Sensenbrenner session draws crowd amid travel flap
Menomonee Falls — An overflow crowd turned up for a town hall meeting Sunday night by U.S. Rep Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), even as the congressman got caught up in controversy about President Donald Trump's executive order to ban travelers from several countries.
Loudly chanting "No ban. No wall. America has room for all" outside the room where Sensenbrenner was meeting with constituents, many of the people who came to the Menomonee Falls Village Hall for the last of three town hall gatherings scheduled by the congressman over the weekend were upset about Trump's moves in the first week of his presidency.
When the room quickly filled to its capacity of 150, at least another 100 lined up outside the door.
The Menomonee Falls session came a day after another town hall meeting where Sensenbrenner said people with green cards who are from countries affected by Trump's immigration order should not be allowed into the United States.
Sensenbrenner's original position was recorded by Joe Lalli, who attended the congressman's town hall meeting in Jefferson.
"People who have been here for years, who have green cards, and they're on vacation when this was announced, and they're stuck there — that's OK with you? You think that's right, that it's good policy?" Lalli asks.
Sensenbrenner answers that the order is legal, but when pressed by Lalli to answer his question, says: "I'll say yeah, it's right."
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At Sunday's meeting in Menomonee Falls, Sensenbrenner said he misspoke. In a statement he read during the meeting, he apologized.
"After a town hall meeting (in Jefferson), I was pressed to answer questions about whether the president's immigration pause should apply to green card holders," Sensenbrenner read from the statement, which he also posted on Facebook. "I do not believe it is right to ban green card holders from entering the United States absent evidence of a threat, regardless of where they are from."
Sensenbrenner defended Trump's ban, saying it is not about religion but about national security.
"This is a temporary ban so the government can ensure we have sufficient screening policies in place. While the majority of people seeking to enter the United States are peaceful, it only takes one individual to wreak havoc," Sensenbrenner said. "I will never support a blanket ban on any religious group, but we have to do everything we can, consistent with our values as Americans, to protect the freedom and security of the American people."
Among those trying to get into Sunday's session was Melissa Garves, who lives in Sensenbrenner's district and said she came for many reasons but the top two were immigration and Trump's choice for education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
"I am just outraged that this is happening in our country, " said Garves, who was not allowed to bring in a sign that said, "Immigrants are welcome here. We will not teach our children to hate."
When she couldn't get in to the meeting, police said she was allowed to hold the sign outside the Menomonee Falls Village Hall, so Garves stood outside, stamping her feet in the cold and smiling as she held up the sign.
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Ken Ezrow, who lives in Sensenbrenner's district, noted the congressman voted to impeach Bill Clinton and he wishes Trump would be impeached now.
"I haven't felt this unsafe in my country since the days and weeks after 9/11 when the threat was coming from abroad, " said Ezrow, who thinks the threat is now coming from within the American government.
As Brigette Bendzka waited outside the meeting room to get in, she pulled out her small paperback copy of the U.S. Constitution.
"I came out here tonight to defend the Constitution as it's written. The fact that free speech is being trampled," said Bendzka, an Army veteran of the first Gulf War.
She criticized Sensenbrenner, Paul Ryan and Ron Johnson who she said "have not come out against what Trump has done. He's pitting Americans against Americans," said Bendzka. "It's very distressing to me that we are against each other. That's not who we are."
Craig Gilbert of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
