Immigration advocates hold signs that read, “Renew your DACA,” and “Know Your Rights” during a news conference Saturday in Pilsen, where advocates and elected officials discussed how undocumented immigrants can protect themselves from deportation ahead of raids expected to start next week.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
With Trump deportation raids reported to start in Chicago, advocates move to safeguard immigrants
The incoming Trump administration is reportedly beginning mass deportations next week in the city and across the U.S., one of the president-elect’s campaign promises.
Illinois officials from all levels of government Saturday urged calm amid reports of Chicago being the target of sweeping immigration raids ordered by the Trump administration beginning early Tuesday morning.
Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., said at a press conference held by immigration rights advocates that “the current threats are nothing new” and advocates are ready to fight for and protect the community.
“We are here today because we will be tested once again,” Garcia said. “However, we do have experience in defending and protecting our community.”
Citing sources, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday the incoming Trump administration is planning a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago starting Tuesday, a day after Trump is inaugurated, and will last all week.
Incoming border czar Tom Homan told Fox News Friday “there’s going to be a big raid across the country. Chicago is just one of many places.” In December, Homan declared Trump’s mass deportation plan would start right here.
In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker on Saturday, Trump didn’t give specifics on when and where mass deportation raids would start, only that it will happen soon.
“It’ll begin very early, very quickly,” he said, adding: “I can’t say which cities because things are evolving. And I don’t think we want to say what city. You’ll see it firsthand. We have to get the criminals out of our country. And I think you would agree with that. I don’t know how anyone could not agree.”
At the news conference, Garcia pushed back on that claim, saying, “We continue to reject the assertion by Donald Trump and other enablers that somehow we are more prone to criminality. It is a falsehood.”
The Trump administration’s threats have many in Chicago fearing the worst.
On the city’s Southwest Side on Saturday, Any Huamani, a community organizer with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, was fielding requests for Know Your Rights Trainings and leading a rapid response team via private group chat. Team members are ready to be dispatched in case ICE agents arrive in her community.
“Obviously each scenario is different, “ Huamani said. “If they’re there to detain someone, rapid response teams respond in a different way. We have to yell out ‘these are your rights. You know, who can we call? Give us a phone number.’ And we’re also trying to record…ICE agents, if there’s an ICE truck or if it’s an unrecognizable truck.”
Meanwhile, 20 requests for trainings had come in.
The biggest fear among immigrants who don’t have a legal status in the US, Huamani said, is leaving their children behind. During Trump’s first administration, his “zero tolerance” policy separated more than 5,000 children from parents who crossed the border, with no tracking records. Some also fear being detained or held in cities or states unfamiliar to them. She’s been advising people to memorize at least three phone numbers so that they can be located if taken into ICE custody.
Organizers are worried that ICE agents could target the city’s Southwest Side and execute workplace raids in nearby suburbs, where there are also large concentrations of immigrants without legal status in the country.
Rep. Delia Ramirez — a member of the House committee on Homeland Security committee who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and married to a DACA recipient — warned against fear, which is being used as a tactic.
“What anti-immigrant rhetoric and people all over this country want to do in this moment is to divide us, and to all of us in Chicago, let’s choose love over hate. Let’s choose unity over division,” Ramirez said.
Ald. Jesse Fuentes (26th) urged calm and reminded attendees that people can still go about their daily lives with the protections in Chicago. Current ICE policies consider schools safe spaces, and officials said there’s no reason to believe that policy would change as of Saturday.
“We want families to understand young people can still go to school, our classrooms are going to be safe,” Fuentes said. “Individuals can go to work and that they can dial 911 and not be afraid because the Chicago Police Department will not be working with ICE. … No agency or sister agency of the city of Chicago will coordinate or work with ICE agents.”
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) holds a sign that reads, “Know Your Rights” as Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill, looks on during a news conference Saturday in Pilsen, where advocates and elected officials discussed how undocumented immigrants can protect themselves from deportation ahead of the incoming Trump administration.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The city has been working for months on various scenarios for what would happen when Trump took office, including running “tabletop exercises” dealing with the city’s response, city officials said.
Beatriz Ponce de Leon, Chicago’s deputy mayor for Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights, said the news that immigration raids could start in Chicago Tuesday “wasn’t a surprise,” but that “hearing confirmation made it more real, more concrete.”
She said the city is prepared. In addition to community agencies holding “know your rights” events all over the city, Chicago has met with city departments and sister agencies, such as the police and public school district, to make sure they know what they should, and should not, do.
Garien Gatewood, Chicago’s deputy mayor of community safety, said the police department has been working under a welcoming city ordinance for 40 years and so police are well aware of what they should do.
Chicago’s police department does not document immigration status, nor share information with federal immigration authorities, said spokesman Don Terry in a statement. But he added that police “will not intervene or interfere with any other government agencies performing their duties.”
Tom Homan, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for “border czar,” speaks at a Law & Order PAC event in December. He warned Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has said he would protect the city’s immigrants from federal agents, “If he doesn’t want to help, get the hell out of the way.”
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times file
Chicago has been a sanctuary city for nearly 40 years since Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order, allowing undocumented people to access city services and live without fear of police harassment or city cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The policy led to what is known as the “welcoming city” ordinance.
In August 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott started sending asylum-seekers from cities along the U.S.-Mexico border to sanctuary cities led by Democrats, like Chicago.
Speaking on Fox News, Homan said “ICE is finally going to go out and do their job. We’re going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens, that’s what’s going to happen.”
In December at a Northwest Side GOP holiday party, Homan said “Chicago’s in trouble,” calling Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker “terrible” and to “come to the table” to negotiate with him over a mass deportation plan. He warned Johnson, who has said he would protect the city’s immigrants from federal agents, “If he doesn’t want to help, get the hell out of the way.”
Pritzker’s office did not provide a response to the news that immigration raids were going to start in Chicago next week. The office provided a transcript of the governor’s statement at a Dec. 11 press conference where he said he “believes it is his obligation to protect” undocumented immigrants who have not committed violent crimes.
Resurrection Project officials urged people to call 855-435-7693, their family support hotline, if an arrest is made.
Contributing: Tina Sfondeles
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