Maggie Angst

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

At a ceremony marking the opening of the Mexican Consulate in Milwaukee Tuesday, Gov. Scott Walker focused on the strong ties between the U.S. and Mexico, but avoided questions about immigration policies and Donald Trump's call for a wall between the two countries.

"One of the things we've stressed is as long as our governor is still coming to Mexico to talk about commerce and trade opportunities, it doesn't matter what the president is doing," Walker said. "We're still going to have a strong relationship."

In 2013, Walker sent a letter to the president of Mexico explaining the need for a consulate in Milwaukee.

Walker said in conversations with Mexican officials in June and again Tuesday, they were concerned about anti-immigration rhetoric from Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. But Walker argued that Mexican officials are also concerned about criticisms of the NAFTA free trade agreement from Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who placed second in the Democrats' nomination process.

The Mexican Consulate in Milwaukee opened its doors to the public in July at 1433 N. Prospect Ave. Milwaukee's is the 50th Mexican consulate in the U.S.

The consulate serves 53 Wisconsin counties as well as 12 counties from Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Previously, the Chicago office served Mexican residents in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana — a population of more than 3 million.

Due to work schedules, travel expenses and long wait lists, Mexican nationals in Wisconsin had trouble getting the services they needed, said Eileen Figueroa, state director for the Latino group League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Wisconsin.

"They can focus their energy in the community they reside in instead of Chicago," Figueroa said.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of the pro-immigrant group Voces de la Frontera, hopes the new consulate will help improve the political climate in Wisconsin regarding immigration.

"I hope this sends a message to Republican legislators in Wisconsin who wanted to pass aggressive anti-immigration bills," Neumann-Ortiz said.

A number of Wisconsin political figures also attended Tuesday's event, including U.S. Reps. Sean Duffy and Jim Sensenbrenner, both Republicans, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett also attended.

Trump to meet with Mexico President Peña Nieto ahead of immigration speech

Barrett and Duffy both took swipes at Trump's plan to deport all of the illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

"You can't round up 11 million people, arrest them and send them home," Duffy said. "I fundamentally disagree with that. You're not going to do what Mr. Trump has said which is have this deportation force, but that doesn't mean you can't secure your borders."

Duffy, who backs Trump's candidacy, said he supports the securing of borders between Mexico and the U.S., but that it should be paired with a formal immigration system so more people can come in and out of the country legally.

"We (the City of Milwaukee) understand in this world economy, in this political environment, that it's more important for us to find bridges than for us to build walls," Barrett said.

Barrett said the city has benefited from the growing Hispanic population the past decade. In the past 15 years, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Milwaukee has doubled, he said.

Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu stressed that Mexican immigrants are hard workers and valuable to Wisconsin.

"Undocumented immigrants are oftentimes an easy target for intolerance and discrimination," Massieu said. "But let me tell you, it has been documented that if this population left Wisconsin today, the state would lose over 14,500 jobs, $2.6 billion in economic activities and an additional $1.2 billion in gross state product."

"This consulate will become a space of binational friendship that will shape and no doubt have a promising future for our societies," Massieu said.

According to 2010 census data, there are 224,248 Mexican residents in Wisconsin, about 4.3% of the total population.

Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.