Family wants answers after ICE, Milwaukee Police Department arrest

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MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Christine De La Cruz, her husband, and their three daughters were in their vehicle Monday morning when she said two Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers came to her car. 

"We weren’t sure what to do. We tried to contact the immigration lawyer before, to try to get him some papers. We started to try and call the lawyers because we were told don’t open nothing, just stay in the car, so we stayed in the car," said De La Cruz. 

"They were telling us they didn’t have a warrant, no one had a warrant, so we were waiting."

She said Milwaukee police officers eventually arrived. 

"I was talking to one officer, and another officer came behind him, reached his arm in my window, unlocked my door, opened my door and grabbed my husband," she said. 

De La Cruz said she was told her husband had violated his probation. She says it was for a case when he was in possession of a gun that was in her name.  

"I understand that he's breaking the law, he came here illegally, but we've been trying to fix it," she said. 

A spokesperson for the Milwaukee Police Department said, "ICE agents flagged down an MPD member and requested assistance in apprehending a suspect with active warrants, which MPD provided."

MPD has not yet responded to a question asking if the department knew what the warrants were for. 

ICE has also not responded to questions from CBS 58. 

This comes as the organization Voces de la Frontera is preparing to ask the Fire and Police Commission on Thursday to end collaboration with ICE. 

"What we want it to state is there is no collaboration with ICE unless you have a judicial warrant, that’s what we want the operations to say," said Primitivo Torres, statewide organizer for Voces de La Frontera. 

They will be gathering before the Fire and Police Commission meeting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. They will be holding a press conference at 4:30 p.m. 

To read the department's current policy, click here. 

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