(The Center Square) – A group of Milwaukee aldermen continue to be furious about the state’s latest high-profile immigration arrest.
Fifteen Milwaukee aldermen and alderwomen recently released a statement calling on ICE to arrest the person who actually wrote the letter that threatened President Donald Trump.
“Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote.
The Milwaukee leaders said Noem is wrong.
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary issued a statement condemning an immigrant from Milwaukee for issuing a death threat to the president. It came to light shortly thereafter that the person in question did not write this letter, and in fact was the victim,” the alders wrote.
The alders say Ramon Morales-Reyes did not write a letter last month that threatened Trump.
Immigration advocates have been saying for weeks that Morales-Reyes English, and can’t write well, either. The advocates say there’s no way Morales-Reyes wrote the letter that led to his arrest.
“It is being investigated as to whether the perpetrator of this crime intentionally sent the falsified letter to ICE in an attempt to have this person deported before they could testify in court,” the letter states.
The alders don’t ask for Morales-Reyes to be released, rather they say ICE needs to do better.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s top priority should be protecting the people of this country. In this instance, they did the exact opposite. Their quick triggered incorrect statement caused a man and his family to receive death threats and for him to be detained for something he did not do, while further fueling the anti-immigrant sentiment being pushed at the national level,” the alders wrote. “All things that undermine what should be the department’s chief priority of promoting public safety.”
Morales-Reyes was arrested last month and is being held on charges that he was in this country illegally.
