ICE Arrests Seven in Madison, Including Attack Suspect

Federal immigration officials arrested seven people in a targeted ICE enforcement action in Madison on Oct. 2 during a vehicle stop and at a residence on the city's east/northeast side, local advocates and news outlets reported. Among those detained was 39-year-old Ismael Hernandez-Padilla, a Honduran national accused in a Sept. 7 attack and charged with strangulation and suffocation, battery, disorderly conduct, bail jumping and separate misdemeanor sexual-assault and lascivious-behavior counts; DHS says he entered without inspection, and he has been charged but not convicted. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the arrests as enforcement against criminal illegal aliens, while ICE and county sheriffs provided limited public detail about the operation. Immigrant-advocacy groups Voces de la Frontera, Centro Hispano and Forward Latino said they are assisting families, seeking verification of warrants and detention locations, and warned the operation is spreading fear and disrupting school, work and health-care access. Reporters and advocates said the Madison arrests, together with an earlier Manitowoc raid that detained 24 dairy workers, signal an escalation in immigration enforcement activity in Wisconsin.