MADISON, Wis. — On Friday, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said that all Americans should be worried about President Trump’s top border adviser’s “chilling” comments that he could be arrested for telling state workers what to do if they are questioned by federal immigration agents.
As seen in the shocking YouTube video, Evers said, “I’m not afraid.” “I’ve never been stopped from doing the right thing, and today won’t be the first time.”
The problem at hand is the advice that Evers’ administration gave last month to state workers who asked what they should do if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up at their offices.
Evers told them to call a lawyer right away and ask the police to come back if the lawyer wasn’t available. People who work for the state are also told in the memo not to give ICE agents paper files or access to computers without first talking to the attorney for the state agency and not to answer their questions.
The suggestions are like the advice that Connecticut’s Democratic governor gave in January. Also, the rules are the same as what the National Immigration Law Center and other support groups have said should be done when immigration officers show up at work.
Republicans who didn’t like the advice said it was an order from Evers not to work with ICE agents, which the governor strongly rejected in Friday’s video. Evers said that the guidance was meant to give state workers “clear, consistent instructions” to make sure they have a lawyer with them at all times to help them follow all the rules that apply.
He said that Republicans were lying about the guidelines and spreading false information to make a “fake controversy of their own creation” bigger.
Evens said, “I haven’t broken the law.” “I have never broken the law or given anyone instructions on how to do so, and I have never done anything illegal myself.”
Reporters outside the White House on Thursday asked Trump’s top border aide, Tom Homan, about the Evers memo. When asked about the letter, Homan said, “Wait to see what’s coming.”
“You can’t support what we’re doing, but you can support sanctuary cities if that’s what you want to do,” Homan said. “But if you cross that line to inadmissibly holding and hiding an illegal alien, that’s a felony, and we’re treating it as such.”
Some Republicans were open to the idea of arresting Evers. On social media, Republican Wisconsin state Rep. Calvin Callahan shared a fake picture of Trump in a police outfit behind a grimacing Evers who was handcuffed outside of the state Capitol.
The words from Homan and Evers come a week after two felonies were brought against Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan at the courthouse. She is accused of helping a man avoid immigration officials by leading him and his lawyer out of her courtroom last week through the jury door when she found out that federal agents were looking for him.