Immigrant advocates and community leaders in Manitowoc are continuing to seek answers about the detention of 21 people the FBI has accused of being in the country illegally.
The FBI and U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement have provided little information about the arrests Sept. 25, although advocates say several of those detained were dairy workers meeting in a Walmart parking lot to carpool to area farms for work.
Here’s what we know about the arrests made by the FBI and ICE in Manitowoc County:
What do authorities say happened?
Many of the facts of the operation are still unclear.
The FBI has said nine of the 21 people are suspected of sexual assault and human trafficking of children. However, the agency has provided no evidence for the statement. The FBI has declined to answer questions about what prompted the operation and what charges, if any, the arrested individuals are facing.
ICE has not responded to multiple requests for comment from the Journal Sentinel.
The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office also declined to answer whether deputies assisted in the operation. Sheriff Daniel Hartwig was unavailable for comment.
The FBI and ICE were assisted by the U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division.
What have community leaders heard?
It appears that arrests were made at more than one location.
Reports from community members indicate arrests both at residential addresses and at the Walmart parking lot.
Jennifer Maldonado, who leads the advocacy group Crusaders for Justicia, spoke to a representative at the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office who told her that deputies helped the FBI serve warrants for specific individuals in residential areas, where they made some arrests. The sheriff’s office was not involved in the arrests in the Walmart parking lot with ICE, the representative told her.
Based on conversations with local law enforcement, Deacon Mark LeGreve of St. Francis of Assisi Parish said he had the impression that the operation was going after a few high-value targets, and others may have been picked up because they were easily accessible.
Who was detained?
Two members of the Catholic parish were detained in the operation, LeGreve said. He said they agreed to be deported to Honduras. Some of those detained attend Maldonado’s church, the Manitowoc Cooperative Ministry, she said.
Most of the detained workers are Mexican nationals and are being held at Dodge County Detention Center in Juneau, Maldonado said.
Michael Slattery, a Manitowoc County farmer, spoke to the wife of a man apparently picked up by ICE. The man, a longtime dairy worker, was detained by agents as he walked out to his truck to drive to work, his wife said. Agents arrested four people at a nearby home and did not know who the man was but detained him, too, according to Slattery. He has been in the U.S. for 20 years, and his wife and five children are U.S. citizens, Slattery said.
More: Abbotsford’s immigrants have been welcomed for decades, but now some are afraid
Why is Manitowoc County a powerhouse in Wisconsin’s dairy industry?
Manitowoc County has the most mega-dairies, or concentrated animal feeding operations, of any county in the state. Those 25 farms are massive operations with at least 700 cows each, making them especially reliant on undocumented immigrant labor, much more than family farms.
Slattery said that when one worker is detained, “news spreads very quickly.” Other employees stop showing up for work, and it’s hard to find anyone to replace them. Cows aren’t milked, pens aren’t cleaned and calves go unfed, he said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about FBI, ICE arrests of immigrants in Manitowoc