U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is officially leaving Downtown Milwaukee. The agency confirmed it is closing its longtime processing office at 310 E. Knapp St. and relocating to a new 18,000-square-foot facility at 11925 W. Lake Park Dr. in the Park Place business park on the city’s far Northwest Side.
“ICE will soon be moving office space,” a spokesperson said, noting the transition will be phased to maintain operations throughout the move, told Urban Milwaukee.
The agency has pursued the new site since 2023, and its downtown location has steadily emptied. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, its sister agency, previously relocated to Westown’s 310W building.
The shift to the Northwest Side sparked political and neighborhood tension earlier this year. (RELATED: ‘I Can’t Keep Everybody in Jail’: Judge’s Decision Ends in CTA Train Fire Attack)
Alderwoman Larresa Taylor criticized the relocation, saying residents were given no voice as the federal government—through a private developer—used its authority to bypass city zoning objections. Despite pushback, construction continued, and the city issued an occupancy permit on Nov. 3.
According to ICE, the new facility “will have processing stations plus temporary holding rooms. This will not be a detention facility.” The agency’s only detention center in Wisconsin remains the Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau.
Even as ICE prepares to vacate Knapp Street, it may still keep a downtown footprint. This fall, the agency issued a nationwide request for new furnished office space, including up to 18,500 square feet in Milwaukee. No details on a future location have been released.
The move frees the Milwaukee School of Engineering to advance its long-planned redevelopment of the Knapp Street building. MSOE purchased the property in 2023 after alumnus Kendall Breunig sold it to the university at a steep discount.
The school intends to convert the site into a new home for its Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management programs, though the timeline has stretched because the federal lease was extended. Government records show the lease runs through 2028, with an early termination option in 2026.
Weekly protests have continued outside the existing ICE office, even as the agency, boosted by $45 billion from the recently passed One Big Beautiful Act, prepares for expanded immigration enforcement. Urban Milwaukee previously reported a second federal tenant is expected to join ICE at the new Northwest Side location. (RELATED: Wisconsin Senate Moves to Undo Evers’ 400-Year School Funding Boost)