Darryl Morin of the Milwaukee-based nonprofit group Forward Latino said he believes widespread immigration enforcement action is coming to Wisconsin with a focus on the southeast part of the state. UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and UW Athletic Director Chris McIntosh took questions about Wisconsin Badgers football and whether the program is on solid ground.

Darryl Morin
National President, Forward Latino

• A surge of ICE, Customs and Border Control, and other Department of Homeland Security agents for large-scale immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota has resulted in the arrest of more than 3,000 people over the course of six weeks, according to the agencies, which say the operation there will continue. At the same time, this deployment has been met with broad-based protests in Minneapolis, St. Paul and surrounding communities, and federal agents have shot and killed two people since the start of January: Renée Good on Jan. 7, and Alex Pretti, who grew up in Green Bay, on Jan. 24. In an interview with Here & Now on Jan. 23, Morin said he and others believe what’s happening in and around Minneapolis will come to Milwaukee to target its large Hispanic population.
• Morin: “Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a growing consensus at all levels of government here in Wisconsin that, pending dramatic change in priorities, there will be a large-scale enforcement action here in the state of Wisconsin. We’re seeing that they have just under 3,500 agents up there in Minneapolis, and daily we see them coming into western Wisconsin, probing, detaining individuals, attempting to detain others, et cetera. I think it’s the firm belief of many that it’s just a matter of time before they come all the way down to southeastern Wisconsin.”

Jennifer Mnookin and Chris McIntosh
Chancellor and Director of Athletics, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Season tickets for Wisconsin Badgers football went on sale in January, and the university is hoping fans continue to fill Camp Randall, because the program generates $60 million and funds the university’s athletic department. But the season saw fans in the student section chanting to fire the head coach after disappointing losses. Serving as UW-Madison’s chancellor since the start of the 2022-23 academic year, Mnookin will be leaving this position in May after being hired as president of Columbia University in New York City. An alum of the Badgers football program, McIntosh has been the athletics director at UW-Madison since 2021. Here & Now senior political reporter Zac Schultz asked Mnookin and McIntosh, respectively, whether they thought keeping the head coach was the right move, and what prospects there are for improvement through the player transfer portal.
• Mnookin: “Well, for one thing, we saw two pretty great victories after that moment against both Illinois and Washington. But more generally, I think that while last season’s football performance wasn’t what any of us would wish for, and it’s what — we have to do better than that. There’s no question about that. But I also think that what we’ve seen is that this team can pull together the resources, the discipline and the know-how to help Badger football perform at the level that all of us rightly expect it to.”
• McIntosh: “Well, I mean, there’s a lot of excitement around the players that have committed to play at Wisconsin. It’s been fast and furious. For those Badger fans that have been following the news, it’s been a flurry of activity. You know, at this point in the season, I feel satisfied that we had a plan and we were able to execute it. And I think we did well in this environment of college athletics and its dependence on the portal. At the same time, while I’m excited, you know, we haven’t played a snap yet and we’re looking forward to getting those kids on campus and getting to work. And they’ll get to work right away. And so, it’s the beginning of a new season for us. There’s optimism and excitement, and like the chancellor said, there’s high expectations and we all understand that. We embrace that.”

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