Immigrant and refugee rights will now come to order.
Uh, today we have two items on the agenda.
The first is the approval of the July Rule 45 report,
and the second is a brief update on federal immigration
enforcement trends in Chicago
and other cities where there has been, uh,
federal escalation.
Uh, no votes are to be taken for this matter.
We'll begin with a roll call to establish a quorum.
Alderwoman Dow. Alderwoman Gutierrez.
Alder Man Kon Al Alder person,
Rodriguez Alder person.
Fuentes Alderman T Farro.
Alderwoman Cruz Alderman Cardona
Alderwoman Rodriguez Sanchez.
Alderman Casada Alderwoman Manina Howorth Alderwoman Hadden,
vice Chair Taylor and myself.
We have, uh, seven members present. We have a quorum.
Any, any non-members present? I do not see any
Thank.
Okay. All right.
At this time, we'll begin the public comment period.
Uh, the period is limited to 30 minutes outta respect
for everybody's time.
Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Remote speakers will comment
first, followed by those in person.
As of noon, Thursday, September 11th, 2025.
Zero callers have requested to speak today.
So we will move on to in-person speakers.
All right. Our first speaker will be Prosperity News.
Gotta be me. Gotta gotta do the branding.
I appreciate it.
Check it out. Okay.
I'm down here to represent the citizens
and also the legal migrants that
we are overlooking.
And I'm gonna say specifically in multiple neighborhoods on
the south and the west side.
When you all signed an executive order,
let's say Brandon Johnson signed an executive order,
it stood out who is being truly
represented here in this city beyond those taxpayers.
There is a difference that Brandon Johnson
don't wanna recognize between citizens and residents.
There is a difference,
and citizens have more rights than a resident has.
Let's talk about the reported crime.
The reported crime is not
being reported, not all of it.
And I'll tell you why.
Because I visited several police stations
and they wouldn't even take a report.
They did everything to excuse themselves
and wait out their time to leave.
And then that's when the next set of
members came in to take a report and delay that.
So all crime is not being reported.
So stop the telling the lies,
because this is by design also, 2024
when non-citizens, illegals
or whatever, you all wanna reference them as residents,
the people you all also would say, last year,
all this crime was going on,
but now they turned angelic this year.
There's no crime that's being reported on any of them.
But black communities, the crime is rising.
Do you wonder why it might be rising?
Not that I condone it, but that's
because it's an emphasis on those communities
than it is on a lot of other communities.
And let's go with this campaigning that Pritzker
and Johnson finally coming out
and doing your campaigning for residents, the people,
not the citizens.
No one has gone out and
and represented these citizens, the ones
who are getting denied access or services.
And it's not because of the federal government.
It's happening locally right here, right here
by these people that are supposedly running this city
that Brandon Johnson had already by design,
had planned on removing spot charter
before he even got selected into office.
Go look at his website.
See a lot of people you need to read about what's the facts
and who's being represented on behalf of this communities.
And also your black caucuses.
Y'all a joke because none of you all have stood up
for nothing black.
Thank you. I'll let it be noted that Alder women,
Rodriguez Sanchez, is here for attendance.
All right. Uh, next,
our next speaker is Mr. George Blakemore.
Good, right? I don't see any black Altman
present today that they're telling you something.
But I see one black lady say, I'm Puerto Rican.
She look identifiable black.
So the black caucas, whatever they're showing you,
they black people are waking up.
Not oh one is present here.
Immigration, illegal immigration, the problem
with the blue and the red.
We as black people, we have to stay focused on us.
The Hispanics numbers. And Trump don't like that.
Just coming, waiting across Rio Grande.
Trump doesn't like that.
I, I asked Trump to come to Chicago
to flip red, to go red, but to go black.
So I have about four or five black people who are present.
We haven't been tending to our business.
And our business is business. We don't have grocery stores.
We don't have the Asians,
the heroin service station banks.
So you can't lay that on Trump and Brandon Johnson.
The political hacks, black faces in high places.
Somebody is dropped the ball,
and we, black people have dropped the ball
enslaved in America.
But a slave mentality tend to your business.
The blue don't give a damn about you,
and the red don't give a damn about you.
And some of these black sellouts don't give
a damn about you.
So we had prosperous Black Wall Street in our
communities, and we didn't have a mayor
and Altman Black Altman.
So something is wrong here. And it begins with black people.
Flip red, go red, go blue, go black.
Otherwise, you will be gentrified.
Out of the city, out of the county, and out of the nation.
Be selfish black people. It's only by three blacks are here.
Be selfish. Stop preservation is a first law of nature.
Birds of a feather should flock together.
We have to use what we got to get what we want.
And if we don't use what we got to get what we want,
we don't need what we got.
We, uh, have a slave mentality.
We have to yourself of that.
Thank you. Thank
You you, Mr. Blakemore.
I'm now required to reread the Chicago City
of Chicago Council Rules of Conduct
for Public Meetings pursuant to Rule 58
of the Chicago City Council.
Rules of Order and Procedure.
The Sergeant Arm sets forth the following rules
of conduct for members of the public.
These rules should be in effect at all times
that a viewing gallery
or room is open for a meeting
of the city council or any of its committees.
Next speaker is Ka, uh, Karina Santana.
I'm not. All right.
Hello everybody. My name is Karina Santana. Karina Santana.
I am a, uh, senior at UIC.
I actually am graduating this semester.
I just wanna start off with saying, you know,
I hear everyone here right now.
I hear the pain that you guys are all going through.
And right now I also see a lot of division.
I hear black versus Latino. How sad is that?
The people who have came here, either undocumented
or who have came here, and what you guys call the,
the legal process, if we look at history itself,
what has the United States done to other countries
to place people who are working here, either legally
or undocumented, right?
What are, what is the United States position in those
countries and those who are working here right now?
What is the exploitation that is going on,
either undocumented, documented, there's still a lot
of discrimination going on in workplaces, right?
Something that I really want pull up.
If we look at our everyone's history, whether black, Latino,
Asian, any person of color, there is still a lot
of similarities between us all there is pain.
Your experiences ha provide us
with those stories of your pain.
Now, something I do wanna mention is politics is not
associated with surviving right now.
If we look at the history of Chicago,
we will see the segregation, right?
We still see that to this point.
And so what I hear from those who are here representing
what they, you know, the citizens, I understand
that you guys have not had the resources.
I think a lot of people see that.
A lot of young people are seeing that
and they're doing what they can.
Nonprofits here, you know, are trying their best.
They're trying to get the funding to be able
to provide to those people.
But at the same time, there are people, families
who are being torn apart in such egregious ways.
Egregious being nasty and gross and horrible, right?
And where have we seen this in history?
Every culture has some sort of historical outcome
that has affected them.
What are we doing for each other?
How can we work together to make a difference for everyone
to come together and receive the resources we all need?
Either documented, undocumented, how long you've been here,
how long you haven't been here,
but know that we are all feeling the same
thing in one way or another.
And we see your stories. We hear you.
Anyone who is not here in this moment,
we see you and we hear you.
And I am sorry for what you are going through.
It is a very scary time.
And we have been going through this for centuries.
For centuries. All right?
Um, and then, uh, if I have time, um,
I, I ask the politicians here, you know,
I know the work you're putting in.
Talk to your other politicians, you know, connect with them.
'cause that's the last thing we have in humanity,
is connection, relationships,
hear each other's stories. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Diana.
Uh, Liefer.
Uh, uh, I did not come here expecting to be asked
to speak, but, um, uh, I came to support
the struggle of immigrants
and refugees who have come to this country
because the conditions in their own lands are so, um, brutal
and so unfortunate that they need to find a place
of refuge and, uh, shelter.
My own ancestors did that over a hundred years ago.
And were fortunate enough to be able to do that,
particularly because it enabled them
to avoid the horrors of the Holocaust.
Um, and, uh, there are other forms
of Holocaust taking place in South America, in Africa,
in Asia, and I would like to think that in the richest,
most powerful country of all times,
that we could make room for those people.
I second what Corina says.
I understand that there are people
who came here against their will in 1619
and, uh, uh, have been subjected to the most awful
of situations.
And for that, I think our country has a lot
to pay them back with
because they, uh, have not been given the opportunity
to establish familial wealth that white immigrants
to this country have.
And, uh, we need parody.
We need equality on all levels in this country.
I, I have the great privilege to interpret
without payment as a volunteer
or victims of torture who have fled their homes in Africa
and in the Caribbean, uh, uh, uh,
that which are in conflict.
And they themselves opposed what was going on.
And were tortured as their recompense,
and they have come here legally.
Um, but, uh, as getting green cards has not been easy.
And it can be a very lengthy
and costly process during which time they still have
to provide food and shelter for their families.
Um, uh, I have also had the privilege of teaching
Indochinese refugees after the fall of Saigon.
And, um, they are what we consider a model minority.
Well, that's just not fair.
Uh, I mean, it's great that they are considered that way,
but anybody who comes here seeking, uh, shelter
and refuge should be able to
find their way in this country and in this city.
And I'm grateful for any efforts to, uh,
support their, their struggle.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Uh,
our next speaker is Chris, uh, Colton.
I believe. Pam. Sorry, Chris.
Yeah. I don't do this too often. So, uh, bear with me.
Um, mainly I know there's a lot
of work concerns about refugees and citizens being ignored,
and at the same time, um, refugees taking jobs,
or pretty much are taking up the economy,
whatever the situation is, is.
But we have to look at the root, the problem, which is first
and foremost, sanctions of Venezuela.
You, you, you stuff a country with sanctions.
Eventually, more people, more poverty
people migrate over here.
If you have the US government, uh, pretty much
who has a history of sticking a nose in Latin America
and putting in dictatorships that put in austerity measures
like a Salvador and elsewhere.
And people want to escape that,
they're gonna ri come over here.
So as if you're not criticizing,
it's gonna be rough, what I'm gonna say.
But if you're not criticizing sanctions on Venezuela,
you're not criticizing the US
and pretty much imposing government.
A, uh, fascist governments putting austerity measures
or neoliberal government's putting austerity measures
and central Amer in Central America
or South America, then you can't complain about refugees.
'cause that's US foreign policy that's bringing them over
here, whether you like it or not.
So it's easy to scream at the refugees.
But then, you know, we're in a country that is woven
with white supremacy culture in a sense where
that shows in our foreign policy,
and it shows in our domestic policies, 16, 19, uh, this,
like, I think somebody in 1619.
Yeah. Uh, you know, the one, one American condition
to get started was when, when pretty much, uh, people,
when Africans were forced to come here,
their families are stripped from each other,
which is an extremely painful experience.
Now, the migrants are coming over here
and their families are being stripped from each other,
which is an American tradition.
So the one thing I would plead with you is I'm all for
African Americans gonna reparations.
I will fight for that myself personally.
Uh, at the same time though,
but at the same time, we cannot let white
supremacy culture divide us.
We gotta demand justice for pretty much,
and even reparations for the, pretty much the health
that the US put through globally, within in Asia
or Latin, Latin America, or, or Africa even.
And also justice for the indigenous
and African Americans here.
We've gotta find commonality with that.
You know, like, and at the same time, like, you know,
my dad was a union welder,
but you know, what have we found commonality
with African American coworkers when their factors trying
to screw them over, you know?
And we got, that's the commonality we need to find
with each other instead of blaming refugees or
'cause keep in mind though, one great thing about refugees
and immigrants is they start more businesses
than US citizens do.
They pay more taxes than US citizens do.
So pretty much you're screwing yourself off
with taxes if you start deporting people, you know?
So why, what I ask of you is your concerns are valid in
regards to the African American
being, you know, not being funded.
Well, I, I'm with you on that,
but at the same time, go to the root of the problem
because the refugees are not the root of that problem.
I'm done. Peace.
Thank you, sir. Uh, next speaker is Amber Belcher.
Hi there. Um, I didn't come to this meeting intending
to speak, but then was no, uh, recommended that folks, um,
speak if they are here and share in the conversation.
I'm here because, um, well,
I got the email from Alder person, Vasquez.
Uh, I used to live in Lincoln Square.
I'm now up in Rogers Park.
My kids go to school in Lincoln Square,
and we have formed a group called Budlong United to try
and help protect and support our neighbors
and our families at our school.
We have a lot of folks who came up from Venezuela, um,
and we have seen a reduction in attendance at the school
and families who are really scared
and nervous to walk to school,
to the point at which we're trying to organize
and figure out how to help walk kiddos
to school from their homes.
Um, and I think part of this is,
is tricky even in working within CPS,
which is a whole other thing.
So I really came here to learn more about
what y'all have been doing and the, the studies
and the things you've learned from other cities
and the resources and working in nonprofits.
I also work for a good governance organization,
though I'm not here representing them.
I'm here as a parent and as a concerned person.
Um, I hear your concerns too, sir,
and I couldn't agree more that not enough has been done so
that there is true equality.
Um, and we need to have ways to plug in as neighbors
who care about each other.
I don't care if you're a resident, if you're a migrant,
if you're a citizen, it does not matter.
You are a human being and you have a right to be here.
And that is what I wanna learn about, is
how the heck do we help each other?
Because we have the threat of ice.
We have the threat of Trump.
And I don't know about y'all, but I'm freaking
done with all of it.
I don't know what it is we're supposed to be doing,
and I would just like to know how we can help,
and we're trying to organize and we're trying to mobilize,
but that's tricky and tough grassroots organizations.
I mean, I work in fundraising. It's hard, it's hard.
The other piece that I wanted to ask about
that I just learned about from my colleague the other day is
this issuing of permits in the loop
and the surrounding area this weekend,
like the 12th through the 16th.
And I just wanted to flag it.
I don't think it has anything to do
with this committee necessarily,
but the fact that it's being tied
to Mexican independent celebration to me, just wreaks
of I don't know what, it's highly suspicious.
I don't agree with it.
I've never heard of anything being tied in that kind of way.
I understand it's related to cars.
That doesn't make sense either.
Um, and it just feels like profiling.
And we know ice is in and amongst our midst.
We know all the things we're supposed to do,
but this came from CPD, and I'm not okay with that.
And I have questions about that.
So that's really why I'm here.
I just wanna understand how to plug
and play, and I wanna help.
Like, a lot of my colleagues couldn't come today from like
the group in, uh, at Budlong Elementary,
but we really just wanna know how to help each other
and help our neighbors really there and across the city.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Uh, our next, uh, speaker is Michael Young Bay.
I heard everything everybody has to say,
and not just for today,
but for ever since this situation has started
with the crisis.
Where's the help? How can we help?
Why is this happening?
C-P-S-C-T-U, et cetera.
I done experienced it all.
I done watched the CTU Chicago Public School system,
how illegal migrants.
I have video footage.
I was in the class with 'em to get the stipend
with the housing crisis.
I have experienced it. I've been coming down here.
Me and my wife and child, whether we employed
or not, people intentionally was doing things
to keep us from being housed.
Right now, today, my wife can't even get employment.
We are blacklisted. The city of Chicago.
When you get a place, they supposed you, um, send 3 1 1,
they send you over to the cane center on 47, you supposed
to get a package, you know,
with your dishes, brooms, et cetera.
They won't help us with nothing. Nothing.
That's why I came down here,
and I had to get outside of myself sometimes,
because like I said, people don't want
to hear the real deal.
But when you get to cussing, when you get to yelling,
when you get to call the names, et cetera, now, oh,
woo woo woo, this and that.
You know, I had, I had a alderman.
I had a alderman have gang members come down
here to attack me.
I've been on frontline
and I've been experiencing, I ain't, I ain't,
I ain't like nobody else that been coming down here
because they was going home.
Me and my wife and child had to sleep in our damn car.
A landlord agreed
to help us get housing so we can be in there in the home
before Thanksgiving so we can celebrate Thanksgiving.
The agency that supposed
to been helping us out, that's what they did.
They wasn't even signed,
signed the agreement so he can sign.
He already signed the lease.
When the landlord came to us
after Thanksgiving, we slept in the car
and freezing cold, if you know,
it was freezing cold right in front of that wise hospital.
What they just closed down.
They wasn't even, sometimes won't even let us wanna come
in and use the restroom.
They need to be closed down.
And we done experienced some harsh, some
I've been attacked by the police.
And Sarah, I got the video.
I ain't even put it out there
because I ain't want the police to look a certain kinda way.
I'm not up with the violence. I'm not up with the confusion.
I'm for helping migrants.
But damn, don't step over the people that's here already.
You know, they coulda put us in the hotel
and study the migrants and put them in the shelf.
Thank you for your comments. Uh,
and last we have Patricia Puente,
Mr. Young Bay.
I'm gonna ask, ask you to allow space for the next person.
Thank you.
Um, my name is Patricia Puente. I have a concern.
Uh, I know that the migrants, uh,
it's been two years approximately.
I even went to Angie Guerrero Colar or state representative
and asked her for some help so
that they would take those migrants from the police station
and give him, uh, housing
or whatever, an apartments or whatever.
And this is what she told me. I only help the Hispanics.
I don't know, maybe she was really stressed out.
I don't don't know what her issue was.
But the thing is that
whoever brought
or allowed those people to come did it wrong.
So then you guys are representing all
that persons that allowed that.
Why blame the Americans?
Why didn't you guys do it right the first time?
Okay? Now, the other thing is for the president to say,
bring whatever needs to be brought.
I agree with it. Why?
Because I went to the police station
and I see the migrants doing gang signs
to people from all the other cars, stealing, doing, um,
doing prosti, making prostitution, uh,
making their womans do prostitution.
And I'm like, what is going on?
Where is the law enforcement?
And this is what the law enforcement told me.
We were told that we cannot touch 'em. Are you kidding me?
They are stealing jewelry stores.
They are carjacking.
And you are saying you are not allowed to touch them.
Not only that, you are telling them, do not open their doors
to the law enforcement.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
The police goes and,
and they're like, Hey, we have sanctuary.
We, we were told that we are,
we are not supposed to be touched.
The p the the law enforcement turns
around and says, oh, okay.
Like, what the heck? The other thing is that
I was told I was working in a factory,
and I was told by immigrants, by migrants
that I wasn't allowed to speak English.
Are you kidding me? I started being harassed.
They started pushing me. They started throwing my boxes.
I'm like, what kind of people
are you allowing here?
Okay. And God bless the
United States of America.
We opened the door to everybody. Just respect this country.
And the first language is English, not Hispanic,
not Mexican, or not Hispanic, period.
I think. I think Spanish. I think Spanish is the language
for those for reference.
Uh, and, uh, sorry. Our founder speaker is Ivy. Uh, Kansky.
That, Ivy,
we can't touch them.
We can touch you the vision.
Good Afternoon. My name is Ivy Kansky,
spelled C-Z-E-K-A-N-S-K-I.
I don't represent an organization.
Um, very happy to be here and hear all the public comments,
and really good
to hear what's happening in everyone's community.
Um, I wish this happened more often.
Chicago is a notoriously segregated city.
Notoriously, um, offers
services to some parts of the city
that matter more than others.
And that's real. That should always be named.
This committee is here for immigrant and Refugee rights.
There is an international right to asylum.
People are legally able to
get a court hearing for their asylum claim.
There is a legal process where, um,
migrants are able to a, apply for asylum to
apply through the legal pathway
and to go to their court hearings to do that.
The problem why we're here is the federal government
has stopped doing that.
And the federal government is arresting people who are going
to their hearings, who are following the process,
who are respecting this country.
This country is not respecting our own laws.
That's why we're here.
We're here because the federal government is robbing our
city further, tearing our communities apart by pouring
all of its resources into deporting migrants.
That's part of the problem of why
we can't get investment into our communities
that desperately need it.
That's why there's so much division
and pitting even further communities against one another
for the resources that are actually being
actively taken away.
The economy is being ruined by
a very greedy president who is pouring all
of our tax money into immigration enforcement.
The jobs right now are in immigration
enforcement and detention.
I went to the Broadview facility this morning.
The Broadview Police Force is now being told
to guard the ICE facility.
So rather than doing their jobs, protecting their community,
they're standing in front of a boarded up building.
Does that keep our community safe? Does that stop crime?
No. That's a waste of our taxpayer dollars.
That's a theft from our communities that is so wrong,
and it's tearing families apart.
Thank you very much. Thank you
to all of our speakers today.
I would like to note that this committee received two
written public comments that you'll find in your packet.
There being no more speakers.
Uh, the public comment period is now concluded.
Uh, the first item on the agenda
before our committee is to approve the July, 2025
Rule 45 report.
Can I have a motion to approve der person Fuentes?
So moves, hearing, no objections. So ordered.
The second and final item on the agenda is a brief update on
federal immigration enforcement trends in Chicago.
Thank, thank you. Thank you, alderman Casada.
You are now present. Now. I lost my plate. No, I'm kidding.
Uh, and other cities
where there's been escalation enforcement
activities, no votes are to be taken.
Following the conclusion of presentations
and questions from Alders will, uh, first, uh,
have the Illinois Coalition
of Immigrant on Immigrant Refugee Rights,
discussing School safety zones and any related active state
and federal legislative proposals.
They'd like to discuss then the American Civil Liberties
Union to discuss the national litigation frameworks, as well
as ways we in Chicago can observe
and submit information to document legal violations.
Finally, the Committee on Immigrant
and Refugee Rights will present on
what we've heard from council members in LA
and DC as far as federal deployment observations
and their lessons learned and recommendations to us.
Alright, so while President Trump's attention appears
to have shifted to deploying the National Guard to Memphis,
or so, he says, make no mistake,
the federal presence in our city is already here.
It's been here, and it'll continue
to escalate over the following months.
In the past weeks and months, we have seen
peaceful protestors being manhandled while they exercise
their peaceful right to protest.
We've seen gates go up to protect federal, protect,
quote unquote, federal buildings.
We've seen a mother and her baby trapped in a hotel room
for five days without any way of contacting her family.
We've seen street vendors being snatched off the street in
brought daylight, and we've seen a massive increase in hor
courthouse detentions
and arrests at routine immigration appointment,
including on June 4th.
This is not about crime. It was never about crime.
We know this because the Department
of Homeland Security's own data shows an over 800% increase
in detentions of immigrants with no criminal history.
This is about racial profiling.
And in the absence of a Congress
and a Supreme Court who are willing to stand up
for the rights of our people, it's on us as a city
to stand up for our own shoulder to shoulder.
Over the past few weeks,
the committee team has been reaching out
to our counterparts in cities like, uh, DC
and la who have already suffered under the
President's abuse of power.
In today's hearing, we'll discuss what we've learned
and hear from our colleagues at ICER
and A CLU about
how we can prepare our city for what is coming.
No matter what is coming. I'm confident in this.
Chicago is a welcoming city.
Uh, it is the most American of cities.
It's a resourceful city.
We will do whatever we can
to protect Chicagoans in this moment,
and we'll make it through as we've made it
through countless challenges together.
We do it together as one city.
So we will begin our testimony, uh,
and I will pass it off to Fred Sau,
senior Policy Council at the Illinois Coalition
for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Uh, Fred, if you'd like
to introduce yourself and then present.
Uh, thank you Chair, chair Vasquez.
Um, my name is Fred Sau.
I'm the Senior Policy Council at the Illinois Coalition
for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Uh, my apologies in advance. I have a one o'clock call.
Uh, so I have a super hard stop.
I will try to be concise, uh, with my comments.
Um, you know, I, I was, I was asked, uh,
to say a few words about the Safe Schools
for all legislation that, um, that the, uh,
Illinois General Assembly enacted, um, back in the spring,
and the Governor Pritzker signed into law.
Um, this, you know, last month, uh, this is legislation
that's a response to a couple of challenges.
Um, first off, um, unfortunately, we have, you know,
we have seen, uh, an escalation of ice activity,
including at least one incident, uh,
at a school on the south side of Chicago
where Homeland Security agents came to the school.
Uh, the school administration did not, uh,
did not admit the ICE agents or,
or the, the Homeland Security Agents.
Um, the agents turned out to be Secret Service.
Uh, but nevertheless, uh,
the school ended up going on lockdown
as a result of this incident.
Um, that's, no, we, we are concerned
that this administration has, uh, removed the, uh,
the guardrails that had, uh,
that had prevented ICE from conducting Activ, you know,
immigration enforcement activities at, uh, at schools,
as well as a number of other locations.
Um, and we believe that, uh, there, you know, that, uh,
safeguards need to be put in place, uh, at least on,
at least on the state level, uh, to prevent, uh,
enforcement activity interfering
with a safe educational environment.
Uh, the second challenge is, uh, that, uh, the right
to free public education for all students, um,
you know, is under attack.
Uh, and we've seen, uh, legislation, you know,
move forward in several states, uh,
most prominently in Tennessee, uh, that would, um,
undercut this, this right, um, this right is guaranteed
by a Supreme Court decision from back in 1982.
Um, that Supreme Court ruling was a five four decision.
And, uh, we are very concerned that, uh,
with the changes in the composition of the Supreme Court,
um, that any litigation that, um, that would go up
to the Supreme Court could result in a very different, uh,
outcome that would undermine the rights
to free public education for all students.
So, um, we want, we, uh, at I-C-R-R-R and our,
and our allies at the Latino Policy Forum,
and particularly at maldef, um, you know, rose
to this challenge and crafted legislation that, um,
that does five different things.
And I'll go through these points fairly quickly.
First off, we are writing interstate law, uh, the right,
the right for all.
I, Illinois, Illinois resident children
to a free public education.
Second, we are also, we are also, uh,
barring school officials from imposing any policies
that would interfere with that, right?
Um, whether that's, uh, policies that would restrict, uh,
the participation of students
or for that matter of their parents.
Um, quite a number, quite a number of student of students
may themselves be US citizens,
but their parents may be undocumented.
So we want the, we want both students
and parents to be able to participate.
Uh, third, um, we also want to restrict the ability
of school personnel to, um, threaten to threaten
to disclose information about immigration status, uh,
or for that matter, to sh you know, to, uh, to share, um,
personal information regarding students, uh, with, um,
you know, in, in a way that would threaten the,
the participation of those students out
or their parents in public education.
Uh, fourth, um, we, um, excuse me.
Um, you know, we, we also want to, um, you know, we,
this legislation also requires that schools, um,
and school districts craft policies that, um,
that provide protocols for how to handle, uh,
law enforcement presence
and law enforcement visits
to schools on a non-emergency basis.
Uh, this covers not just ice,
but also also local law enforcement, sheriff, sheriff's,
police, uh, and, and other law enforcement agents.
So it's not just limited to ice, um,
but we want to make sure that, um, that's, that's, uh, if,
you know, if law enforcement comes to, comes to a school,
uh, on a non-emergency basis, that they have the,
the requisite, um, warrants and other protocols and that,
and that schools are prepared for, for such instances.
And then finally, um, this legislation, rights in Rights,
you know, includes, uh, a right of action for, uh, for,
you know, parents and, uh,
and other, other residents
to bring legal challenges if the schools are not complying
with the, with the, with the requirements of this law.
So this law is, is this law is now, uh, state law.
It will go into effect next year.
Um, fortunately, uh, CPS
and many, many other school districts throughout, uh,
throughout the state, have crafted policies that, uh,
pretty much align with the intentions of, uh,
of the Safe Schools Act.
But, um, we could be doing better in, uh, quite a number
of other communities as well.
So, we are going to be working
with allies throughout the states, um, you know,
to make sure that, uh, our schools are complying
with this law, and, you know,
and more basically respecting the rights of, uh,
of all Illinois children to a free public education.
Um, you know, um, my time is running short, so I'll, I,
I'd better stop there and I'd happy,
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
I why in the remaining three minutes
before I hop on, have to hop on this call. Thank you.
No, thank, thank you very much, Fred.
What we'll do in keeping mindful of the time and,
and appointment you've got is for any of our members
who have questions, we can submit them to the chair,
then we'll be more than happy to follow up with you.
Uh, thank you for the presentation, then make sure,
we'll make sure you're on time for the call.
Uh, all right, so next I, uh, will hand it over to Ed Yca,
director of Communications and Public Policy at the ACL U.
Uh, so yeah, ed, if you'd like to. Great.
Thank you. Thank you. Chair
Quez and members of the committee.
Um, I am Ed Yca, the Director of Communications
and Public Policy at the A CLU of Illinois.
And it's really great, uh, to be back here today, um,
listening to Fred, if you'll forgive me, just a moment
of personal privilege.
Uh, it's really, uh, it makes me proud to be up here
with Fred and, and recognize the work that ICER has done.
When you think about the protections that we have in Chicago
and in Illinois, and the number of people
who know their rights
because of the work that they've done,
not just in this moment
and in this crisis, but over many years.
It's really a demonstration of
what people working together in a movement truly looks like.
And, uh, it's a good thing for us all to be reminded of.
Uh, the last time that I was
before this committee,
we talked a lot about litigation at the national level,
challenging policies, uh, uh, the about on immigration
that were coming from the Trump administration.
Today, I really wanna focus on, uh, as, as you've asked, uh,
so following directions for once.
We don't usually do that at the ACL U, uh,
but, uh, I wanna focus on, um, the litigation
that's really come out of the ice activity in
and around Los Angeles, uh, that we've seen,
which I think is probably the best, uh, forward.
Look at what things might look like
with a stepped up immigration enforcement in Chicago.
And I wanna start that discussion by echoing something
that the chair said in his opening remarks.
There is no emergency,
and there is no urgent situation in Chicago
or the surrounding area that justifies the surge
of federal officers forces,
or even the National Guard into this area.
Any of the issues
that actually exist in our community will only be made worse
by these uninvited officers as opposed to improve.
We've already seen, as you've even heard today, the harm
that comes from the president's threats
and his claims that he is going
to clean up the city of Chicago.
People are afraid to leave their homes.
Children do not go to school.
Restaurants and stores, uh,
report a slump in terms of patronage.
These campaigns like Operation Midway Blitz,
which was announced with such fanfare, are not designed
to make our communities safer.
We should not be confused.
The reality is, is that communities like Los Angeles,
Washington, DC and Chicago are being targeted
because a majority of voters in our communities,
and a majority of elected officials selected by those voters
do not support Donald Trump's mass deportation program.
They don't support his attacks on trans people,
and they don't support his attacks on diversity inclusion
across society.
That is why this is happening.
This is not about an attempt to install,
and this is about an attempt
to install an authoritarian rule from the White House in
communities like Chicago.
So, what did we see in Los Angeles,
and what could this look like here?
What we saw in LA was a stepped up military enforcement
of federal civil immigration law
that was focused disproportionately on black
and brown residents of that, of that city.
The enforcement did not focus on people
with criminal records or the so-called worst of the worst.
In fact, if you look at the first 10 announcements of people
who were swept up in those raids who had criminal records,
four of them had already been in custody
before the raids themselves began.
Instead, the crackdown focused on neighborhoods
and locations where people of color live,
where they work, or where they shop.
One Home Depot parking lot
where day workers gathered each day
to seek employment was targeted 10 times
using escalating force.
Each and every time, uh, that they,
that they visited the site swarms of troops would,
would jump out of trucks
and chase people across the parking lot who tried
to invade contact, uh, with those officers over days.
We saw that the raids, uh,
and the violence that was used in the raids only escalated,
and that the force and the tactics, uh,
increased over those days.
And that resulted in a number of different lawsuits.
And, and I want to take the duration of my time to sort
of talk about those lawsuits and what's happened.
The first one is,
and this is one that obviously, uh, is not one brought
by the ACL U, was that the state of California
and the City of Los Angeles filed litigation
to challenge the deployment of the National Guard, as well
as questioning the legality of the actions
of the guard once they were in place.
While the state and the city cannot challenge federal
officers engaging in enforcement of federal law in Chicago,
that is clearly the purview of the federal government,
it is likely that the introduction of the National Guard,
or the introduction of any other kinds of federal forces of
that type would be met by a lawsuit from the state,
and one would presume from the city as well.
Uh, and I will just say that in that case, uh, the A CLU
and other organizations filed amicus briefs on behalf
of the state, challenging the grounds on which the, the
National Guard was federalized
and questioning, questioning their activities on the
ground as the result.
You know, there was, at first an injunction
that was issued against the deployment of the Guard,
which the Ninth Circuit, uh, lifted while
that litigation moves forward.
But more recently, a federal judge has issued a,
an injunction against the National Guard
engaging in routine police activities as being violative
of the Posse Kamata Act from the 19th century.
So that's one thing I think to look out for
and to be aware of, is the notion of National Guard troops
engaging in sort
of routine police activities if they were be, were
to be placed on the streets of Chicago.
The second place that brought litigation was when, uh,
the federal officers C-P-B-D-H-S officers
and others, uh, used VI used, um, uh, force
to limit the ability of protestors, legal observers,
and even journalists to,
to engage in legitimate first amendment activity.
The A CLU of Southern California filed a lawsuit on behalf
of a broad group of individuals from all of those areas, uh,
challenging the violation
of their rights under the First Amendment.
Just yesterday,
a federal court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary
injunction, uh, against the Department of Homeland Security
and all of their attendant agencies from brutalizing people
who were engaged in that First Amendment activity.
Again, whether they were journalists,
observers, or protesters.
There was unrefuted evidence that, uh,
DHS officials were firing beanbags at journalists,
literally doing standups
and reporting about the protests they were firing
indiscriminately at legal observers who were simply trying
to keep people safe in the midst of the protest
and firing at protestors
who were simply expressing opposition
to immigr the immigration enforcement,
not at all engaged in any kind of violent acts
under this order.
DDHS agents cannot disperse or threaten the press
or legal observers
unless they have probable cause that a crime has been
or is being committed.
They can't use chemical projectile or projectile
or auditory weapons against these groups, uh,
unless there's a, uh, a a threat of imminent harm,
and they cannot use tear gas.
All of this, by the way, is what they were doing, um,
or any other weapons,
unless someone po poses a threat of death or seriously bo
or serious bodily injury.
The last area that I wanna mention, or, and,
and, uh, talk about a little bit is the, uh, efforts,
uh, by the A CLU of Southern California
and other groups to file a lawsuit, uh,
which has now been the subject
of a Supreme Court action on the shadow docket
that challenged ICE targeting people on the basis
of their skin color, whether
or not they spoke English and where they worked.
And this is where they were targeting places like car
washes, uh, home Depots, garden centers, restaurants,
uh, the Garment District in LA and other places like that.
This lawsuit actually came
after, not only were people being rounded up from those
places who were undocumented, but in fact, US citizens
and lawful permanent residents were being detained,
often detained for days
before they could prove their citizenship
and be released, uh, a federal district court.
And then the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals issued an injunction, which prohibited
for the last several weeks, the ability of ICE
to engage in these practices in
and around the Los Angeles area,
and blocked their ability from, uh, from behaving
or operating in the way where the fact that someone
was enga was speaking Spanish.
The fact that someone looked a particular way
and was in a particular area, that that was reason to stop
and detain that person
and force them to prove
that they were present lawfully instead of having a warrant
that demonstrated that this was somebody
that they were search searching for.
Um, as you know, uh, the Supreme Court, uh, issued an order
recently that lifted that injunction.
Um, and, and
therefore, in this limited circumstances in LA would allow
for some use of race as a factor, uh, in that enforcement.
Uh, I want to just pause and say a word about this.
'cause I think there's been, uh, a little bit of, of, um,
maybe hyperbolic reaction to what the Supreme Court did.
The Supreme Court did not legalize racial
profiling full stop.
That is not legal,
that is still legal illegal under the Constitution.
It is still illegal for ice
and for every other law enforcement agency in the
United States, what they did was to issue
or to lift the injunction
that had been put in place in the California case while
that litigation continues, where, again, the record of
that case, including the testimony of people
who were stopped, will continue to be developed
and presented to a court.
Um, you know, even Justice Kavanaugh in a concurring
opinion, uh, you know, noted
that this litigation goes forward,
and that there are still a ways
and avenues for people to challenge the use
of racial profiling even by ice.
Um, the, the last thing I want to say on this is, of course,
that it is incredibly frustrating.
It is incredibly frustrating
that the court has lifted this injunction with literally no
rationale offered in a public way.
There is no guidance for any district court to figure out
what they mean and what they don't.
And while that is troubling
and frustrating, as I say, what it also says
to us is that if we see the same kinds of signs of
that activity in Chicago
or in other places around the country, we will not hesitate
to go ahead and file litigation that challenges
that behavior in the same way.
Um, you know, so that, that part of all
of this continues to go on.
The last thing I want to just mention is,
and we haven't seen litigation around it yet,
but I think it is the kind of thing that we could, is
that in Los Angeles, we also saw this broad kind of range
of, uh, sort of these provocative moves to coerce
or to intimidate people.
Um, you know, most famously, I think the, the deployment
of a large militarized,
mechanized vehicles in MacArthur Park, uh, in,
or, you know, where children were going to day camp,
where parents were with their kids playing in parks
where others were using the park
for recreational activities.
I mean, that kind of activity outside of, uh, you know,
actual enforcement, um, you know,
know in using military forces in that way is something that,
you know, people are looking at as a, as a, uh, a reason to,
uh, think about or a reason to, uh, engage in oversight
of the activity of, of these federal forces.
Um, let me close by just saying this, uh, from the
ACLU's perspective, as we see the announcement
of this operation in Chicago, as we await
what we think will be a more vigorous, more robust,
more muscular kind of activity, uh,
as you might guess from these things, there are,
there are a number of things
that we are looking at and looking for.
Number one is, any evidence of efforts
to infringe upon people from engaging in their First
Amendment rights and First Amendment activities to protest,
whether it's protesting for
or against, uh, these ice actions,
whether it's protesting about something else while, uh,
the forces are in the city.
Um, you know, protecting those First Amendment rights is
fundamental to our mission.
Uh, we are, as I say, uh,
very interested in looking at patterns
and practices of enforcement that is, you know,
clearly based on racial animus
and clearly based on, uh, racial bias, uh,
as something again that we would,
that we would challenge notwithstanding
what the Court Supreme Court has done in this case.
And finally, uh, we will be very much looking at the, the,
uh, use of excessive force in individual cases.
As I say, over the course of Days of enforcement in la,
we saw an escalating use of force
where people were simply taken into
detention in the first days.
By the fifth and seventh day, people were being thrown
to the ground, thrown up against fences, handcuffed,
you know, their, that someone kneeling on their back.
Uh, the kind of excessive force that is unnecessary, uh,
for all of this, uh, you know, for any
of this civil enforcement,
especially when these are not people
who pose any danger to the community.
Um, I think the, the very last thing that I'll say is,
you know, the, the ICER has set up its hotline
to report ice activity in in our communities.
I think people having that number
and knowing that is incredibly important, uh,
because it is the kind of thing that, you know, we,
we are gonna need to have a single clearinghouse
for this information.
Um, you know, and to get people connected to lawyers.
Uh, we stand prepared to help on these larger policy issues
and practices by these folks, uh, by these federal forces.
But I think all of us need to be prepared just to know
what we should be on the lookout for, uh,
as this situation evolves.
And I think with that chair, I will stop
and, uh, take any questions that folks have.
Definitely. Thank you very much, ed, uh, for
The reference, 8 5 5 4 3 5 7 6 9 3 is the ICER hotline.
For those who may not have it. Uh, with that, we'll go
to Alders, uh, Alderwoman Rodriguez Sanchez.
You had, uh, Sanchez you had any
Questions? Yes. Thank you, chair.
Uh, thank you so much, ed, uh, for being
with us again and again and again.
And we're going to keep calling you over and over and over
'cause we really need you and A CLU right now.
Um, you said that, um, the Supreme Court
essentially dismissed the injunction with no rationale,
but they did say something.
What are the arguments that they are using in order
to do such a blatant racist,
um, action? Yeah,
It, it, it's, it's, it, what's troubling is, is
that Justice Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion,
but it was signed only by Justice Kavanaugh.
It wasn't signed by the other five members of the court
who voted to lift the injunction.
So we literally have no rationale from those five.
What Justice Kavanaugh said, um, I I think, to be fair,
is a restatement of the idea
that someone could bring an individual challenge,
uh, to their detention.
A suggestion that in some limited circumstances,
race or language might be one of a number of factors
that could be used as long as it wasn't the primary
or the sole factor that was used.
But the problem is, is
that if you actually look at the declarations in the,
in the lawsuit itself, and in the rule
or in the injunction that was issued by the court, um,
there's some compelling evidence that race and,
and language specifically, or the parents
and language specifically was the factor.
Mm-hmm. Not among a, you know, a number of factors.
So it's a little hard to parse exactly, you know,
what Justice Kavanaugh was arguing there
and how that affects what the other five justices thought.
Got it. And in terms of the case that is going
to continue, what can we expect from
that case in terms of timeline?
It feels like it's something that should
be resolved pretty quickly,
but it doesn't seem like it will be.
What, what are your thoughts on that?
I think There's two ways to think about this,
and let me, um, uh, not necessarily being accustomed
to being the half glass, half full guy in the room anywhere.
Um, you know, this injunction has been in place
for six weeks.
There've been six weeks when ICE has not been able
to operate in this fashion in la.
So in that way, there, the, even thinking about, you know,
the nature of litigation and, and what it can do
and what it can't do in this instance, what it has done,
at least for six weeks, is to slow that activity down
and likely protect a number of different people.
So I, you know, I think on the one hand that
that's something that we should, um, that,
that we should recognize.
Secondly, uh,
with the court now lifting Injun the injunction,
the case continues.
Um, it's hard to predict, you know,
what the next steps will be in terms of, you know, moves
to dismiss the case on the part of the government,
an effort on the part of the plaintiffs
to seek a different kind of injunction,
a more narrow injunction, something with a little more, um,
uh, definition to it, perhaps based on what the court, the,
at least what one justice of the court preliminarily said.
So I think that those are things that, that we could see.
And those, depending on the judge, depending on
how vigorous the plaintiffs are, that could happen,
you know, within a couple of weeks.
It could take longer than that.
Uh, again, litigation, as you know,
is often a very deliberate
and sometimes even glacial tool, uh, in terms
of really pushing back against action
that's happening on the ground.
Thank you, chair. Thank you, ed. Thank you very much.
Uh, anyone else have questions?
Okay, I've got some on my own. Uh, thank you.
Um, you mentioned kind of a lot of activity
that could lead to legal action.
Um, uh, just to be clear, if someone were to see anything
or any observations,
where should they go with the information?
Is it going to, not just icer,
but other, other numbers they
should call or contact or email? Yeah.
Um, so two things.
Those items that I mentioned, if people saw that, um,
attacks on protests, racial profiling,
or the use of excessive force by federal officials, uh,
those are things that the A CLU
definitely would want to know.
And we would invite people to contact us, uh,
and to reach out, uh, if, if you, uh,
on the ground in your wards or hearing about any of that
and, and want to, uh, be, you know, your staff is free
to reach out directly to me, uh, and to others on our staff.
And we're, we're happy to sort of take those on.
Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, any other questions, Brian members? No.
Well, thank you very. Can I, sorry. Absolutely.
May I just mention one other thing?
'cause I, I, there was a, an issue that came up this week
and I, I, uh, debated whether or not to raise this,
but I'm, I'm going to, um, the Secretary
of Homeland Security
and the Secretary spokesperson this week declared, uh,
that they would consider it an act of violence if someone
recorded and posted ice engaged in their
activity or their, their enforcement
duties in a public place.
Uh, you know, um, uh, if they recorded
that using their camera phone and,
and then, uh, shared that, um, they can say
that all they want, it is not an act of, of violence.
It is in fact something that's protected
by the First Amendment, uh, in the way
that I saw folks in here earlier recording things and,
and recording this meeting taking place in a public way.
Those are public officials acting in a public duty, um,
with public duties in a public place.
Those activities can be recorded and be shared.
That's how we hold government accountable.
Uh, and so I think one of the things is, is
that there are instances
where officers are specifically saying to people
that they can't record them,
that they should put their phones
away, whatever that looks like.
That is just another area that we'd really like
to hear about, because I think, given the,
the statements from Washington DC it's something
that we're very concerned about.
Thank you very much. Uh,
and I think, uh, wo Rodriguez Sanchez had to write, um,
we will be having you more regularly.
Thank you for the updates. Thank you.
Uh, yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate we're in the moment
we're in, but we're glad to have you here.
So thank you very much for that, ed.
Uh, next up, uh, for our, uh, last presentation,
uh, we're gonna hand it over to our very own, uh,
staff member, uh, director of Communications
and policy for the Committee on Immigrant
and Refugee Rights and Alison Murphy.
Uh, we've got 30 minutes for the item. You can take it away.
Thank you. Uh, so over the last few weeks, myself
and other members of the committee staff have been speaking
with colleagues, um, community organizations
and members of city council
and other cities to see what we can learn for
how Chicago can prepare
for this escalation of federal troops.
Um, and I wanna take you through some of the things
that we have learned.
Um, I think the first thing that will probably be no
surprise to members of this body is
that federal agencies are really aiming for escalation.
That is their goal.
Um, they want to create media moments,
as we've seen this week with Fox News, uh, riding along
with ice to record arrests in which ice agents are acting
violently towards, uh, members of the public.
Um, and it's important, I think we heard loud
and clear from both cities to recognize that
that is their goal, so we can not give them what they want.
Um, the other thing, uh, major takeaway is,
you know, escalation and targets have looked very
different in different cities.
Um, but importantly, their,
their tactics are usually previewed in a smaller way
before they scale way up.
Um, so you can see in LA
and, uh, in LA they were often checking purses and handbags
and asking people to show ID in some of,
of these neighborhoods that Ed mentioned, uh,
on a smaller scale before they started doing
it on a massive scale.
Um, they were performing welfare checks, uh,
in apartment complexes, which were in fact, um, a prelude
for larger immigration raid.
And we've seen the same thing in the suburbs of Chicago, um,
before then later scaling up.
Uh, so those are all things to be aware of
as we start seeing this escalation in some
of those preview tactics in Chicago.
Um, as, as Ed mentioned as well, the most significant trends
that we saw in immigration rates themselves is the targeting
of black and brown residents and neighborhoods.
Um, so what this looked like is daily
repeated raids of job sites.
As Ed mentioned, there was one Home Depot
that was hit 10 times, um,
in an escalated fashion each time.
Um, car washes, garment workers, street vendors.
We've already seen some
of our street vendors being smashed off
the street in Chicago.
Um, and day laborers and big box stores like Home Depot.
Some of the other common raid locations
that we saw in other cities were bus stops.
Um, churches, especially those with, uh,
non-English speaking populations, large parks especially,
uh, those with high immigrant or unhoused populations
and Chinatown in both cities.
In DC specifically, delivery drivers, which are heavily, uh,
immigrant based in, uh, DC were also targeted.
Um, and I wanna mention, in DC in particular,
black neighborhoods were overwhelmingly targeted.
There were hundreds of arrests for low level of, uh,
offenses of, uh, citizens.
Uh, there was blatant racial profiling,
and there were unlawful searches, including one
that a judge called the most illegal
search that he had ever seen.
Um, and unhoused people were also targets in both cities.
The other thing we saw in both cities is the use
of large venues for staging.
So, um, big parking lots, especially those connected
with federally leased or owned land.
Um, in Chicago, we are already seeing this at places like
the parking lot of the Hines va, um, and the naval station.
And also, as I mentioned
before, federal scouting ahead of raids.
So, um, a lot
of unmarked vehicles patrolling neighborhoods
ahead of larger raids.
Um, the other thing that we wanted to mention, though,
it's gonna look a little bit different in Illinois
and Chicago, is trends, uh, around detention.
So in Illinois, we have no overnight detention centers.
Um, people who are detained in Chicago
or Illinois are held temporarily at Broadview, uh,
and then they're transferred
to out-of-state detention centers.
We've so far heard of people mostly getting transferred
to Kentucky or Wisconsin.
Um, there is a, now a new center in Indiana
that is projected to open up very soon,
so we may see that as well.
Um, what we heard from, uh, LA in particular is
that ICE was intentionally moving detainees around
to different centers, um, going from center to center,
so they could not easily be tracked by their attorneys
or by their family members.
Um, one really important piece of information
that we've picked up in the last couple of months is
that there is a form that the Department
of Homeland Security requires be filled out
before anyone is able to make contact
with someone who has been detained.
Um, it needs to be filled out
by anyone including an attorney,
their primary contact or loved ones.
Um, and also really important to get it, uh, filled out
for congressional reps.
'cause in order for congressional representatives
to advocate for people, they need
to have that form filled out.
Um, in previous administrations,
the DHS would often allow one form for multiple people.
They no longer do that.
Um, they're setting up all kinds
of administrative roadblocks.
So one thing that we are recommending is that anyone
who is worried that they may be targeted for detention,
fill out that form
and pre-fill it with the information that they want, uh,
people for people that they want to be able to contact them.
We also really recommend them having, uh, it filled out,
pre-filled out for their congressional reps as well, so
that they can effectively advocate
for things like them getting access to medication
and food and things like that.
Um, you can find those forms translated in a variety
of different languages, uh, on our guide that we,
that we made for support for, uh,
detained constituents at bit ly slash
cirr immigrant support Guide.
Um, this brings us to another thing that, that, uh,
we saw in LA specifically,
which is very poor conditions in detention centers.
Um, they, uh, saw people getting no food, no access
to medications, sleeping on the
floor, freezing temperatures.
Um, these are always really, really important to be able
to have congressional representatives advocate for people
directly, um, because they are not following, uh,
our laws in terms of
what the human rights people
have when they're being detained.
Um, and then the last thing we've seen
is a lack of oversight.
So congressional representatives have a legal, uh, duty
to inspect, uh, and perform oversight at detention centers.
They're allowed to show up at any time to perform oversight,
and they were blocked from doing so by, uh, a variety
of detention centers throughout California.
So, some of the takeaways, um, I think all
of this can be very, uh, disheartening to say the least.
Um, my, my takeaways from every conversation
that I've been a part of have actually been very heartening,
um, because what we've learned is
that we're not helpless as a city.
There's a lot of things that we can do.
There's some things that we are already doing,
and there's things that we can still do as a city.
Um, so first, one of the things we heard loud
and clear from multiple cities is know your rights is
incredibly effective.
Um, so having active outreach,
and especially like structured coordination between, uh,
community partners that are working in
and with, uh, immigrant populations
and other populations that are being targeted is
incredibly valuable.
Um, and there is a huge, huge role that elected officials
and offices can have, uh, in that practice,
which we'll get into a little bit later.
Um, we will also talk about this a little bit more in depth,
but, uh, local law enforcement interactions
and interventions are, uh, complicated
and have been complicated in all cities.
Uh, appropriate response from local law enforcement can kind
of undercut the narrative
that there's lawlessness in our cities
and that our own law enforcement isn't responding.
Um, but major oversight is definitely needed to make sure
that a, that that response is appropriate
and that also they're not inadvertently assisting federal
agencies with immigration enforcement.
Um, and then the other piece,
of course, is legal intervention.
Uh, ed spoke really beautifully to this,
so I don't think we need to, uh, get into it too, too much.
But, um, temporary restraining orders
and other legal victories have really
made a huge difference.
Um, and one thing that we heard from other cities
that I think is really worth thinking about on a city level
is that pre-draft litigation can make it
a lot more impactful.
So thinking about the things that might come up
and pre drafting some of that litigation, so we're ready
to go once they start happening
and can move quickly is, uh, super important.
So, to get into some
of the other strategies a little bit more deeply, um,
know Your Rights campaign.
Um, here I really wanna shout out our, uh, Diana Perez,
who is a member of our committee
and has been doing incredible, incredible work
with community partners around Know Your Rights.
Um, we have hosted 21 Know Your Rights trainings
and briefings so far this year.
And our community partners have done many more in Chicago.
Um, some of the things that we've learned are, first of all,
right now when immigration enforcement is, um, quite
escalated, virtual trainings can be really helpful.
Um, people don't necessarily wanna leave their homes
and come to a place that is explicitly being targeted
towards people who may be undocumented.
So virtual trainings very helpful.
Um, another helpful thing is making sure
that they are targeted to specific communities.
So working with community partners who are already embedded,
um, and communities who may be targeted.
And also thinking about places like, um, small businesses,
nonprofits, schools that have particular concerns
and particular access to their communities, um,
that we can shape those trainings
around is really important.
Um, we also, it can be very helpful just to kind of get
as much information out there as possible.
Other cities have done large campaigns
around know your rights using, uh, public space like, uh,
bus, bus ads, train ads, things, things like that
as something we can consider on a city level.
Also, partnering with local chambers, churches, schools,
to make sure that sure,
those materials are getting out there.
Um, that's already something we're working on hard
as a city, and we can do even more in the coming months.
Um, and the other piece that we are working on
is canvassing.
So not, not everybody is going to see an advertisement
for a training, so it's really important
to get out into the actual community where people are, um,
canvassing local businesses, especially those likely
to be targeted street vendors, unhoused populations, all
of those are really important.
Um, and I particularly wanna talk about this
'cause it's something we're working on quite a bit on a
committee level, which is business canvases.
Um, we saw in, uh, LA
and DC that job sites were pretty heavily targeted.
And it's really important to make sure that businesses,
especially those with significant numbers of immigrants,
know what their rights are, both as employers
and their employees' rights.
Um, there are a lot of really great resources around,
um, about this.
One of them, you can look up with this QR code
or by going to bit ly slash
ilc k yr dash employers.
Um, and it's a really comprehensive guide on
what local businesses can do to protect their employees.
Um, also a really great idea for, um, those of you
who are working closer to the community
to share those resources with local chambers of commerce.
Um, perform canvases of any of the business corridors,
or identify the businesses that may be targeted in your,
your community and reach out to them directly.
Um, school and family preparation is another
really important thing.
Um, Fred spoke to this, uh, a little bit,
but I will add some more detail.
Um, one important piece is school safety planning.
Um, this can look a number of different ways,
and I know CPS has done quite a bit of work around this,
but, um, a number of schools are looking at creating kind
of school safety zones around the school
and doing things like, you know, having, having parents
or having members of the community just like keep watch
and see if they're seeing ice, uh,
like unmarked vehicles in the neighborhood
so they can let other, uh, people in the school know.
Um, and then obviously doing Know your rights trainings in
schools to make sure people know what their rights are,
uh, if they are targeted.
Um, kind of a subcategory of
that is family preparedness planning.
It's really important for families who may be targeted
to make an emergency plan of what will happen, uh,
to their children if they are detained.
Um, there are a lot of really great resources around this.
Um, I, I particularly wanna mention one from
the Resurrection Project.
Um, they will come
and do trainings with any of your community
around family preparedness planning.
So you can re request a training directly at bit ly
TRP slash TRP trainings.
Um, we've done several of those trainings.
They're really effective
and very important to make sure that if the worst happens
to any of the families in our communities, um,
their children are protected
and they know, uh, they know what to do.
Um, and the other piece is community
mutual aid opportunities.
I think one of, uh, the members of the public spoke
to this earlier, which was really lovely to hear.
There are a lot of school communities who are organizing
around opportunities to support parents in their schools.
So, um, maybe organizing carpools
for children whose parents don't necessarily feel
comfortable leaving the house or drop offs of groceries
and other essentials.
Um, there are a lot of opportunities for school communities
to come together around this,
and we hope to share more details of some best practices for
how to do that in the coming weeks.
Um, next I wanna talk a little bit more about the role
of law enforcement.
Um, so as I mentioned earlier, um, it's,
it's a nuanced issue
because having, having an appropriate response on the ground
can be helpful to kind of counter this narrative
that there's just rampant lawlessness in our cities.
Um, but it's really important for us
to have strong oversight to make sure
that first their response is appropriate,
and also that they are not helping federal agencies.
One way that we found out from other cities that this, um,
has been happening is from what's known
as mutual aid requests, little, little confusing.
It's not mutual aid in the way that I just talked about.
This is a law enforcement term
for when federal law enforcement requests, um,
for support from local law enforcement.
So, of course, in Chicago, uh, we are, our
officers are not allowed to respond
to immigration enforcement
and not allowed to in assist in that.
However, uh, federal agents know this
and can sometimes put in requests
for something different like crowd control that then CPD has
to respond to because it's not
explicitly immigration enforcement.
So really understanding how those requests can come in.
Um, and there's an opportunity,
and this is something that happened in LA to, um,
write right into policy, an increase of reporting
of those mutual aid requests when they happen
and what the outcome of those requests were.
Um, importantly, this, this is more
or less what happened on June 4th.
Um, so immigration enforcement was occurring,
um, at this office.
The agents knew that what they called into CPD was crowd
control, um, and CPD showed up.
So that's gonna be really important for us to track.
Um, and the other really, really important thing, uh, for us
to do as a city is gonna be to ensure that we know
what those oversight mechanisms are
by clarifying the agency responsible
for investigating welcoming city ordinance violations.
Um, we are working on hopefully updating the COPA Amendment
to make explicit that COPA is responsible
for investigating those, uh, violations.
In the meantime, we recommend that if someone sees
what looks like CPD assisting in immigration enforcement,
that they, uh, submit, uh, that they submit a report
to both the office of the Inspector General and copa.
So there's a few other operational opportunities, um,
on a citywide level that we wanted to call out
that we learned from other city.
The first is a text alert system.
Uh, Los Angeles used scale to win
and PDI to send text blast when there were enfor large
enforcement actions happening.
Um, ICER as a similar thing called Eyes on Ice
that people can sign up for.
But of course, as a city, we already have the capability
through our OEMC texting app to reach large amounts
of people to let them know if there's federal
deployments in their neighborhoods.
So that's something we can look into, um,
whether it's possible to expand
their capacity to do that as well.
Um, the other piece is auditing each department to identify
what issues might emerge related to federal raids
and how we might need to shift capacity to accommodate that.
Um, so a great example would be, um,
unhoused populations were targeted in, in both LA and dc.
We anticipate that would happen here as well.
So, um, increasing capacity for shelter beds,
increasing capacities for HOP teams to be able to go out
and canvas people proactively are both, uh, things that,
that we should continue pursuing on a city level.
There are also a number of policy opportunities
that other cities have done, um,
and I wanna shout out a couple of them here.
Um, the first is to limit crowd control tactics
that increase the possibility of violence.
So things like banning tear gas and rubber bullets,
or end ending, uh, kettling or police lines.
Berkeley, Portland and San Franciscos have
all already done this.
So this is a possible thing that we could do as a city
to make it safer for people
to exercise their First Amendment rights.
Uh, the other thing is auditing surveillance technologies.
This is something that's already happening in Illinois.
The Illinois Secretary of State is currently performing an
audit of some of the state's surveillance technologies.
And terminating has already, I believe,
terminated contracts in at least two jurisdictions.
Um, Evanston also shut down their license plate readers
and terminated a flock safety contract.
So a lot of the surveillance technologies we use on a city
level are also accessible to, um,
federal agents doing immigration enforcement.
So that's something we should be looking very
closely at as a city.
Um, on a similar note, increasing data security.
Uh, so looking at contracts with data brokers
that share sensitive or personal data
with federal law enforcements, um,
this is something we're already working on as a committee.
We have, uh, a data audit of tech
and data storage contracts that we believe will be back
before City council in this month, city council meetings.
And we're also working on two pieces of legislation to audit
how the city responds to FOIA requests to, uh,
protect people's personal data.
The last policy opportunity I wanna talk about is expanding
legal protection funds.
Um, in Los Angeles, I believe they were able to, uh,
establish or expand legal protection funds, both
for immigrant communities
and people who are arrested collaterally.
So either, um, people exercising their free speech rights
or unhoused people.
Um, important to note that in both cities,
many more people than, uh, immigrants were arrested.
Many citizens were arrested as well.
Um, the arrests were very much
indiscriminate in both cities.
Um, so looking at maybe establishing
or expanding legal protection funds where we can.
Um, and then last I wanna go into a little bit about
preparing more on a community level.
Um, there are a few things that we have done
and we hope to share all of this, uh,
with alders individually in the coming weeks.
Um, the first is to look at your maps, looking at maps
of your wards or communities
and identifying proactively
what those v vulnerable locations might be.
Schools, places of worship, especially those
that are non-English speaking food pantries, uh, businesses
that are immigrant run or,
or have a large amount of immigrants working for them.
Um, and then the other piece is to, uh, create kind
of a resource map of what, uh, kinds of communities
and volunteer, uh,
opportunities are available in your community to respond.
We're so lucky in Chicago to have a really, um,
wonderful network of people doing this work.
Um, so mapping out
who are those local community support networks,
what mutual aid organizations are working on the ground
that we may be able may be able to partner
with in this work, um, and so on.
Um, one of the things we'll also be sharing is a, um, map
that we were able to create, um, with the help
of Steve Vance from Abundant Housing of federally leased
and owned locations.
As we mentioned before, these, um, are usually used
for staging areas, so it's really helpful to know where,
where the ones closest to you are located.
So you can, um, you know, exercise caution
and just be aware of what's happening in that area.
Um, so that map will be available on this presentation
and we'll also be hopefully sharing it out
to alders in the coming weeks.
Um, we spoke about this before,
but in general, just making sure that everyone is aware of
how to report ICE activity.
If you see any suspected ICE activity, um,
reporting it immediately
to the ICER Family Support hotline at, uh,
8 5 5 4 3 5 7 6 9 3 is really important.
So they can get the word out to their community networks.
Um, very important also to spread information
and not panic by reporting comprehensive information.
So, um, salute is the best method to do this.
Uh, s stands for size and strength.
So how many agents you see actions
or activity, what are they doing?
Maybe they're stopping people outside
of a Home Depot being explicit about that.
Um, location.
Where are they exactly, uh,
their uniform, what they're wearing.
Um, this is really important
because there's a lot of different, different federal
agencies out there right now.
There, uh, was activity happening in Bensonville earlier
this week that initially appeared like it may have been DHS,
but was in fact a different federal team.
So being very specific about what people are are wearing
that you can see is important.
Um, the time and date of the observation as as close
as you can, uh, estimate and then what equipment
and weapons they're carrying, if any.
Uh, lastly I wanna talk a little bit about
opportunities to get involved.
I know some of our members of the public, uh,
mentioned really wanting to tap in
and, um, I'm happy to report that there are many ways
to get involved in Chicago.
Um, first there is a very active, um, court support, uh,
network in Chicago.
Um, in Chicago specifically, we've already seen that a lot
of our courts are being targeted,
people having their cases dismissed
and then immediately being arrested.
Um, there is an active court watch network in Chicago
where people can go observe and report ice activity.
Um, maybe you go once a week
before work and then go to work.
Uh, it's easy to do and easy to tap into.
Um, again, there are also opportunities for legal support.
If you're someone who has a law degree, you can find out any
of that information@illinoisimmigrationinfo.org has a lot
of opportunities for those, especially
with legal degrees to get involved.
Um, there are a ton of opportunities
for grassroots community mutual aid, um,
and then there are a lot
of folks working on Know Your Rights canvases.
So that's something we do as a committee
and we're always happy to have volunteers, um,
to help canvas small businesses, street vendors,
anyone we think may be targeted.
Um, and of course there will also be
opportunities for civic action.
One of our, uh, asks to folks this weekend is,
there's the Mexican Independence Day parade at 26 in Albany.
We're hoping as many people will show up as possible
to stand in solidarity with our neighbors.
Um, and then lastly, we have a,
a many amazing immigrant support
organizations working out of Chicago.
They are all at capacity.
They are, um, doing a tremendous amount of work
and legal support for people,
and they are absolutely swamped with work
and need as much support as they can to hire more people
so they can support, uh, more people who are at risk.
Um, so you can find a lot
of those organizations@illinoisimmigrationinfo.org.
And we will also be sharing
and highlighting some of those in the coming weeks on our
social media so people can, uh, check 'em out.
Um, you can also visit our website@fortiethward.org, uh,
slash immigrant rights to see all of this issues
and details on how you can tap in and get involved.
Uh, lastly, ways to stay informed.
There's a lot going on
and things are changing every single day.
So the committee holds an immigration briefing monthly
every third Tuesday.
The next one is next Tuesday, September 16th at 1:00 PM
where we'll talk about all
of the latest updates happening with immigration.
You can register at bit ly slash sir Briefing.
Um, we also host regular, uh,
government staffer immigration roundtables to kind
of coordinate with staff from every level of government, um,
from federal on down
to make sure we're all on the same page.
Um, and we have regular know your Rights training.
So our next Know your rights training is on September 23rd
at 6:00 PM It's targeted towards, uh, members
of the African Diaspora
and it will be held in Creole, French and English.
Um, in the next couple weeks, we're also hoping
to have toolkits with a lot of this information
for individual alders.
So we'll be following up on that.
And in the meantime, we send out regular newsletters
so you can sign up for our newsletter@welcometochicago.org.
And we will be hosting regular debriefs
of what's going on on our social medias,
which you can find it at Chicago, sir,
across most platforms. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
So yeah, I stated, um,
and wanna make sure we covered a lot of that.
I know many of the members
of the committee actually all have a lot
of experience in organizing here,
but we are talking about 50 city council members
and so we wanna make sure that those who are
less well versed have tools at their disposal
and at least a baseline of what, uh,
a foundation can look like.
Given the fact that we don't envision
the federal government leaving.
They may not bring Nation National Guard,
but it's clear activities escalating.
In fact, while we were having this hearing,
there's another ICE report about an incident in Lata.
So, um, as we know it will continue,
we wanna make sure our members are empowered.
Uh, so we will put together
what we're calling Alder toolkits at this point, uh, to kind
of start figuring out how to engage neighbors
who wanna help, as well as
what tools government can do legally.
Uh, I will now open it up for any members of questions.
Alderman.
Thank you Chairman. Thank you for that presentation.
Uh, would you be able to go back to the slide
that had the policy recommendations?
Thank you. Had a question about the,
uh, the limit crowd control tactics.
Um, do you know when Berkeley, Portland
and San Francisco passed those ordinances?
We can get that through the chair.
I believe it was in the last five years,
but I'm not absolutely confident about that.
Got it. So we'll get that through the chair.
And, um, are we insinuating that all, all three
of those cities passed ordinances that covered all of those
um, policies? Great
Question. No, some, most
of the BID one or a couple,
but I don't believe any of them have done all three. Yeah.
And some as you know, like putting it up there,
just figure out what we can do as a city or state
and try to keep learning from the other cities as well.
Right. And then do you know, what were some
of the reasons why, um, these policies were passed?
What were some of the arguments made
around banning the tear gas or rubber bullets and cuddling?
Yeah, absolutely. So I think what we, what we heard, um,
especially from the A CLU around this is
that these are crowd controlled tactics that, um,
are run counter to what they're supposed to do.
They're supposed to be keeping protests peaceful,
and in fact they invariably increase, uh,
the possibility of violence.
A, they are violence in and of themselves.
Um, they are causing physical harm to people,
but also they make it much more likely
for crowds to get out of control. Mm-hmm.
Also, yeah, sorry, also for clarity,
as we are recently administration, wanna clarify for folks
who may not know or the public as well,
CPD does not currently engage in cuddling
or using rubber bullets.
These are examples of things
that were stopped in other cities.
So I wanna make sure that was, uh, clear
and distinct for people as uh, we were being reached out
to clarify that for the public.
Cool, thank you. Um, but there's still tear gas, right?
Yes. Okay, cool. Um,
my second question is do we have an analysis of
the contracts that we do have that may be exposed
to data brokers on the point of data security? No,
These are things that also bring up, we bring it up
to Office of Public Safety Administration,
public Safety departments.
I think the mid-year budget reporting
and budget reporting are good opportunities
to bring this all up through the chair.
Asking for all that information is absolutely fair
and we absolutely do it
and look forward to having others join us.
Yeah, I think we should. Um, I don't know
what the proper process is,
but I think we should take a look at all the different
contracts, figure out when those contracts are expiring,
how we need to renegotiate them when they do expire, um,
and then ensuring, I mean, I think
what we can do proactively is saying, you know,
maybe an ordinance that amends our, our procurement code
or something that just says
that any contracts moving forward, um, you know,
must stipulate you know,
protections against data brokers and whatnot.
So I think that's good takeaway. Yes,
I agree fully. I think something
that we've seen that's been effective
for a number of years now is
through the management ordinance during the budget process.
'cause if you put an ordinance out other ways
it might necessarily pass.
But if you're doing it through budget negotiations,
they tend to have a little more traction
and something will will pass at the end of the year.
Okay. Thank you.
Any other questions? Alrighty.
Uh, as all presentations
and questions have now concluded, I want
to thank Fred from icer Ed from ACL U.
I'd like to thank our committee staff
and our director of communications
and policy, Alison Murphy for presentation at work.
Great job. Uh, copies of all presentations
and written public comment will be sent to you all shortly
and we'll be hosted on our website.
Welcome to chicago.org.
Within a week, uh, any
through the chair follows will be sent
to Alders pending response from IGA and presenters.
Also, anyone available, please feel free to show up Sunday
at the Mexican Independence Day parade from 12
to three at 26 in Albany.
Attend an order, but it's a suggestion
for the public out here and everybody watching.
Alright, with no further business
before the committee may have motion to adjourn.
So moved. Uh, Alder Gutierrez moves hearing no objections.
So ordered. This meeting of the Committee on Immigrant
and Refugee Rights is now adjourned.
The hand went up first that was.