The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) facility at 310 E. Knapp St. in downtown Milwaukee, which houses an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility, plans to move to Milwaukee’s Granville neighborhood. Local leaders opposed the move at a Wednesday press conference at the potential site of its new facility.
The 36,000-square-foot building at 11925 W. Lake Park Drive on the city’s far northwest side will become USCIS’s main Milwaukee office and all operations will be carried over from the downtown facility, according to remarks from Alderwoman Larresa Taylor at the press conference.
Permits were filed in November of 2024 for minor modifications of the building including a chain link fence around the property and a sally port, according to a press release from Taylor. Several minor modification permits were filed with the city dating back to 2023 but were withdrawn months prior to Wednesday’s press conference. Three modification permits are labeled “in progress” on the city’s website.
Milwaukee’s Common Council leadership, the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, and several state legislators attended the press conference and oppose the move.
“There must be a process to everything, and federal facilities simply popping up with no notice isn’t fair to the residents of Milwaukee,” said Milwaukee’s Common Council president José Pérez at the press conference.
In press releases from Ald. Taylor, the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County and the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, the facility was referred to as an “ICE Detention Facility.”
The new facility will not house detainees or non-detainees overnight as its operating hours will remain 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. in the likeness of those at the downtown facility, according to Taylor.
“To up and move the downtown facility to another district and not have the community be able to weigh in on it is unacceptable,” Taylor said.
The downtown USCIS building was sold to the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) in 2023.
The West Lake Park Drive building, located with the Park Place business park, is currently owned by Milwaukee Governmental LLC, which would lease the building to the Department of Homeland Security to house its USCIS and ICE operations. Representatives from Milwaukee Governmental have agreed to meet with Taylor to discuss other possibilities for the building.
A timeline for the move has not yet been released.
