Immigrants and citizens alike are worried about the fear being caused in the community, as mass deportation raids disrupt lives and the economy.
Hispanic Americans have lived in Wisconsin since before it became a state, but the largest wave of migration came during and after World War II, when there was a big demand for food and a simultaneous shortage of labor, which resulted in a demand for agricultural workers, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Government programs permitted employers to hire foreign workers to work in the fields, and between 1942 and 1964, millions of Mexican farm laborers came to the state.
Today, there are more than 447,000 Hispanic Latinos in Wisconsin, making up the state’s largest minority group. Mexicans are the largest Spanish-speaking group in Wisconsin. Mexicans arriving since the 1950s have found an established community to settle into, particularly in Milwaukee. Wisconsin is also home to political refugees and other immigrants from Cuba, El Salvador, Colombia, Nicaragua, and other countries.”
There is no aspect of a person’s life that is unaffected by the labor of immigrants,” said Eau Claire community activist Mireya Sigala.
Sigala said new immigration and funding policies are unsettling. Trump’s mass deportation plans are inciting fear among immigrants throughout Wisconsin who are concerned about members of their communities being separated from friends, family members, and coworkers.
There are several other orders affecting the population, including Trump’s plans to revoke orders by President Joe Biden regarding educational and economic opportunities for Latinos.
The purpose of the measures was to reduce the inequalities in education and promote economic opportunities for this population.
Sigala said “the Latino community is a vital component of this nation.”
