Elvira Benitez Suarez of Sheboygan Falls is a mother of four US citizens and several grandchildren. Recently, she was released from a Kentucky detention camp. Finally home with her husband and youngest children, 11 and 13 years old, Elvira is not free of a sickness she developed in detention, nor is she completely free from ICE.
On June 1, Elvira was required to return to the same ICE field office that she entered three months ago. At that previous appointment in March she did not walk back out. Instead, she was shackled, both at her hands and her ankles, put in a van with seven other women and taken to a jail in Kentucky. A judge later ordered that she could not be denied bond while waiting for developments in her immigration case. After 35 years in Wisconsin, she is so established in her community that there is no risk of flight.
On Monday, instead of going into the ICE field station alone, Elvira asked her community to show courage and to join her. She wondered who would answer her call.
At first glance, the ICE building on Knapp Street appeared as it always does on a Monday. Morning traffic bustled with people going to work and MSOE students hurried towards classes with oversized coffees. This morning, however, a community ready to show courage gathered with signs of solidarity and messages of hope. With them were elected officials, Elvira, her husband, children and family members. Passing trucks and cars beeped their support, and each time the crowd of roughly 100 neighbors cheered.
Although her appointment was at 8 a.m., the doors to the ICE field office did not open. Elvira’s lawyer knocked. There was no response. The crowd began to sing songs written in Minneapolis in the wake of ICE resistance. “Hold on. Hold on. My dear ones, here comes the dawn.”
By 8:30 the doors still had not opened. News reporters and cameramen checked their phones. The crowd formed a picket line. Finally, an invisible hand opened the door. Elvira, her lawyer, Alder Brower, and Alder Zamarripa entered the facility. They too would accompany her. Now came the wait.
How did she do it? How did Elvira re-enter the ICE field office knowing that she might not come back out? Where did she find the courage? Why not run?
A Milwaukee mother forced to leave faces another tough choice
As I pondered that question, I couldn’t help but think back to last summer as church members and I accompanied another immigrant mother, Yessenia Ruano, who was a MPS teacher’s aide, to the airport. Yessenia had been ordered to self-deport to El Salvador.
Like Elvira, Yessenia came to Wisconsin believing she was joining a community that believed she was worthy. By being human, she had inherent value. She had rights. As a victim of human trafficking, she understood the opposite. She had experienced dehumanization and came to Milwaukee seeking a community in which new beginnings were possible.
Yessenia asked us to accompany her to the airport. We cried that day as she too bravely walked through a doorway, holding her children’s hands, knowing that she might not come back. And now, we receive news that a judge has ordered that she must be allowed to return to her home in Milwaukee while she works with immigration. She has not yet decided if she will return from El Salvador.
When neighbors turn up for neighbors, basic decency wins
After an agonizing wait, Elvira finally emerged from the doorway of the downtown Milwaukee ICE facility. The crowd cheered. In a kind and strong voice Elvira addressed her community. “I love this country. I have honor and respect and I follow every single rule. I’ve been living a life abiding by the laws. I serve my community. I serve my church. I wanted you to know that I… that we, we are not here to harm the country. We are here to enrich this country.”
On June 2, the day after her ICE office appointment, I saw Elvira again at City Hall in the Common Council chambers. Addressing the council, Alder Alex Brower leaned into his microphone and spoke, “Elvira Benitez, a resident of Sheboygan and a fellow Wisconsinite, has been here for over thirty years before being abducted by ICE. It is immoral what we are doing to our immigrant friends and neighbors in this country.”
The Milwaukee Common Council then unanimously passed the Elvira Benitez protection resolution, clarifying to future generations that we are a people who protect mothers and families who come to our city. Could it be that when neighbors show up for neighbors, sometimes basic decency wins?
After the vote, I finally got to ask Elvira how she did it. When she walked through the doors of the ICE field office on Monday, just the day before, where did she find the courage knowing that they might not let her back out. Her answer?
It was her community. “Everything I have is here. This is my life. My kids. My husband. I work. I pay taxes. I follow all the rules. Where am I going to go?”
Michael Pointer Mace is a proud Milwaukeean, a member of the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee and Voces de la Frontera’s New American Program.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin immigrant moms find courage and hope in community | Opinion
Reporting by Michael Pointer Mace, Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michael Pointer Mace, Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
