CONTACT:
Gwen Pepin
[email protected]
Chicago, IL – With ICE conducting raids across Chicago, Illinois lawmakers locked out of ICE facilities, protestors and elected officials targeted in broad daylight, and innocent people wrongfully deported without due process, Donald Trump is once again proving that he loves fear, chaos, and destruction. While families are being terrorized in their homes, workplaces, schools, on the road, and even at graduations, Trump and his cronies are moving to gut the programs that Illinois’ working families rely on–including Medicaid, food assistance, and early childhood education.
“Illinois Democrats will not stay silent while Donald Trump turns our communities into collateral damage. This isn’t law and order–it’s cruelty plain and simple. And we will keep fighting back.”
Trump isn’t interested in solutions or making life better for working families. He blew up a bipartisan border deal last year because he needed chaos to campaign on–and now he’s tearing families apart and trying to silence anyone who speaks out. He even spent more than $130 million in taxpayer dollars deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles. Fear is the weapon. Chaos is the goal. Destruction is the plan.
Illinois Democrat lawmakers showed up to stand up for immigrant families and were denied entry twice at the South Loop ICE facility. A blatant attack on transparency and a clear attempt to silence accountability.
- New York Times: No One Answers When Lawmakers From Illinois Knock on ICE’s Door
- “What are they hiding?” Ms. Ramirez said. “They know that we’re here.”
- Members of Congress are allowed to enter ICE facilities under federal policy and do not have to provide advance notice, the representatives said, blaming the Trump administration for refusing to let them in.
- ABC 7 Chicago: U.S. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Jonathan Jackson denied tour of South Loop immigration check-in facility; CPD called
- The congressmen say it’s their right to be able to tour the facility. They said, once they made it inside, the police were called. And they were asked to leave.
- “This is what our constituents are demanding, as well, that we figure out what the heck is going on with these facilities,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Trump placed a target on Chicago’s back spreading dangerous lies and falsely accusing the city of being full of “illegal voters.” In response, ICE ramped up unannounced check-ins, raids, and detainments – igniting fear in schools, workplaces, and homes.
- NBC Chicago: Immigration advocates prepare for Chicago workplace ICE raids
- “We see workers who are afraid of utility vehicles pulling into a warehouse to do maintenance,” Ceniceros said. “That kind of anxiety is traumatizing every day, what this administration is doing is causing people to go to work every single day to provide for their families being traumatized.”
- “These raids are happening, our fear is they’re going to increase in both scale and intensity,” Ceniceros said. “It’s not that they’re targeting necessarily violent criminals, they’re targeting just working people.”
- The president of the Little Village Community Council, Baltazar Enriquez, is now seeing more and more people coming in asking for help. Enriquez said that’s because they haven’t been able to work over fears of being deported.
Journalists, elected officials, and protestors are being detained, arrested, and even assaulted. A clear message from Trump: no one is off limits.
- Chicago organizer and community advocate was detained by ICE with no deportation order or reason for arrest.
- A journalist was detained by ICE while covering protests in Georgia.
- A sitting U.S. Senator, Alex Padilla, was assaulted by federal agents at a DHS press conference.
- New York City’s comptroller was arrested by ICE in a courthouse.
ICE is under direct pressure from Trump and Stephen Miller to meet quotas leading to overcrowded detention centers and reckless roundups of anyone they can find regardless of record. The result? Working families are living in fear, businesses are taking a hit, and entire communities are being destabilized.
- CNN: ICE workplace raids are taking a toll on America’s businesses and workers
- The escalation is creating a chilling effect on the businesses that rely on immigrant labor and the workers themselves, with some staying home out of fear.
- “Recent immigration enforcement raids on businesses nationwide are creating serious challenges for local economies, communities, and industries that depend on immigrant labor to operate and prosper,” said Rebecca Shi, the CEO of American Business Immigration Coalition, a group representing employers with immigrants.
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