Rico Camacho #

Introduction #

Rico Camacho, a Waukesha alderman and social studies teacher at Catholic Memorial High School, lost his teaching job in October 2025, days after a Facebook post falsely warning that undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in downtown Waukesha triggered a backlash that reached his employer. “Everyone please please stay alert, stay inside ICE is in Waukesha in the corner of (People’s Park) they are undercover,” Camacho wrote, attaching photos of men who turned out to be employees of a local emergency-management firm on their way to lunch. The school confirmed his employment had ended but declined to say why, citing privacy rules: “We can only confirm that he started in August of 2025 and is no longer at Catholic Memorial,” a spokesperson said.

Background Information #

Camacho was elected in April 2025 to represent District 15 on the Waukesha Common Council and had joined Catholic Memorial High School, a private Catholic school in Waukesha, as a teacher in August 2025. His October 2025 post landed in a charged moment: throughout 2025, social-media alerts about suspected ICE activity — accurate or not — spread rapidly in immigrant communities across Wisconsin, and Waukesha’s City Attorney would later have to sort out where an alderman’s personal Facebook fit into official city communications.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

Allegations. The characterization of Camacho’s post as “false” reflects the findings of the Waukesha Police Department and the identification of the men photographed by their employer; no court has adjudicated any claim arising from the post, and Camacho apologized for it.

Camacho’s Facebook post warned residents that undercover ICE agents were deployed at People’s Park and urged people to stay inside, with photos of the alleged agents attached and hashtags meant to draw community attention. The men in the photos were quickly identified as employees of Secure Resources Unlimited, a Waukesha-based emergency-management consulting firm conducting training nearby; the company’s owner explained to TMJ4 that they were simply on their way to lunch, and the Waukesha Police Department said it had no information confirming any federal immigration activity in the area. Camacho deleted the post and issued multiple apologies, writing: “I was completely incorrect that these people WERE NOT ICE agents… I should have done my due diligence and checked to verify but I overreacted.” City Attorney Brian Running reviewed the episode and concluded the post “was a personal post and did not involve or represent city business” — a finding that insulated his council seat but not his day job.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

Days after the post and the apology tour, an email to Catholic Memorial parents and students announced Camacho’s departure, assuring families that “there will be no disruption of our high standards of teaching and learning.” TMJ4’s headline put the causation plainly: “Waukesha alderman loses teaching job days after posting false immigration alert.” The school declined to confirm the reason, citing privacy, and Camacho himself told The Freeman by text: “I have no comment at this time. I will be making a statement later this week or early next week” — a promised statement that did not address whether the firing was tied to the post. Immigrant-rights group Voces de la Frontera took the opposite view, circulating a petition that said Camacho “acted in good faith” and that Catholic Memorial had “unjustly terminated” him.

Current Status #

Camacho remains the District 15 alderman in Waukesha — the city attorney’s finding that the post was personal business protected his elected seat — but he is out of the classroom, with no reported teaching post since Catholic Memorial ended his employment in fall 2025. The false-alert episode has become a reference point in Wisconsin’s immigration debates, cited both as an example of viral misinformation’s costs and, by his defenders, of an employer punishing a good-faith warning. The case also previews a now-familiar pattern: one screenshot, one employer, and a private citizen’s mistake becoming a national referendum within a news cycle.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

Camacho held two public-facing roles — elected alderman and private-school teacher — and the false post cost him one of them inside a week. The asymmetry is the story: an elected office survived because a city attorney separated his account from city business, while an at-will teaching job at a private school did not survive the parents’ emails and the headlines that followed. His own admission that he “should have done my due diligence” stands as the episode’s summary — an overreaction that cost a new teacher the classroom he had entered just two months earlier.