press release describing Morales Reyes as an “illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump.” Noem added, “this threat comes not even a year after President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania and less than two weeks after former FBI Director Comey called for the president’s assassination.”
Noem was referring to Comey sharing a picture on Instagram of sea shells arranged into the numbers “8647”, which “86” interpreted as slang for “get rid of” and “47” being a reference to Trump, the 47th U.S. president, NPR reported. Comey is now being investigated by the Trump administration. “All politicians and members of the media should take notice of these repeated attempts on President Trump’s life and tone down their rhetoric,” Noem said. “I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of President Trump.”
The DHS press release included an image of the note, neatly handwritten in turquoise-colored pen and in flawless English. “We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” it began. “We have done more for this country than you white people — you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him. I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in is (sic) head — I will see him at one of his big ralleys (sic).” The reference to “30 yard 6” may be an incorrectly written reference to .30-06 (pronounced 30 ought six), which is a high caliber bullet for rifles.
Over 4,000 people gather for the Voces de la Frontera march for immigrant rights on May Day, 2022. This was part of a two day action. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
Morales Reyes’ family says that it is impossible that he wrote the note. Described by his attorneys as a soft spoken, hardworking and committed family man, Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher. He was described as coming from a rural part of Mexico where it’s common for people to have no more than a third-grade education. Morales Reyes had difficulty filling out paperwork, does not speak English and is not proficient in writing in Spanish. Neumann-Ortiz said that his family called Voces organizers, confirming that Morales Reyes had very little formal education, and could not read or write in Spanish.
Since his arrest, Morales Reyes’ family has received death threats on social media. “They want his name cleared,” said Neumann-Ortiz. On the day he was arrested, CNN reported, Morales Reyes was questioned by detectives from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), who suspected that someone may have been setting him up to get deported. Police were reportedly investigating jailhouse calls from a person who’d allegedly assaulted Morales Reyes during a September 2023 armed robbery.
CNN reported that ICE agents were given a handwritten note by Morales Reyes with family-related information, and agents realized that the handwriting did not match. The questions surrounding the letter are reminiscent of those stemming from the arrest and deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was accused by the U.S. government of being a member of the El Salvadoran gang MS-13. President Trump held up pictures which had been altered to appear as though “M S 1 3” was tattooed on Abrego Garcia’s knuckles.
Getting Morales Reyes deported would prevent him from testifying against the person in custody for allegedly attacking him, his attorneys said at the press conference.
Voces de la Frontera gather alongside allies in Milwaukee for a massive May Day march from the Hispanic and Latinx south-side, to the federal courthouse downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
Attorney Kime Abduli said there are due process concerns around Morales Reyes’ arrest, as it could interrupt his testimony as a victim in a criminal proceeding and also impact his U-visa case. The specific visa process which Morales Reyes is undertaking “is really meant to offer protection to people who may be undocumented who are victims of crime in the United States,” Abduli explained.
“It’s meant to encourage them to report those crimes, when they are victims of those crimes, to the authorities, and to cooperate in the investigation. Where a person may be undocumented and fearful of reporting these sorts of things, Congress basically established the U-visa to make it ‘safe’ for them to come forward with that information. As long as they’re cooperating with law enforcement, the U-visa is intended to offer some protection for that individual.” Obtaining a U-visa can be a very lengthy process spanning seven to eight years at a minimum, Abduli said.
Attorney Cane Oulahan, who is representing Morales Reyes in his deportation proceedings, said that ensuring due process is his top priority. Oulahan said that a bond hearing is expected in the coming days, where he expects the government to argue “vigorously” for Morales Reyes to be deported. It’s likely that the accusations from Noem’s DHS will also be raised before the judge.
Another controversial deportation in Milwaukee
The controversy and questions come as ICE attempts to expel another Milwaukee resident. Yessenia Ruano, a teacher’s aide in Milwaukee Public Schools, was ordered recently by ICE to return to her home country of El Salvador in a matter of days. This is despite Ruano having a pending visa application for trafficking victims, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
On Friday, the same day Voces and attorneys held a press conference about the Morales Reyes case, ICE ordered Ruano to get on a deportation flight on June 3. Ruano will leave behind her 9-year-old twin daughters, who are U.S. citizens. Ruano’s attorneys said that it appears that ICE is abandoning policies of waiting for processing of T and U visas, which protect people from deportation. Ruano has lived in the U.S. for 14 years, has no criminal record, has a valid work visa, and is employed at a bilingual public elementary school. She said she is hoping that a final legal filing could pause her deportation.
Protesters gather to support Judge Hannah Dugan. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Ruano’s case spurred a flurry of condemnation from local Milwaukee officials. “Deporting valued members of our community who are raising and educating our kids, assisting law enforcement in their important work, and giving back to our neighborhoods should alarm us all,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley wrote on X. “These individuals are victims of a broken immigration system. The Trump administration told the country they were only going after ‘the worst of the worst’. But time and time again, we see them targeting the very people who contribute the most — our neighbors, our coworkers, or friends.”
Crowley said that he is “deeply alarmed that our country continues to turn its back on our most vulnerable.” He went on to say that “by not standing up and protecting our neighbors, we’re not just failing them — we’re failing our entire community. Due process is under attack, and that should concern all of us in Wisconsin and across the country.”
Congresswoman Gwen Moore also released a statement, calling Ruano a “beloved member of her community,” and declaring that “deporting Yessenia will not make our country safer.” Moore said the deportation order “will only separate Yessenia from her children and her community while exposing her to danger she was forced to flee in El Salvador. Instead of making America a beacon of hope for people like Yessenia, this Administration’s focus is only pushing cruelty that demonizes immigrants.”
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee) said that the Trump administration’s deportation of Ruano is “wrong and harmful.” Clancy said in a statement that Ruano had volunteered at her local Catholic parish, worked in her neighborhood school, and was taking care of her family.
Voces de la Frontera Executive Director Christine Neumann-Ortiz (right) discusses the arrest of Ramón Morales Reyes with Attorney’s Kimi Abduli (left) and Cane Oulahan (center). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Recent weeks have seen ICE and the Trump Administration focus more on Milwaukee. Since late March, at least four people have been arrested by immigration agents after attending regularly scheduled hearings at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Local officials denounced the courthouse arrests, only for Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan to also be arrested by federal agents for allegedly obstructing authorities by escorting a man sought by ICE from her courtroom into a public hallway.
“Yessenia is an asset to our community whenever she touches it,” said Clancy. “Our community and her daughters deserve to continue to have Yessenia with us here, and Yessenia deserves to continue to build a thriving life with her family in Milwaukee.” Clancy condemned ICE, saying the agency “continues to act arbitrarily and with cruelty. We must all do what we can to protect our neighbors from it.”
This article has been edited to correct the labeling of the .30-06 (pronounced 30 ought six) rifle cartridge.
Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump’s allies.
But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would get arrested and be deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump’s deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said.
As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded his handwriting and the threatening letter didn’t match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim.
In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said “the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody.”
His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond.
Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July.
Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application.
The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter, and the county district attorney’s office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time.
Abduli, Morales Reyes’ attorney, says he could not have written the letter, saying he did not receive formal education and can’t write in Spanish and doesn’t know how to speak English. She said it was not clear whether he was arrested because of the letters.
“There is really no way that it could be even remotely true,” Abduli said. “We’re asking for a clarification and a correction from DHS to clear Ramon’s name of anything having to do with this.”
The Associated Press’ Mike Balsamo, Scott Bauer and Adriana Gomez contributed to this report.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Shawano County was included on a Department of Homeland Security list of jurisdictions "defying federal immigration law"
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed Shawano County along with Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee as Wisconsin jurisdictions “defying immigration law” on Thursday.
The department released the list as part of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump requiring that sanctuary jurisdictions across the country be listed.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions including cities, counties, and states that are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities,” the DHS announcement states. “Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.”
Dane County, Madison and Milwaukee have enacted policies that limit local law enforcement agencies’ collaboration with federal immigration authorities. Earlier this year, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett announced that the county would no longer participate in a program that provides funding in exchange for telling federal agencies when an immigrant without legal status is in custody in the local jail. Milwaukee also refuses to share such information.
“DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens,” DHS stated.
But Shawano County, which Trump won with 67% of its vote last year, is a Republican Party stronghold that appears out of place on the list. The DHS announcement states that “no one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information.”
In 2021, the Shawano County board voted to declare the county a “Second Amendment sanctuary county,” which declared the county sheriff would not enforce any laws which “unconstitutionally impedes our fundamental Second Amendment right to Keep and Bear Arms.”
The Shawano County administrator and sheriff did not respond to requests for comment.
It’s the kind of exchange that criminal justice data is meant to clarify: a police official insisting that law enforcement practices are fair and targeted, while a city commissioner questions whether those practices contribute to racial disparities.
“If I’m understanding what you’re saying correctly, it’s the police department position – not that you are policing in a racially motivated way, but just that it’s Black youth that are committing more crimes,” asked Krissie Fung, a commissioner on the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission during a recent meeting.
“I would not say Black youth are committing more crimes,” responded Heather Hough, chief of staff for the Milwaukee Police Department. “I would say that when we are arresting suspects, we are ensuring reasonable suspicion or probable cause, whether or not the identity of those youth is one race or another.”
Such misinterpretations have been common, said Kelly Pethke, administrator for Milwaukee County Children, Youth and Family Services, which hosts the dashboard.
“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding,” Pethke said. “We are in the process of making some changes.”
The point of the dashboard
The dashboard was designed to provide real-time transparency about Milwaukee County youths in secure custody.
“We didn’t have a good, single place to go to really look at the scope of the child incarceration problem,” said Rep. Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, who helped move the dashboard through the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors when he served as a supervisor.
But the dashboard doesn’t yet offer a complete picture, including when it comes to race.
Because of this limitation, conversations about racial disparities in Milwaukee’s youth justice system – like those during the Fire and Police Commission meeting – are incomplete.
What’s missing?
To understand what’s missing from the dashboard, it helps to know that Milwaukee youths in secure custody can fall into three categories.
Some youths are held at the county-run Vel R. Phillips Youth and Family Justice Center for lesser offenses, remaining fully under Milwaukee County’s responsibility.
Others, deemed serious juvenile offenders, are in the custody of the state and housed at state-run youth prisons such as Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls.
A third group consists of youth who are the county’s responsibility but are housed in state-run facilities. The dashboard currently only shows racial data for this third group.
Pethke provided NNS with point-in-time data that helps fill out the racial picture of youths in county custody. As of May 19, there were 113 youths in the county detention center: 92 were Black, 12 were Hispanic, seven were white, and two were Asian.
Persistent problem
Even with the updated county data, overrepresentation of youths of color – especially Black youth – in the criminal justice system continues, said Monique Liston.
She’s the founder and chief strategist of UBUNTU Research and Evaluation, a Milwaukee-based strategic education organization.
“The disproportionality is still the same for me. Still the same flag,” she said.
Liston doesn’t dispute Hough’s claim that Milwaukee police are acting legally and fairly. Still, she argued, the city’s criminal justice system is structured in such a way that disproportionately targets Black youths.
“Black youth are more surveilled. That means you’re going to end up with more incidents.”
It’s a cycle, Liston said – data collected on these incidents presents an imbalanced picture of who is committing crime.
That picture reinforces the notion that more money and policing are needed to address crime by Black youths, resulting in continued – or escalated – monitoring, she said.
Yes, Liston wants to see clearer and more complete data from the dashboard. But she also wants that data to be used for real accountability and change.
“Whatever we measure becomes a priority,” she said. “The cycle is not disrupted if we don’t think about the data.”
MPD and root causes
Hough does not dispute the county’s data and acknowledges that racial disparities exist in Milwaukee’s criminal justice system. But she told NNS she is confident the city’s police department is not the source of those disparities.
“We get a call for service, and we respond,” she said.
Hough emphasized that the department holds officers accountable if they fail to meet standards of reasonable suspicion and probable cause.
She also said that the police department – and Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman – are committed to working with the community to address the root causes of the disparities highlighted by the county’s dashboard.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Social Development Commission on Friday to secure back pay for former employees.
At the same time, three state legislators are asking the agency, also known as the SDC, to consider voluntarily giving up its community action status.
According to court records, the Department of Justice lawsuit filed on behalf of the Department of Workforce Development alleges that SDC failed to pay $359,609.73 in wages and benefits owed to former employees.
However, the department is seeking double that amount – a total of $719,219.46 – as a penalty for “willful failure to pay.”
Sarah Woods’ claim against SDC seeks roughly $4,800 of back pay.
“These are not small payments,” said Woods, a former youth and family services supervisor for SDC.
This marks the latest stage in a long-running wage dispute following the agency’s abrupt April 2024 shutdown, leaving some employees unpaid. SDC, which reopened in December, has provided a variety of programs to serve low-income residents in Milwaukee County.
SDC’s response
William Sulton, the attorney for SDC, said Thursday that the agency will file a third-party complaint against the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, which he claims failed to reimburse the agency for services SDC provided.
“DCF needs to be held to account,” he said, adding that SDC should sue the Department of Children and Families regardless of what the Department of Justice does.
Woods remains skeptical that further legal back-and-forth will get people what they’re owed.
“I just want the workers to get paid,” she said. “SDC needs to … just leave it alone.”
Dispute over proper documentation
Sulton said a major dispute between SDC and the Department of Children and Family Services is about documentation.
“They had all of the required paperwork, but they kept asking for additional information that had never been asked for before,” he said. “We met every one of those obligations.”
In a letter sent last month, the Department of Children and Families said SDC failed to meet federal audit requirements and had not provided enough documentation to justify its reimbursement request.
Statelegislators ask for voluntary de-designation
Earlier this month, the Department of Children and Families decided to rescind SDC’s status as a community action agency effective July 3, making the agency no longer eligible to receive certain federal block grants that support anti-poverty work.
SDC plans to request a review of the decision from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sulton said, whichcould take up to 90 days after the department receives documentation.
On Thursday, however, State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, Sen. Dora Drake and Rep. Kalan Haywood — all Milwaukee Democrats — sent a letter to SDC’s Board of Commissioners, asking the agency to voluntarily de-designate.
In the letter, the lawmakers said voluntarily de-designating would create a pathway for $1.182 million in block grant funding that had been allocated to SDC to be used in Milwaukee to support services such as food security, rent assistance and workforce development.
“These dollars must be spent by September 30, 2025, or they will be lost to the federal government,” the letter states. “At present, SDC’s operational instability prevents these funds from reaching the people who need them most.”
Sulton said this pathway does not seem viable because the state has not presented a plan. There is, he said, a lack of alternative agencies prepared to provide these anti-poverty services.
“If you want the board to consider de-designating so that these funds can go to another program, you gotta tell us what that is,” Sulton said.
Additionally, SDC leaders argue the state lacks authority to make this de-designation decision without also getting approval from the city and county’s boards, based on state statute.
A letter from State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, State Sen. Dora Drake and State Rep. Kalan Haywood to the Social Development Commission’s board. (Photo provided by the office of State Sen. LaTonya Johnson)
Even if SDC steps down, Johnson said in an interview, there is no guarantee the money will be spent in time, as the state must meet federal requirements to move the funds and find another agency to administer services.
“This is a really difficult place to be if you are an African American elected official because this is an agency that has been in the community forever that has a lot of support,” Johnson said.
“Everybody is rooting for SDC to be successful. … But the reality is that I cannot choose the side of an organization over the community’s needs.”
Edgar Mendez contributed to this report.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
Milwaukee PD officers monitor the May Day 2025 march with a Critical Response Vehicle, outfitted as a surveillance van. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A group of 19 community organizations have joined forces to push for oversight of police surveillance in Milwaukee. Together the groups signed an open letter addressed to the city’s common council, asking it to adopt a Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance.
The measure would require existing surveillance technologies used by the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) to receive a public hearing and be subject to approval by the Milwaukee Common Council. The ordinance would also require the department to produce an annual report of surveillance gear.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
“The proliferation of surveillance technology by the Milwaukee Police Department has occurred with virtually no transparency, no opportunities for community input and — without a real opportunity to reject surveillance techs or advocate for critical guardrails — presents significant threats to civil rights and civil liberties that hurts us all but disproportionately impact communities of color, queer communities, people seeking reproductive healthcare, immigrant communities, people fleeing violence, and low-income communities,” the coalition states in its letter.
“While we trust our local elected officials in Milwaukee, in light of the current political climate and the uncertainty surrounding future administrations at both the federal and state levels (both in Wisconsin and in other states), it is critical that our community has a say in if and how invasive surveillance technologies are used, how they are deployed against residents, if and how their data is stored and shared with third parties, and whether spending our limited tax dollars on surveillance technologies is the best way to promote public safety,” the letter adds.
CCOPS ordinances have already passed in 26 cities nationwide, and calls to rein in the flow and development of police surveillance technologies have grown in recent years in Milwaukee. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin began advocating for CCOPS ordinances in the Badger State, prompted by a lack of discussion on the issue and the impending Republican National Convention during the summer of 2024.
As with the 2020 Democratic National Convention four years earlier, the RNC brought with it an influx of new equipment that allowed MPD to augment its surveillance network. Before the DNC the police department upgraded its mobile phone surveillance gear, expanded a camera network capable of using automatic license plate reader technology, and purchased vans equipped with cameras and drones. The RNC likewise opened the door for a new open source intelligence software, growing MPD’s social media surveillance capabilities.
During the summer of 2020, many people who joined protests following the death of George Floyd witnessed these technologies, and reported suspicions that they were being monitored. As time passed, investigations revealed that local police departments monitored social media closely and drew information from confidential databases, with one agency funneling much of what it’d learned into a “target list” of nearly 200 people. The list had been shared with dozens of local, state, and federal agencies from Milwaukee to Kenosha.
An officer films a rally and march held at Red Arrow Park for Dvontaye Mitchell and Sam Sharpe. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
The accumulation of these issues spurred the group of 19 community organizations to sign the letter calling for CCOPS. The coalition includes Planned Parenthood, Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC), the ACLU of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), Voces de la Frontera Action, ComForce, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County League of Women Voters and others.
The letter states that “policies are increasingly enacted, and local governments and their surveillance mechanisms will likely be used to target individuals seeking or providing these services. This scenario is particularly alarming given that Black, Brown, Muslim, queer, low-income, and immigrant communities are already disproportionately affected by law enforcement practices.”
“Without robust oversight, we risk a resurgence of COINTELPRO-like tactics, where surveillance was used to suppress political dissent and target minority groups, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,” the letter states. “At a minimum, people who live, work, visit, or attend school in Milwaukee deserve to know if and how they’re being surveilled and who has access to that surveillance data.”
Since January, Milwaukee has been dealing with dangerous levels of lead dust in some public schools, resulting in nine school closures.
On Tuesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a Senate committee there was a federal “team” in the city from the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program — though the positions were cut in April.
“We are continuing to fund the program in Milwaukee, we have a team in Milwaukee, we’re giving laboratory support to the analytics in Milwaukee, and we’re working with the health department in Milwaukee,” Kennedy said when questioned by Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
The Milwaukee Health Department disputed Kennedy’s statement.
“There is no team from HHS or CDC in Milwaukee assisting with the MPS lead hazard response,” department spokesperson Caroline Reinwald wrote in an email.
Kennedy has previously suggested the childhood lead program would be reinstated and told U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin last week that lead poisoning in children is an “extremely significant” concern. Reed had asked Kennedy about the program’s fate in light of those comments.
“If the secretary had information that hasn’t been proffered to myself or my team yet, I would welcome, again, continued support from the CDC,” said Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis on Wednesday.
“Admittedly, I was wondering if they potentially got stuck in traffic in Chicago and didn’t make it to Milwaukee,” he said of Kennedy’s statements about a “team.”
Federal experts were part of Milwaukee’s lead crisis response
Childhood lead poisoning experts from the CDC communicated with the Milwaukee Health Department at the start of the city’s school lead crisis, Totoraitis told WPR.
“They validated our concerns about the testing results that we were finding in the schools,” he said.
He said federal experts recommended school closures as a response, which the city’s health department had originally avoided, not wanting to disrupt learning.
“But given the significant threat of permanent brain damage from lead poisoning, we had to rely on our federal partners to make that decision,” Totoraitis said.
Milwaukee’s Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies, which had to temporarily close due to unsafe levels of lead, pictured on Feb. 28, 2025. (Evan Casey / WPR)
In March, the city requested that a CDC Epi-Aid team come to Milwaukee, hoping to beef up the city’s school lead crisis response.
But in early April, Totoraitis learned that the experts who would’ve managed that team had been laid off. His request was denied.
The team would’ve expanded the city’s testing capacity, he said, and could’ve used its lead specialization to detect trends city officials wouldn’t catch.
But even without a special team, losing the ability to remotely consult CDC experts had an impact. Totoraitis said they had helped his department make investigation plans for lead-contaminated schools and do “epidemiological, long-term digging” into where kids are getting poisoned.
“Those are the parts that are really lacking now,” Totoraitis said.
After the layoffs, one CDC expert offered to help the city as a volunteer, he said.
Totoraitis said the city might contract with some of the laid-off staff members directly. “We’re really hopeful that I can secure the funding, through one of our grants, to bring some of these former CDC staff on in June,” he said.
But he stressed that his department already has a “really robust” lead poisoning program, handling about 1,000 cases a year.
“We’re continuing our work with or without federal resources,” the Milwaukee Health Department’s Reinwald said.
One CDC laboratory specialist visited Milwaukee
One of Kennedy’s claims was that “we’re giving laboratory support to the analytics in Milwaukee.”
In response to a question from WPR about Kennedy’s contention that a team is working on the issue in the city, a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services said the CDC was assisting on laboratory testing.
“At the request of the Milwaukee Health Department Laboratory (MHDL), CDC is assisting with validating new lab instrumentation used for environmental lead testing. Staff from MHDL are focused on the lead response and other routine testing while CDC will assist with testing validation, laboratory quality management, and regulatory requirement documentation to onboard the new laboratory instrument,” the spokesperson said in an email.
According to Reinwald, a CDC laboratory specialist visited the city for two weeks in May to help the health department set up a new machine.
The machine processes lead samples from across the city — including those related to the school lead crisis.
But that visit was planned before the school lead crisis started, Totoraitis said. He said the city had already been expanding its lead-testing capacity before the crisis.
The lab specialist was “requested independently of the MPS situation,” Reinwald said, and served a “narrow technical role specific to onboarding the equipment.”
“It’s a single person,” Totoraitis said. “I know the secretary had said a team was in Milwaukee helping us, but I don’t know who he’s referring to.”
MILWAUKEE — When Yessenia Ruano walks through the door of her home after work, her husband, Miguel, is in the kitchen, shredding chicken with two forks, and her twin daughters are in the living room, playing on an iPad. The sound of “Primer Impacto” fills the background.
Ruano opens the fridge to keep the dinner prep going. On the top shelf, there are more than 150 corn tortillas lying flat in their plastic bags. On the bar counter, near unopened mail and trinkets, is a pack of zinnia seeds waiting for the last frost to pass before Yessenia and the girls plant them in the patio across the driveway.
This doesn’t look like the home of a family on the verge of being uprooted, until Ruano and her husband — one rolling chicken into tortillas over hot oil, the other tending to a pile of dishes on the sink — start talking about the questions suddenly pressing on their everyday lives.
Ruano prepares lunch for her 9-year-old twin daughters at home on April 6. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
In February, during a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agent told Ruano that the government would accelerate plans to deport her. Save for a change in her immigration status, the agent said, she should report back to ICE in two months with a plane ticket back to El Salvador set for 50 days out.
It’s April now; her next appointment with ICE is coming up in just a few weeks. “She said I should buy just one plane ticket,” Ruano, 38, tells her husband, recalling a conversation with a colleague at the local public school where she works. Her colleague reasoned that if Ruano bought a fare for everyone in the family and her deportation was averted, they’d be throwing a lot of money in the trash.
“I’ve always thought we should buy four tickets,” Miguel tells her, hunched over the sink. A few months ago, Ruano went on a ladies’ retreat with her church for two nights and left him and their two children to fend for themselves. The girls cried and cried and barely slept. Their dog — a fluffy, white Bichon Frisé who was named Snowflake before the family adopted him and is now named Copito, short for snowflake in Spanish — barely ate.
Ruano agrees that the family should stay together, but most days, she’s convinced they’ll never use any of the plane tickets in question. Ruano, for 14 years, has clung onto hope that the immigration powers that be will eventually see that she belongs in the United States. She has checked in with ICE 17 times, worn a GPS monitor. She’s also built the life she shares with her husband and their Milwaukee-born daughters, a job at a local school and volunteer work at her local Catholic parish.
Through it all, she has searched for ways to create roots in the United States. Recently, she petitioned for a visa created for human trafficking victims, based on her experience of forced labor when she first entered the country. That petition is stuck in the growing backlog at the agency that handles visa applications, one that has accelerated since the start of the Trump administration.
“Of course, practically speaking, they can do whatever they want,” Ruano says. “If they’re a little human, then I can prove I belong here. If they just care about detaining people to meet a certain quota and deport them — if I’m just another number — then I can already hear them saying, ‘Ma’am, I don’t care about your case. We’re so sorry, but we’re going to send you back to your country.’”
Yessenia Ruano speaks with people after her appointment at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on April 15, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Ruano is among the millions of immigrants living in the United States who are facing deportation as the Trump administration ramps up the removal of people with no permanent immigration status. That includes immigrants who, like Ruano, have been in the country for more than a decade and have no criminal record, and whose ties to the country include young children — some of them U.S. citizens — and also careers and community.
Ruano’s precarious situation isn’t entirely the product of Trump-era policies. Like millions of immigrants living in the United States, she entered the country at the southern border, lured by the promise of safety and stability. Like thousands of others, she asked for asylum and was allowed to stay as she waited for a resolution on her petition, as long as she followed the law. Even after her petition was unsuccessful, the U.S. government allowed her to remain in the country provided that she checked in regularly with immigration officials.
Yessenia Ruano speaks to her attorney, Marc Christopher, outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office before going into her appointment on April 15, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Under the United States’ broken immigration system, one in which laws that haven’t been updated in decades no longer align with the reality of immigration patterns, the country’s reliance on the immigrant labor force or even the government’s ability to enforce such laws, immigrants like Ruano have always lived at the discretion — at the whim — of whoever is in power, from the president down to the ICE officer who is looking at their case that day.
When President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, that dynamic changed again, fueled by an agenda that seems to be taking shape day by day.
Ruano remains in this limbo, bracing for her life to be upended while fighting for a different outcome. She follows the countless news stories about people who are in ICE detention, or who have been swiftly deported back to their home countries. Hundreds of thousands more are living just like her, navigating the shifting sands of American immigration policy.
Ruano’s day usually starts early, and by 6:15 a.m., her daughters Paola and Eli, 9, are in the dining room, ready for their mom to brush their hair. Back in El Salvador, Ruano didn’t think she would ever have children. The world seemed dangerous and broken, and life was expensive. “With the cost of living, I always thought, how?” she said one morning while brushing Eli’s hair and finishing it with a braid.
Ruano and her husband went to high school together in El Salvador and reconnected again in Milwaukee at the frozen pizza manufacturing plant where they both worked. Eventually, they started dreaming of growing their family. Soon there were four of them. Juggling two babies was hard, but they both landed steady work and were able to buy the duplex they live in, an older home they’ve improved slowly. Here, they are watching Eli and Paola thrive.
On a school morning, Yessenia Ruano gets her daughter Paola ready for the day in Milwaukee on April 15, 2025. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Eli loves art. She loves to take clay-like dirt from the backyard and shape it. In their living room, Ruano points to a little bowl made of coiled clay, brown and crumbly and beautiful. A bucket holds dozens of small figurines made with air-dry clay, detailed and complex.
Paola is much more interested in building with Legos, and Ruano says proudly that she is ahead of her peers in math. Barely older than her sister, Paola has also taken on a caretaking role in the family that Ruano says came to her naturally.
Ruano’s daughters have been learning the violin and the viola. They’ve been debating whether to keep going with the string instruments or move on to another extracurricular activity.
“All of those special skills and talents, we can’t really tend to them in my country,” Ruano said. “It’s like they’re trying to rip away my dreams, and also those of my two girls.”
Elizabeth and Paola, Yessenia Ruano’s twin daughters, stand in the side yard of their home on April 6, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Eli and Paola are U.S. citizens. Their lives would be significantly different in El Salvador, where economic opportunity, gender-based violence and more could alter the course of their lives. Their father, Miguel, has no legal immigration status. The 19th is not publishing his last name to protect his privacy and employment.
Both times Ruano has appeared before ICE this year, agents have alluded to her daughters. During her February appointment, the agent said Ruano should buy plane tickets for her girls as well because she “would hate to see the family separated,” Ruano recalls. During her April appointment, Ruano’s lawyer at the time recalled that the agent scanned Ruano’s plane ticket and asked why she hadn’t bought plane tickets for the girls.
Ruano has spent time talking to each daughter about the different possibilities ahead for their family, including a new life in El Salvador.
At a park in Milwaukee on April 6, 2025, Miguel — Yessenia Ruano’s partner — pushes their daughters on a swing. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
“I tried to focus on the positive things, things I liked as a girl,” Ruano said. Ruano explained that the school day in El Salvador would be shorter — the country has one of the shortest school weeks in the world. There would be more time for play.
“I told them that they’d see mango trees, orange trees,” Ruano said. “Things we don’t have here.”
They’d still get to sleep next to each other, as they do in Milwaukee.
Ruano has a trove of files documenting her immigration journey in the United States, but one piece of paper worn thin from years of use tracks every check-in she’s had with ICE since she entered the United States from Mexico in 2011.
At the time, Ruano petitioned for the only form of relief she was told she was eligible for, a form of asylum called “withholding of removal,” which requires immigrants to prove that there is at least a 51% likelihood of suffering persecution in their home country.
When her case finally came up for review a decade later, a judge told Ruano that her petition would be denied and said Ruano could withdraw it to avoid having the denial on her record. During the hearing, the judge told Ruano through her then-lawyer that the U.S. government wasn’t actively deporting people like her, who had no criminal record. She could explore other avenues for legal status.
Ruano flips through the stack of paperwork documenting her 14-year fight to stay in the United States on April 6, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
By 2024, she was running out of alternatives and time. ICE placed her in a monitoring program called Alternatives to Detention, or ATD, and told that her deadline to file for a different path to legal status was near.
ICE advertises the ATD program as having been designed for immigrants who were “thoroughly vetted” and deemed not a risk to public safety. To enroll someone in the program, ICE officers consider their ties to the community and status as a caregiver or provider. Ruano checked all of the boxes.
Ruano’s participation in the program left a mark: She has a band of pale skin around her wrist, where ICE secured a GPS device.
The device tracked her location, had facial-recognition software for regular check-ins with ICE, and had messaging capabilities between the agency and Ruano; “Please call your officer” was a regular prompt. Ruano could swap the batteries to make sure the wrist monitor was powered at all times. Sometimes the backup battery wouldn’t work, so she was left to plug the monitor — still attached to her wrist — directly into a wall outlet. When it became loose and couldn’t read her pulse, it would blare loudly. “I would be in the classroom with kids, trying to fix it,” Ruano said.
At home, Ruano pored over the internet and eventually found a firm in Chicago that helped her file for a T visa as a victim of human trafficking.
The application was almost complete when Ruano was asked to report to ICE for a check-in on Valentine’s Day. Ruano’s lawyer at the time told her that she feared there was a better-than-90% chance she would be detained. Ruano felt that the time she was promised to finish her application had been suddenly taken away.
She spent most of the week of the appointment working furiously to make sure her T visa application was in the hands of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, that her personal documents were in order, that there was a care plan for the girls beyond Miguel. She did all of that while juggling calls with reporters and advocates from Voces de la Frontera, the local immigrant advocacy group supporting her. She watched herself get to the brink of an emotional breakdown. The voice inside her head begged for surrender: “I’m done. I can’t keep going. I’ll go back to my country and start over, from zero. The fight is over.”
It’s a shift from her default, a hope and belief that things will work out.
“It’s been 14 years and I’ve suffered a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety. Every week before one of my hearings with a judge or a check-in with ICE, those are nights of no sleep,” Ruano said. “I’ll wake up at one in the morning needing to vomit.” She’s had 17 appointments over that time span, and 17 sleepless weeks.
Ruano looks ahead as she and her daughters walk to her appointment at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on April 15, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Unlike many immigrants without authorization to permanently live in the country, Ruano has not and does not live in the shadows. The U.S. government knows exactly who she is, where she lives, where she works. Ruano said she was not — and is not — willing to defy a deportation order.
“It wouldn’t be worth it,” she said. “I would rather go back to my country, whatever may happen there. Because when I think about living in the shadows, not being able to use my real name, never being at peace … I don’t want to live in hiding, waiting for the day they knock on my door.”
At the bilingual public school where she teaches, in Milwaukee’s heavily Hispanic South Side, the chaos of Ruano’s immigration limbo dials down.
“I feel like I’m in my own world,” Ruano said. “My problems stay back home.” When she walks into a classroom full of kindergarteners, she tells herself, “Vamos a echarle ganas a este dia.” Let’s do this.
It’s an easy place for her mind to wander to the version of the future she has dreamed for herself. She’s an assistant teacher supporting the youngest learners with the most challenging needs. “I’m always thinking about getting my teaching license,” Ruano said, “so I can have my own classroom.”
Milwaukee has for years struggled with a shortage of teachers, falling victim to the nationwide teacher shortage. The district’s superintendent announced recently that the next school year would start with 80 vacant teaching positions, and that’s with a recent decision to thin the district’s central office by moving more than a fifth of its administrative staffers with teaching certifications into classroom positions.
Early in the morning, Ruano walks her dog, Copito, through her Milwaukee neighborhood on April 15, 2025. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
In El Salvador, Ruano graduated from high school and worked her way through college to become an upper-grade teacher. She looked for work in education and wound up cleaning houses instead, joining other teachers with training but no place in the workforce. “You just end up having to do other work,” Ruano said. “I got here and saw that there’s so much opportunity. Here, they need teachers.”
Ruano’s workday begins outside the school, where her job is to welcome kids getting dropped off by their parents. On a frigid April day — she does this same job on frigid January days, too, just with extra gear — most of the interactions are quick hellos and good mornings. One little boy in a Minecraft backpack is refusing to walk in. He’s sad, and he’s asking for his mom. Ruano leans down to chat with him for a minute, a hand on his shoulder, a warm smile beaming. Eventually, he decides to go inside.
ALBA School, where Ruano works as an assistant teacher, stands quiet on a Sunday morning in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Ruano’s job at this public school has anchored her firmly in this community. As part of Ruano’s public plea to immigration officials, teachers and parents from her school have written letters about the value she brings to her community. One parent wrote that their child had been upset for days, worried about the fate of his favorite teacher. Ruano read one of these letters during a news conference before she walked into her February check-in, surrounded by TV cameras and supporters from Voces de la Frontera. Within 48 hours, they collected 2,800 signatures in an online petition supporting Ruano.
When Ruano walked out of the courthouse that day, she went to the school to drop off her girls. Students filled the hallways and stairwells, erupting in cheers, relieved that she had not been detained.
“What was really sweet was that she led them in singing our school song. They’re usually quiet and shy when we sing it during our school assemblies. That day they were not,” said Brenda Martinez, who helped found the school and acts as its principal. Martinez has been worried about Ruano’s case and said the school can’t afford to lose her.
“She has a lot of patience to work with the littlest learners. That’s who she is,” Martinez said. “To lose her is like losing a member of our family.”
One of the most remarkable aspects of Ruano’s journey, she’ll say herself, is her own outlook in the face of so much upheaval. “La esperanza no se me quita,” Ruano said. For the most part, she can’t shake the hope that someday, things will inevitably work out.
When she reached a point of desperation earlier in the year, she said the thought that pulled her out was a Bible verse she’d memorized. “I could hear Joshua 1:9 in my head: ‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’”
A man raises his hand in prayer during Mass at Nuestra Señora de la Paz, on April 6, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Ruano and her family are devout Catholics and also involved with a local Evangelical church. Faith runs through their lives, though the urgency with which Ruano prays lately is new.
During a recent Spanish-language Mass at the parish the family attends — the large hall filled quickly to capacity — the Rev. Javier Bustos opened the service with a prayer that asked God for “justice for the nation’s immigrants.” Bustos said in an interview that since the start of the Trump administration, fear has become palpable in his community, and Ruano’s family is just one of the many whom he prays for.
In many ways, Ruano’s journey to the United States is not unique. She watched violence escalate in El Salvador, and grieved when her brother was kidnapped and later murdered. Her fear for her safety, combined with economic uncertainty, made a future in her home country look grim.
Yessenia Ruano stands for a portrait at her church, Nuestra Señora de la Paz, on April 6, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Her first attempt to enter the United States resulted in her immediate removal. She tried again less than a year later, paying a group of coyotes to guide her way into the country safely. Once in the United States, Ruano said, she became trapped in a filthy home and forced to work for her captors. She was eventually released after they extorted more money from her family back home. This forms the basis for her claim for a T visa, which requires her cooperation with law enforcement.
Bustos, Ruano’s priest, said in an interview that every immigrant’s story is different, but that losing closely knit members of this church community feels the same: “Like losing an arm, or a limb.”
Ruano is an active member of the church’s prayer group and volunteers during Mass. This Sunday, she was tasked with a Bible reading in front of the several hundred gathered, including her husband and daughters, who smiled watching her walk up to the lectern.
Parishioners stream into the sunshine after Sunday Mass at Nuestra Señora de la Paz on April 6, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Later, she attended a training for members hoping to work with young children, focused on keeping them safe. Ruano is part of a group of members who have committed nearly every Saturday for the next two years to walking a group of children through an intense curriculum in the Catholic faith, up to their First Communion.
Ruano already started the rigorous curriculum with her group of students. She hopes to be around to watch them reach the rite of passage.
There’s a single Salvadoran restaurant in Milwaukee. Its owner, Concepcion Arias, says business has changed since Trump was elected. Fewer customers are coming through the doors, and even some of the regulars are asking for their meals to go. “People don’t want to be out and about,” she said.
But Ruano and her family are here on a Sunday after church, one of their regular spots for a meal after Mass. Paola orders a plate of fries with ketchup, while Eli goes for traditional pupusas.
After church, Ruano and her family eat lunch at a neighborhood Salvadoran restaurant on April 6, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
On the cover of the menu is a picture of a beach in El Salvador. “That’s where my uncle lives,” Ruano says. The girls glance at the small photo of the sunny tropical landscape. When Ruano was a teenager, she moved to this coastal town to work at her uncle’s hotel, a job that helped her pay for school. The girls agree the beach looks beautiful, but then Paola chimes in: “I’m really scared I’m going to die on a plane.” She’s thinking about the prospect of ever traveling to El Salvador, a place she only knows through her parents’ stories.
Little moments like this one remind all four that the threat of removal hangs heavily over their lives. When lunch is over, the family heads back home, and then Miguel goes out to meet with a contractor. Their home’s roof is overdue for a replacement — one of dozens of to dos that are suddenly urgent. Miguel is worried about leaving their home in less than good shape if Yessenia is removed to El Salvador.
Under the Biden administration, a pending T visa application would typically halt removal proceedings, but that guarantee no longer exists under the Trump administration. At the end of the Biden administration, the wait time for USCIS to confirm it had received a visa application averaged about four weeks. On the day of Ruano’s February check-in with ICE, the Trump administration fired 50 employees from USCIS. Within a few weeks, immigration lawyers were reporting that the wait time for visa application receipts had started to grow. When Ruano called USCIS to check on her case in early April, an agent said the average wait time was 10 weeks. When she checked in with USCIS in early May, they told her the wait had grown to four months.
Yessenia Ruano fixes her daughter’s hair while laughing with her twins on the sidewalk as they walk to her appointment at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on April 15, 2025, in Milwaukee. (Jamie Kelter Davis for The 19th)
Her lawyer, Marc Christopher, who has spent years working on immigration cases in the Milwaukee area, said he’s not sure why ICE hasn’t fast-tracked her deportation, but that in a multi-tiered system where so much is up to discretion, it’s not clear who will have the final say on her case.
She is due back for another appointment with ICE at the end of May. In an interview Tuesday, Ruano said she remains hopeful. She’s also started to sell household items they no longer use on Facebook Marketplace, a small step toward resignation. She hasn’t bought flights for her husband or daughters and hopes she won’t have to. The zinnia seeds are now one-inch sprouts.
Ruano’s daughters will turn 10 in early June. This year, they’re most looking forward to celebrating their birthday at school, with cupcakes in class, surrounded by their friends, their mom nearby.
Ruano’s flight is scheduled to leave the United States the next day.
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