Find a seat
and try to remove weapon at are saying, saying the biggest
is they think that
not properly registered with our government to be here.
All rewards on this are like, if you were
to be intellectually honest and not drugs.
Hi everybody. Good. It worked.
Uh, the joint committee on immigrant and Refugee rights
and Police and Fire will come to order.
Uh, today we have one item on the agenda,
which is an ordinance brought forward by Alder person.
Fuentes votes are to be taken, uh, for this matter.
We'll begin with a roll call.
Established quorum, uh, alder per alderwoman.
Do Alderwoman Gutierrez Here. Alderman Kon.
Alderman Rodriguez. Here. Alder person. Fuentes Chair.
Alia Farro. Alderwoman. Cruz.
Alderman Cardona. Alderwoman. Rodriguez Sanchez.
Alderman Cas Casada Alderwoman.
May now hop Penworth Alderwoman Hadden. Vice Chair Taylor.
Chair Vasquez, vice Chair Robinson.
Uh, alderman Hall. Alderman Mitchell.
Uh, Alderwoman Lee. Thank you. Alderman Curtis.
Alderman Mosley. Alderwoman. Tabes. Uh, chairman Irvin.
Thank you. Alderman Sdo. Chairman Podo.
Uh, Alderwoman Nugent.
Alderman Napolitano Present. Thank you.
Alderman Gardner Alderwoman. President Chair. Thank you.
Alderwoman Clay Alderwoman Silverstein, present.
Thank you. There are 14 members physically present.
We have a quorum. It is a quorum. 14 is quorum.
Uh, any non-members present? Nope.
Uh, Alder Persons Taylor, Gardner, Casada, Silverstein,
Robinson, tab, Barez and Ano.
Mitt and Mosley have requested a virtual option
for committee hearing attendance in accordance
with Rule 59 of the city council.
Rules of order. Can I get a motion
to allow them to attend this hearing?
Virtually sole moved by wo Gutierrez hearing. No objections.
Sole ordered. At this time,
we'll begin the public comment period.
Uh, yes. Chairman
One.
Well, we are, yeah, we are one short
of quorum, but we can begin.
Public comment in the meantime. Thank you. Al Sato. Yeah.
Yeah. We, uh, got information from IGA.
So we will start public comment, uh,
because we have a preponderance of people on public comment.
We will be spending, uh, we will do two
of the folks you signed up.
Two minutes each. Uh, first person up.
Oh, George Blakemore.
Uh, after public comment, perhaps. Thank
You very much. Perhaps,
perhaps
Only 20 speaker, Speaker, uh, don't know me
and you just, uh, heard me holler
and rage about illegal immigrants.
Yeah, you just heard me. Oh, they don't belong here. Yeah.
Several years ago I was here and, and everything changed.
I signed up to speak and they had about, uh, 50
or more, uh, uh, illegals here of migrants or whatever.
The Hispanic, he's Hispanic.
So he said, I'm going to take your minutes away.
One of your minutes, Mr.
Blakemore, and I'm going to have two minutes.
I was outraged. I was outraged.
Why would you take from a legal citizen?
Why would you do that and give it to somebody else?
That's illegal. The problem here,
the problem here is the illegal immigrant that refuse
to go along with our immigration laws.
That's the big picture. They refuse their bullies.
They say, I'm going to do what I wanna do
and when I want to do it and how I want to do it.
I have advocated for Trump to come here
and clean up this swamp.
We have laws in the city of Chicago
and in the state of Illinois, county of Cook, we, uh,
we have laws.
And you want me to be a law abiding citizen.
You want me to obey the law when I watch you all come
and get things that the native black people, citizens
of this country can't receive.
Giving you food staff.
Section eight, housing, hospitalization for residents.
I'm not a resident. I'm a US citizen.
So that puts me above you. And you.
I am a legal senator of the United States
of a resentful.
When I see somebody that's illegal, come
and get in front of me.
14, they don't deserve it. Ice Come here.
Trump's coming back here. Send them all back here. Oh,
Thank you for those comments.
Uh, for quorum, uh, Alder Women Manhattan.
Hey, look at that 15. We have quorum.
Next up,
Lee, district counselor
Lee Bki. My partners
Gotta watch out for them steps.
Anyhow, sorry.
Uh, I planned for three minutes,
but I guess I'm gonna get to two.
So my name's Lee Bki
and I'm elected district council member
for the 22nd district
and a member of the C-C-P-S-A since this joint committee is
alleged about is alleged CPD ICE collaboration,
expanding duties of copa.
I appear for you today.
So after the listening session was held at Dalia Hall on the
8th of January, I FOIA COPA
and the city IG for a number
of complaints against CPD members on interactions
with federal immigration authorities.
Uh, I didn't get any information from the ig,
but I spoke to her today
and Copa said there was a total from January, from June four
to January 21st of 33 complaints, which were assigned
to their ICE related case indicator.
COPA also stated that their response of some
of these figures were duplicates
and some took out, took place outside the city limits
and were referred to the responsible authorities.
We're back to the ah, hall meeting Alderman Vasquez.
You gave public comment stating
and criticizing the commission that it took 218 days
for the C-C-P-S-A to have a hearing.
I find that ironic, since you have gone full speed ahead,
supporting Anthony Driver for Congress,
even canvassing for him.
Anthony, as you know, was the president
of the C-C-P-S-A until October.
Relinquishing that role to run for office,
but still holds a position in a commission
as a charity immigration committee have only held four
a grand total of four meetings, four meetings with concerns
so vital to the community.
You should have been meeting at least once a month,
if not twice a month.
But now you wanna place the blame for failures
of illegal immigration at the feed of C-C-P-S-A and CPD.
There's a mechanism created by the Commission
for Interaction with CPD to have a commander,
a ranking member at every C-C-P-C-C-P-S-A District Council
meeting to address the concerns that you have here today.
Clearly, our brief conversation shows you don't,
are not really as knowledgeable about the C-C-P-S-A
ordinance as you claim to be.
Thank you for your comments, uh, marking, uh,
alderman Curtis here for attendance for Quorum.
Thank you very much. Uh, next person is,
uh, Emma Meal.
My name is Emma Mealy
and I am here today to make clear
that Chicago is a welcoming city by ordinance,
not by sentiment.
Chapter two dash 1 7 3 is very clear about the role
of CPD in relation to ice.
And what we are witnessing right now is a direct breakdown
of that legal boundary.
The way our legislation is written is unmistakable.
CPD is prohibited from assisting, facilitating,
or creating access for ICE as it relates
to civil immigration violations.
And yet, CPD is creating perimeters, controlling crowds,
arresting peaceful protestors,
and functionally running interference
so ICE can carry out raids safely.
Let me be clear, the safety is being created is not
for the people of this city.
It is for federal thugs more concerned
with destroying families
and defending public executions than
upholding immigration law.
Today, I address the deeper problem.
Section two dash 1 73 dash five
explicitly says There is no private cause of action,
meaning the only remedy for violation
of this legislation is internal discipline,
which means CPD can violate this ordinance in plain sight
and the public has no legal recourse to stop it.
Today, I am demanding legislative action.
We need this council to amend the welcoming city ordinance
to explicitly prohibit CPD from creating perimeters,
assisting with crowd control,
or providing operational cover for any ice activity.
We need to establish independent oversight
and automatic investigation when CPD is present at ICE
Operations, creating real enforcement mechanisms
and public accountability when this ordinance is violated,
including suspension without pay.
And we need to remove the loophole
that allows these violations to be handled quietly
through internal discipline.
Today, our sanctuary city status exists only on paper,
and our communities are paying the price in real life.
You wrote this law to protect Chicagoan. So we are to
Thank you very much for your comments.
I I'll ask, um, I'll ask politely
as we have 20 people speaking, if we can get
through so we can get to the matter.
I'd really appreciate it. I do appreciate the, um,
commentary, but wanna tighten that up.
Next person up is Patricia Puente.
Elderman Vasquez.
I guess you're not taking your position seriously
'cause look what time it is.
And the meeting barely just started.
I apologize, but I slept
until 2:45 AM in the morning
because Hispanics, I'm Hispanic.
As you could see, were making their loud music
or whatever at my workplace, uh,
at my workplace in the factory.
I retired from the Cook County Hospital.
I worked part-time in a factory.
I was told by a Hispanic that I wasn't allowed
to speak English.
And then this Hispanic, that didn't even know how
to speak English, came to me
and told me, you have Mexican blood,
you should only speak Spanish.
And this is my response.
God forbid if something happened to you,
you ended up in the hospital, are you gonna tell 'em, oh, is
that Mexican blood?
We are in the United States of America.
The United States of America opens the doors to everybody.
The only thing we ask is to respect it.
I was informed that a lot of people
that immigrants were told, you're putting your finger down
'cause maybe you're one of them that they told.
Once you are in the United States of America,
you could do whatever you want white,
because the Hispanic politicians,
and I'm talking about Hispanic politician,
nobody else, they will take care of you.
You will get money, you will get housing free.
We will give you everything free.
And that is true as you guys saw it.
The other thing is that I had
to take the Archdiocese of Chicago to court.
Why? Because they had the Mexicans with their loud music,
and this is what they said, oh,
Time is up. Thank
you for your comments. Uh, appreciate it.
Also, for the record, we have non-member, uh,
alderman c Cho Lopez, here in attendance.
Thank you, sir. Uh, next up we have Jessica Ez,
followed by Anhe Ruby Njo.
Good evening, members of city council.
My name is Jessica Ez.
I am a proud immigrant and a proud Mexican.
Um, I'm here to speak about public safety.
And to be clear, public safety cannot
exist without public trust.
Right now, that trust is broken.
In too many Chicago communities,
people are not asking for less safety.
They are asking for protection without fear for police
that defense their lives
and rights, instead of making them feel target,
ignore, and disposable.
The lack of trust we see today is a result
of repeated experiences under protection in
neighborhoods and communities.
Afraid due to the help of CPD given to the federal agents,
as well as failure to listen with residents raise concerns.
When communities don't trust the police, violence increases.
Cooperation, decre, um, decreases
and everyone loses, including the officers.
This is not sustainable and it is not acceptable.
Can you breathe? Our community is organized for years
for the welcoming city ordinance that we have today.
And we're here again today to make sure
that it's been enforced as they should be.
Chicago police should not be protecting ICE and DHS agents.
We have a right to protest
and speak up about the abuses we're seen, especially
as we see ICE continue to commit abuses
and lie about them time
after time, we demand
that Chicago City Council pass Alderman Fuentes ordinance.
So there's clearly that COPA will be responsible
for investigating police violations
of the welcoming city ordinance.
City Council has a responsibility
to demand more than talking points.
We need real accountability, real transparency,
and real investment in escalating
and community-based safety.
We need policies that prioritize human life, civil rights,
and equal treatment across every neighborhood in this city.
D defending Chicago means defending its people, all of them.
I'm asking this city council to use its power to insist
that the Chicago Police Department reveal trust
through action, not promises our communities are watching
and we deserve transparency.
Gracia.
Thank you.
We're gonna be here all night, folks.
Uh, next is an Angel Rub Navar, followed by Elias Zepeda
and Antonio Ramos.
Hi, good afternoon, members of the city council
and everybody in the box.
Uh, my name is an Angel Rub Njo and I'm a Chicago resident,
and I also sit as the Vice President for the C-C-P-S-A.
My comments today are my own
and are not reflective of the full commission.
If you have questions about our stance on the matter in
regards to I CCB P
and Ccpd interactions, we put out a statement on
January 16th available on our social media at CPSA Chicago.
I'm giving my own comment today.
I think what's happening in Minnesota is wrong
and goes to show how this administration disregards the
rights of its own US citizens as well as immigrants
that have helped to build this country.
Renee Goode and Alex Preti were shot
and killed on American soil.
This is a sad and brutal truth that we face
On January 8th in Pilsen, we held a public hearing in regard
to the matter of what's occurring in our city.
And what I heard that night was really clear.
I heard confusion of who does what.
I heard people who are afraid, who, uh,
are second guessing their thoughts on calling 9 1 1.
That's simply unacceptable.
And people deserve clarity that they can know,
that they can trust their local police department if they
need them and if they need that access to justice.
That said, we might see a resurgence since ICE
and CBP activity in March.
CPD should have a plan.
And this ordinance, the amendment
that you all are discussing today, um, is important
to ensure that people have an avenue to go to if they need
to have an incident investigated.
This is only one of many steps that's needed
to ensure people can trust the local government.
So I appreciate everybody's time today.
Um, and I urge the committee to take Swift action
and support all person Fuentes amendment to allow COPA
to investigate violations of the welcoming city ordinance.
Thank you. Thank
You.
Next is, uh, Elias or Elias, uh, ela.
Thank you Chairman. Sorry.
Followed by Antonio Ramos
and, uh, rose Stratman. Go ahead. Thank you
Chairman. Um,
Elias ELA from Pilsen Defense and Access.
We're outta the 25th ward, the city's near Southwest side.
When discussing with our, some of our, our constituents
and our stakeholders about why we support, um,
we support this, this move to modify CPA's responsibilities
and duties to include the ability
to investigate Chicago Police Department officers,
the main response we got was like, wait,
they're not already allowed to do that.
What's, what's the point of that? Right?
So clearly we're here on support of that
and we think all their fuentes for we're putting that up.
Chicago. Sadly, despite having, um, some leaders
with some great capacity,
and presumably with some, with some great intentions
and a mayor as well, we lag far
behind in ensuring public safety,
specifically in the context of the federal, um,
so-called immigration enforcement agencies
that have been raiding our cities
and we're far behind ensuring
that our local police department doesn't collaborate
as our law dictates.
It can, as indeed as a state law,
so dictates no local law enforcements can in the absence
of any infest enforcement mechanisms
for our city's welcoming city ordinance.
And in, in, in the absence
of any clear directives from the mayor
or the superintendent to our police department rank
and file, we are seeing almost daily
default if I'll, I'll give a benefit of doubt defaulted
by ne by due, uh, due to negligence collaboration
between the Chicago Police Department during surges
of federal agency, or for so-called en enforcement agents
by enforcing perimeters,
by even attacking some elders in this room.
And we've also had some of our, our ward members
who have been pulled over while observing legally, um,
agents who had unmarked cars with no plates running,
past lights be pulled over, police officers
and the police officers told them,
we're not sure, can we stop them?
If they run past the red light, can we stop them?
If they don't have plates, they need clear directives.
And that goes from the mayor and down to the superintendent.
We're behind other cities right now.
Philadelphia's getting clear
directives and we need that as well.
In addition to this.
Thank you for your comments.
Next up we have Antonio Ramos, followed by Rose, uh,
Stratman and Reverend Sandra Castillo.
Thank you. My name's Antonio Ramos,
and, uh, I'm with, uh, Pilsen Defense and Access.
I help, uh, patrol the schools in the mornings
and, uh, for, uh, dismissals, um, in our, uh, ward.
Um, I am kind of confused by the, uh,
welcoming city ordinance.
You know, from what I understand, it was, uh, CPD cannot
aid in immigration enforcement.
You know, um, I went to, uh, DC with the mayor last year,
um, while he got grilled on Capitol Hill about this.
And I thought that's what we were defending.
But I guess we need to, um, uh, adjust it
so we can investigate the officers that are aiding
with immigration enforcement.
You know, we have many, uh, cases
of this happening in the last year.
Uh, we have, uh, squad car numbers, we have badge numbers.
You know, we have enough evidence.
I was there in Lata, um, was it November 8th when, um,
CPD created a perimeter, uh, for immigration enforcement.
Um, I believe they took a child
and her father, um, there was, uh, people trying to stand in
between the agents and them going into this property.
Um, and I also saw CPD almost
what seemed an entire department there escalating the,
the whole situation.
Um, three people were detained. From what I understood.
One person was standing right in front of me, taken by CPD,
pulled into the crowd.
Next thing I know, 3, 4, 5 officers are on top of him for,
for just observing.
All right? Um, I, I don't know, um, again,
what the welcoming, welcoming city ordinance is.
Honestly, I, I don't think it's effective.
I think it's a, it's a failure.
And, um, I, yeah, I have nothing else to say about that.
I, I hope that that changes.
I hope that people actually, um, understand
that we have nothing to protect us from these Nazis
that are coming to our door.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Uh, next up is Rose Trapman, followed
by Reverend Sandra Castillo and Sylvia, uh, Marie Mraz.
Hi, uh, I'm Rose Stren. I live in Pilsen.
I guess I represent Pilsen defense and access
and holy ground, the church.
Um, I struggle to come to places like this in good faith
'cause I've been disillusioned with y'all and the police
and everybody for a while,
even just looking at this piece of paper.
This is what we're here for. Modify the powers
and duties of civilian office
and police accountability
to include conducting investigations into complaints.
Okay, that's, that's just it. I'm sorry.
Like y'all are gaslighting us.
We live in reality and we are hurtling towards a civil war.
So get in line, show up.
I don't wanna come to another meeting about meetings,
about policies, about convos.
Like we've got the videos, we've got the bruises.
Do something. That's it.
Thank you for your comments. Uh, next we have, uh,
Reverend Sandra Castillo, followed by Sylvia Marie Mraz
and Jonathan Gomez.
My name is the Reverend Hendrick Castillo.
I serve as the chairperson for the Episcopal Diocese
of Chicago Sanctuary Committee.
In the course of this ministry,
I was contacted by two families.
These families do not know each other.
What they do have in common is that they live in Chicago.
That the fathers of the committees were illegally arrested
and detained by ice.
That, uh, both individuals in the course, in the,
in the course of transparency had been ticketed
for DUI one in Chicago.
One not. These fathers were de were deprived of the care
and support of their children.
These families were left with the support and the care
and the love of their fathers.
These fathers never were given the opportunity
to defend themselves in court.
They were illegally arrested
before they had the opportunity to take this case
to trial in court.
If the city council is serious
about the welcoming city ordinance,
it must pass Alderman Fuentes ordinance.
There has to be accountability.
And the only way we are going to get accountability, if, if
Copa is the body in charge of
investigating these complaints,
we wholeheartedly support Alderman Fuentes ordinance.
And we ask the city council to pass this ordinance
as quickly as possible. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next speaker is
Sylvia Marie Raz, followed by Jonathan Gomez
and Dennis White.
Uh, Hello everyone.
Um, I'm not usually, I'm Sylvia Marie Raz.
I'm, I don't usually do this. I'm kind of tired.
I just gotta have a 12 hour trip from Midway.
Um, I don't want this Gestapo here.
I don't want this Nazis here.
Like they're in my neighborhood. They're in unmarked cars.
Like, how am I supposed to know the difference
between a mass shooter and them?
Like they've been through my neighborhood, they've been
through my friends, they've been in the angle side.
They're taking people left and right.
I'm scared, scared I shouldn't be outside my door,
going outside my door.
Afraid. Afraid for me, afraid
for my family, away from my neighbors.
Afraid for the people that live across the street from me.
Even if I don't know them, I'm afraid
you should be afraid too.
The only difference between the people detained
and you is circumstances only difference between you
and the people detained is the fact
that they don't share the same color as you.
But why should they? They share the same blood as you. St.
Morgans did. Everything from you.
Like, I'm just sitting here alone with everybody else
who are sitting here regardless, black or white
or Mexican or Muslim.
They, we care, I care about y'all every single one of y'all.
But y'all don't care about us.
If this is how you're treating us,
letting people be killed out in the street in cold blood,
murdered, innocent, and for what?
Children, old people, parents, grandparents.
This doesn't make any sense why I should not
be afraid of my city of Chicago.
I've been here for 24 years, born
and raised, lived in La Vita
and stuff like that, especially when this was all happening.
And then I had to move to Garfield Ridge
and it's still happening there now.
I should not, and especially when I used to live up in,
around Lake Beach, mind you, lake County,
I was still dealing with this.
I should not be dealing with this in the state of Illinois,
in our sanctuary city.
This does not make any sense.
As a brown person, I should not be afraid as any,
as a woman, I should not be afraid.
But yet here we are. I want you all to listen.
Please, if there's anything you have to take away from this,
please listen to your community.
Listen to your people, listen to your kids.
Listen to your generation, your new generation.
We are the future. Please, I shouldn't be.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Uh, next up we have Jonathan Gomez, followed
by Dennis White and Abeer Minor.
My name is Jonathan Gomez from Lincoln Square 47th Ward,
proud immigrant from Guatemala.
I'm the co-director at the Chicago Religious Leadership
Network on Latin America, an immigrant rights organization.
Last July, the Committee on Immigrant Rights
and Refugees witness a really disappointing spectacle.
The committee convened to demand answers
regarding apparent CPD support for the arrest operation
that ICE conducted at the ICE check-in site in
the South Loop on June 4th.
CPDs presence is setting up perimeter around the site
and apparently communicating
with ICE looks very much like a violation
of our welcoming city ordinance.
The ordinance itself creates mechanisms for investigating
and seeking accountability for violations.
The ordinance does not allow people harm by these violations
to bring legal action themselves.
Instead, the ordinance gives the, gives Copa the authority
to investigate violations by individual officers.
All, all their complaints relating the welcoming city
ordinance violations go through the Inspector General
Alderman Fuentes ordinance makes it clear
what should have been clear from the beginning.
Copa should have the authority
and responsibility to investigate possible CPD violations
of the welcoming city ordinance.
There's no excuses anymore.
Who is going to hold the police accountable.
It's time. We urge the council.
Many, many people here
and outside in our communities urge to counsel
to pass the ordinance.
And for Copa to thoroughly investigate the police,
the police need to be held accountable.
Thank you very much. Uh,
next speaker is Dennis White, followed
by Abeer Minor and Esther Martinez.
Andy Lynn Blair. Danny Courtman. Ronald Delia Domin.
Dominic Do, Scott Gardner, Dustin Mond, Amy Corman,
Brandon Mendoza, Laken Riley.
You all know who she is or she who she was. Jemele Shaw Jr.
Joe Story, case Stunner. Molly Thomas and Karara Thomas.
Karara Thomas was a 19-year-old black woman who was killed
by illegal immigrants.
But you all don't protest for the victim that I just named.
You all want ice outta here.
So if you want this sanctuary ordinance to go, you want this
to be a, a welcoming city, invite them in your houses
because half of you all don't want nothing happen
until it knocked on your doorstep.
Or a detective come to your house
and say, your loved one is dead.
We got a bigger problem than what? Each and every last one.
You all over here, coming over here, snapping your fingers
over here, Dimo D on ice and all.
You could boo all you want to, sister girl.
But you know what's time it is. But anything else?
You all want this to happen. We got no problem. Local crime.
But you all done not even from Chicago, are you? No.
You not from the south or the west side, are you? No.
We deal with this on a daily basis.
Not with the crimes that's gone on with the illegals,
but the local crimes itself.
But here's the thing. They carry weapons.
I carry weapons 'cause I'm a vet
and believe me, I got combat training.
So you young man, you could smile all you want to,
but I know how to handle that business right there.
So yeah, he,
yeah, but that's okay.
It's cool. It's cool. Order please.
'cause still you are, you could call it all you want
to, but guess what?
You're not Hispanic, aren't you? White boy,
Comment over.
Thank you. Uh, Alder person. Excuse me for a second.
Alder person. Hal Hall has requested a virtual option
for committee hearing attendance in accordance
to rule 59 of the city Council.
Rules of order. Can I get a motion
to allow him to attend this hearing?
Virtually So moved by Alder person.
Fuentes, here are no objections.
So ordered n Next up AER Minor, followed by
Esther Martinez and Jessica Martinez.
Good afternoon. My name is Abbi, a minor.
I'm a commissioner with the Community Commission
for Public Safety and Accountability.
My thoughts are my own. I am here today
to make two clear recommendations.
One, to expand COPA investigatory authority
to include investigations into potential CPD
and ICE collaboration.
Second to Grant COPE with the authority
to investigate officers alleged to be affiliated
with hate in extremist groups.
At our most recent commission meeting,
more than 900 community members participated sharing
concerns regarding potential CPD and ICE collaboration.
What became clear is that people are p****d, they're afraid,
and they're disenchanted.
When community members come forward to make reports
of unlawful behavior
and are told that there is no process to receive and
or investigate their concerns, it disrupts trust,
justice, and accountability.
We have also received multiple community calls
to expand COPPA power to investigate alleged hate
or extremist group affiliations within CPD.
This is a timely opportunity
to address internal limitations identified
with BIA investigations
and to create clear lanes of accountability.
Thank you to the sponsors
for bringing this ordinance for it.
And thank you Chamber, chamber members.
I hope that you vote favorably. Thank you.
Thank you. Our
next speaker is Esther Martinez, followed
by Jessica Martinez and Brenda.
So sono.
Hello. Good afternoon everyone.
Um, thank you com and rights
and thank you to the police
and fire department, um, committee to be here today.
I hope you're having a good day
because many of our community members are not.
Uh, my name is Esther Martinez.
I am a community organizer with Northwest Center,
serving the beautiful,
strong resident community of Beman Reagan.
And I am here today
because many community members are living in fair due
to the continued presence and action of ICE
and CVP in our neighborhoods.
Just this morning, two vehicles detain.
A community member in our area has a results.
People is afraid to go out, to leave their homes afraid
to go to school, to pick up their childrens, afraid to go
to work, afraid to go to church.
Are you familiar with that feeling?
Have you ever lived your house thinking about you are not
going to come back and see your family again?
This is not new. Our communities, black
and brown, organized for years to protect our city,
to have police accountability,
to have a welcoming city ordinance.
And we are here again
to make sure it is enforced as it wasted.
Chicago police should not be protecting ICE or DH agents.
They are not paid for that.
That on their minds, the law
and our roads trust between our
communities and law enforcement.
We have the right to protest
and to speak up about the abuses we are witnessing,
especially as ICE continues to commit abuses
and repeatedly misrepresent these actions.
What we are seeing is not public safety.
We cannot wait longer.
The lack of clarity around who is responsible
for investigating potential violations.
Bill, I will say has real consequence.
When accountability isn't clear, trust is broken.
And when trust is broken, public safety suffers.
We are hearing solidarity from Minneapolis to Chicago.
Our communities are standing together and the mi
Thank you very much.
Our next speaker is Jessica Martinez, followed
by Brenda Solorzano and Victoria, uh, de Julius.
Good afternoon. My name is Jessica Martinez
and I am an immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico,
and I lead immigrant rights
and advocacy at Enla Chicago,
a nonprofit organization in Little Village.
I'm also here today as a member
of the ICE R Count Action Council member.
And I'm a veteran too. Um, ISIS killing vets too.
Just in case you weren't aware.
I am here because the welcoming city ordinance is a local
law that should protect every person in this city.
The protection only exists if there's a clear citywide
process to investigate possible violations.
Without that, the law is weakened.
In practice, little Village is one
of Chicago's strongest commercial corridors.
When immigrant protections fail,
the economic impact is immediate
and citywide Fear does not stay contained.
It affects whether people go to work, keep businesses open,
report crime, or engage with city services at all.
Right now, Chicago's official Civilian Oversight Agency is
the civilian Office of Police Accountability,
otherwise known as Copa.
Copa is meant to receive complaints of police misconduct
and investigate serious allegations involving
Chicago Police Department members.
But there's a major gap.
Popa is not currently investigating welcoming city
ordinance violations.
As a result, community members
and older persons have had
to rely on a separate report form created
through committee staff to collect eyewitness testimony
of potential CPD collaboration
with federal immigration enforcement.
That work around itself shows the problem.
If complaints like these are not formally investigated
through the city civilian oversight system,
then accountability is not real.
CPA's role is to ensure independent
and transparent review of police conduct.
When welcoming city ordinance concerns fall
outside the process, trust erodes having to submit testimony
through an additional form highlights
that there's no clear enforcement mechanism.
For a lot this council intentionally passed.
Immigrant communities already hesitate
to report harm or seek help.
When they're unsure, their protections will be honored.
Fragmented reporting and unclear oversight
only deepen that fear.
This is why I support older person Fuentes. To clarify hope,
Thank you very much.
Our next speaker is Brenda Sono, followed by Victoria
Deus and Yari Lee.
Hi everyone. My name is Brenda Sono.
I live in the 25th Ward.
I'm with Family Focus
and we're also members of the Illinois Coalition
for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Uh, we were on the ground on June 4th, 2025 when US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement was leering people
into fake check-ins at the South Loop isap
office and arresting them.
These were people that were immigrants that were abiding
by the required check-ins, so they were doing
what they were supposed to be doing,
and we were appalled to see Chicago police officers setting
up perimeters around the IEF site
and apparently communicating
and possibly collaborating with ICE in violation
of our welcoming city ordinance.
We demanded answers as did the Committee
for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
And we were frustrated when the committee met last July,
July 1st, 2025.
And neither Copa nor the Inspector General's office claimed
clear responsibility for investigating the incident.
The bare minimum to her credit,
inspector Inspector General Wisberg stepped up
to launch an inquiry as Chicago has already endured the
terror or of rampant immigration enforcement.
This these past couple of months, this past year
with more threats, we need assurances
that our police department will comply
with the welcoming city ordinance
and that alleged violations will get investigated.
We wholeheartedly support elder person Fuentes ordinance
to clearly assign responsibility
for investigating CPD violations of the ordinance to copa.
And this ordinance will be a major step toward greater
accountability for our police department
and reinforce its duty to protect all Chicagoans.
We definitely need to move with a sense of urgency
and we urge the city council
to approve this ordinance today.
Thank you. Our next speaker is Victoria
Deus, followed by Gary Lee and, uh, Claudia Marshan.
I'd ask for some order please.
Hi there. Um, my name is Victoria Deus.
I, I'm here
because I think our human rights
are under attack.
I think that everybody, I I think
that we really need your help in supporting our most
vulnerable populations or in make our populations
and doing what you can to help support us.
We have, we're here to exercise with little power
that we have because we are all
depending on you to do the right thing.
So we ask that you, um, restore legislation
or implement legislation
and, um, um, support those that need it the most.
And so that we can feel safety and security,
because that is, that's what we rely on you to do.
So please help us. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your comments.
Next up you have, uh, we have Yari Lee, followed
by Claudia Marshan.
Hello, my name is Yari Lee.
I am here on behalf of myself,
and I'm not here to discuss immigrant rights.
I'm here to ask a simple question,
has the law been violated?
And the resounding answer from our eyes,
from our communities is, yes,
the welcoming city ordinance has been violated by CPD,
setting up perimeters for ice
and arresting peaceful protestors.
So who is CPD supposed to protect Chicago or ice?
CPD has not protecting, been protecting Chicago.
They are the Ice Police Department,
not the Chicago Police Department.
And so today I'm here to ask the city council
to please amend the ordinance.
As Emma Mill said, please explicitly
prohibit CPD from creating Premi perimeters, assisting
with crowd control, or providing any
operational cover for ice activity.
Establishing independent oversight automatic investigation
when CPD is precedent ICE operations,
and removing the loophole that allows these violations
to be handled quietly without investigation. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
All right. Our final speaker is Claudia Marshan.
Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Claudia Maran and I am with the Immigration Law
and Justice Network of Northern Illinois
and also an IR member.
I am here. Uh, our organization provides free immigration
legal services to all those
who need them throughout Northern Illinois.
I am here today for myself, for my family, for my friends,
for our clients, and for our staff.
We, I am here to stand in solidarity, in solidarity
to protect our city hold agencies accountable, and to uplift
and strengthen the city ordinance.
I have been here since the age of four.
I am a proud immigrant from Monte Ion.
And during my 39 years living here, I have never felt scared
for my life and I have never felt unwelcomed.
I was brought here for safety and, and foreign education,
and never have I experienced anything like this.
The city of Chicago is under attack from our own federal
government, and we know
that ICE targeted Chicago in the surrounding suburbs
for intense immigration rates even
before the new administration took office.
Currently, federal prosecutors are suing
because of the welcoming city ordinance
and are also threatening to withhold key government funding.
We are being bullied. This is unacceptable,
and we need to stand strong and strengthen the ordinance.
ICE has tried to get records from CPD as well
as city key information from our city clerk,
and we witnessed the rampage that when ICE
and border patrol agents were here smashing
and crashing our cars, tear gassing our neighbors, uh,
which included, uh, CPD officers grabbing
and tackling people on the streets arresting US citizens
and creating havoc and terror in our neighborhoods.
All this has undermined public safety throughout our city.
If Chicago and Illinois residents don't feel safe
and protected, um, we are not, none
of us are safe and protected.
We need to know that our police department will uphold
public safety for all Chicago residents
and not co cooperating with federal agents.
Our welcoming study ordinance alone
cannot offer the assurance.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much to all of our speakers today.
Um, I would like to note that this joint committee received
316 written public comments.
I mean, for real. Uh, there being no more speakers.
The public comment is, uh, concluded.
I'd like to note, uh, Alderwoman Angela Clay,
uh, here for quorum.
Uh, the first and only item is
Ms. Alderman admits
have a hand raised to be recognized
for purpose of the Quo as a non-member.
Yeah, Alderwoman admits.
Oh, we have you, we also had you
for Rule 59, I believe. Thank,
Thank you. Yep.
Thank you very much. Uh, the first
and only item today is uh
oh 2 0 2 5 0 0 2 0 4.
An ordinance sponsored by Alder person Fuentes,
which is an amendment to modify powers
and duties of the civilian Office of Police accountability
to include conducting investigations into complaints made
against members of the police department, uh,
alleging violation of the welcoming city ordinance.
Alder person Fuentes has asked
to share remarks prior to the vote.
So we'll move to remarks and presentations for today.
Um, I'd like to ask my co-chair, uh, Chris Ali Farro
for any brief remarks you'd like to share.
Um, none other than I'm going
to thank everyone for showing up today.
Uh, as, as we all know and as we've seen on, on television
and heard in, um, uh, radio as well as in print media,
um, that there's no greater subject, um, that we are faced
with as a country, uh, than immigration enforcement.
And so I want to thank the leadership of my colleague, uh,
for keeping this at the forefront of City Council
and, um, keeping this on the minds of, um, council members
and on the community.
And we certainly, um, certainly want to say that, um,
we support, um, we support you and we support our community.
And so, uh, with that, thank you for your leadership.
Um, all the women Fuentes
and I, um, look forward to hearing a debate on this subject.
Thank you very much for that. Um,
I'd like to also thank our colleague, uh, al person Ententes
for bringing this ordinance forth.
Um, I'll be giving a brief presentation
to go over the committee's work on this matter, just
to provide some background and context
and then pass it to the panelists.
Um, the other person, for instance, has asked to be here.
Um, I'd also like to present for the record
a communication we received, um, from, uh,
police superintendent Larry Snelling that I'd like to read,
uh, on a public record.
Uh, dear members of city council,
the Chicago Police Department is in support
of this proposed ordinance, which furthers transparency
around CPDs response
to incidents stemming from civil immigration enforcement.
CPD has a duty to cooperate with agencies tasked
with investigating misconduct.
The department understands that our operational response
to incidents stemming from civil immigration enforcement
by federal authorities are a matter
of high public interest and concern.
CPDs response to cause
for service stemming from federal authorities conducting
civil immigration are solely to deescalate,
ensure public safety and restore peace.
This is how the Chicago Police Department has provided
and will continue to do so in the future.
Uh, Larry Snelling,
superintendent Chicago Police Department, uh,
I appreciate that we're having the conversation
related to this subject matter.
As many of us around the country have seen, uh,
this is a moment where we are actively seeing a government
lying to its people, even against
what we're all seeing in footage in multiple angles.
We're in a time where the federal government,
through ICE agents who are already acting
unconstitutionally, can execute someone
and has in broad daylight on the streets, recorded
through multiple angles
and still come up with a narrative
that bears no resemblance.
So it's actually on the footage in that environment
where we're watching fascism happening here in our streets
in this country, and we've seen it in Chicago as well.
It is important at you're watching the trust in government
erode that the city of Chicago makes any level
of accountability here, even stronger
whenever there are any incidents that occur
between ICE and CPD.
It needs to be transparent. It needs to be clear.
It needs to be held accountable.
It needs to be investigated.
And what we have seen is that
because the ordinance itself, um,
is untested as it has been in this moment, there's a lack
of clarity as to who should be doing what,
what accountability looks like, what guidelines look like,
and what accountability should look like in a,
an institution that pride itself on protecting and serving
and, uh, establishing law and order.
Having that level of specificity provides the order to which
to operate from not having.
It provides an ambiguity
that does not help this city move forward.
We've already seen incidents, uh, it since June 4th
where we have not received a level of transparency necessary
to actually hold 'em accountable.
And I am grateful for Alder person Fuentes introduction
and movement on this ordinance so
that we can get our members to pass it forward.
Um, as we all know, this is a moment where everyone
who understands what's going on needs to be clear
that an organization, a department
that is operating in this manner as an extension
of a president, acting as an authoritarian
and fascist needs to be abolished, eliminated, ended,
decommissioned, whatever synonym you'd like, it needs
to be gone
as it has not occurred yet.
What we will do is talk about
what it looks like in this city
to actually hold some level of accountability.
So we'd like to then start with the presentation
to talk through some of it
Is the superintendent police not here?
Uh, he was reached out to, I am not sure as to wise.
Now we can get a follow up on that,
but that is why they delivered a statement.
Uh, well just for the record, that's,
that's unacceptable and
Shameful.
Thank you for that. All right.
Yes, auditor Persondo,
Thanks for your unbiased opinion.
But, uh, does Copa have any comments for us or anything?
Everyone will as part of the presentation. Okay. So
They're part of their Presentation. Yes,
it's, that's why you're here in the box. Thank you.
Uh, next. Thank you. Alright.
So we'll start with June 4th,
which is the first noted incident that we've seen.
So on June 4th, department of Homeland Security, uh,
immigration and ICE agents conducted a mass detention at the
immigration office at 2245 South Michigan.
Uh, immigrants had no criminal history who had been here
for decades and were following the process, laid out
for them by the federal government were detained,
separated from their attorneys
and ripped from their families.
They were following the law
and quote unquote, doing it the right way.
Peaceful protestors were met with violence, uh,
from masked ice agents.
Witnesses reported CPD officers blocking off streets
appearing to stand guard for ICE vehicles
and accompanying ICE agents in
and out of the building in apparent violation
of the welcoming city ordinance.
In response, the Committee on Immigrant Refugee Rights filed
OR 2025 dash requiring the release
of all information recordings related to this incident.
We held the hearing on July 1st to pass the order
to get the data and footage
of the activity that occurred that day.
Um, due to that hearing
and more pressure from members
of the city council, we received the data.
Um, we requested, including communications
regarding the June 4th incident from the mayor's office,
welcoming city ordinance reporting from
April 1st to June 30th.
Communications regarding the June 4th incident from, uh,
OEMC, including audio
and event reports for three calls
regarding the incident in radio traffic communications
and reports related
to the June 4th incident from CPD body-worn camera footage
from CPD officers on the scene.
Uh, that evidence was redacted, uh, but we did receive it.
Uh, it actually is an outlier
because in the incidents that have occurred since we have
not received that level of transparency, uh, at the hearing,
CPD assured committee members
that CPD did not assist DHS ICE in the violation
of the welcoming city ordinance.
However, the data release cast doubts on that testimony.
So after reviewing the body-worn camera footage, uh,
our committee staff found examples
of CPD officers advising Department of Homeland Security
and ICE on how to transport detainees in their, uh, civil
immigration enforcement operations.
So there was some level of
what could be understood as cooperation.
If we can play the footage.
I don't believe the audio is actually,
it's audio's here, but it's not on there.
We start it over right here.
Okay. So that's,
that's the other thing is why don't
the cars are in the alley.
Yeah. My car are. Okay.
Let's move those into the parking lot
onto the private property.
Is there a door that goes straight out to the parking lot
or, yes, we have a side door, top one door right there.
There's a door that goes right into the parking lot.
This one right here? Yes, sir. You have one over here too.
Okay. There's a door right there.
So that solves a lot of problems.
So we don't have to, if you three cars,
you guys get in your cars and drive 'em away.
We'll, we'll make, we, we can go out there,
you're going out there by yourselves
and then come back around the block
and put 'em in the parking lot on private property.
I, sir, let's start taking whatever we can.
I don't wanna take anybody out now. Not with all that.
We got two vans. So whatever you're gonna use to transport
passeng, do everybody at once, two vans
that they're gonna be right there on the side.
Whatever you're, I told them to pull
up right on the street in the parking lot.
We have two side doors that open in this
office and then side.
So that's, we could, that can control better.
'cause it's, would be better because it's less,
it's private property, so not as close to whatever vans.
If those aren't the cars you're using,
there's transport vans coming.
Have them come to the parking lot. Yep.
And you can go from there. Okay.
That's what I told him. So I assume the cars
in the back are not transported?
No. Okay. Two, two next exit. Okay.
So when they arrive, or 10 foot.
So that's an example of footage that we,
so that is an example I'll need to order here.
That is an example of just one incident
where we received the actual footage to look at
and we have not received for any
of the numerous incidents since.
That is one example on the footage that we received of
what I think most reasonable people
might consider coordination.
Uh, for clarity on the footage, it is,
it is a, a, a member of CPD leadership
instructing the folks from ICE
and the people inside
to park their vehicles on private property.
So there would be less level of accountability
and they'd be able to get people into the vehicles
and out, as opposed
to being in the alley on public property.
I would call that a level of coordination.
But again, because we don't have further investigation
and accountability on every other incident
or the footage to look at, it becomes hard to identify
what the guidelines should be,
what people should be held accountable to,
and what consequences one should face
for violating the ordinance and guidelines.
So what we're looking to do is to establish
what those rules are so that there's clarity on what counts
and what doesn't count as coordination.
And people can be held accountable for violations.
Uh, I'll ask for the Yes.
Commander. Is it a deputy chief? What was you?
I'm not asking for a name, I'm just asking to rank.
Yeah. What we can do through the chairs
is we'll submit all of that and
Well, it's important to know now.
I mean that through the chair.
I mean, was it a low level sergeant
or was it high ranking chief?
It was a responding commander.
Okay. Commander. Okay. That's all. Thank you.
That, that's all I need to know. Yeah.
And then for clarity, all members
of CPD are held accountable regardless of any position.
Yeah. But you define it
as a high ranking member of CCP PD.
That's why I wanted to know. Totally. You,
you didn't say it was a po you
said it was a high ranking member.
Yep. Uh,
So who investigates the
welcoming city ordinance violations?
As we had in the conversation in our committee hearing, uh,
there is the ability from different parties
to do the investigation.
Whether it's the Bureau of Internal Investigations at CPD
or the Office of the Inspector General
or the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
There's ambiguity on who should
and whose responsibility it should be.
So in that hearing Copa, who ultimately, um,
I guess determines where it should go,
was determining it shouldn't be them.
And that led us to looking at legislation
to try to clarify that.
So rather than there being ambiguity,
there's a responsibility as to who should.
So that lack of jurisdictional clarity is
what Alder person Fuentes is looking to address
with the ordinance that we'll be hearing today.
Now, uh, I want to really broadcast this
because I have actually seen a lot
of people ask this question in hearings as well
as in the public, Hey, I wish there was a form to report
incidents that we see and occur as violations.
There is our committee put forth a, a form,
I think it's close to a month now, if not longer,
where people could submit those.
So we also have visibility to it
and we actually escalate them.
And so for clarity, anyone that has any incident
that they witness can submit to a form
that we have at the Committee on Immigrant Refugee Rights
that URL is bit ly slash report
IMM violations Chi CHI.
To make it easier for everyone, you go to, welcome
to chicago.org, which is the committee website.
Welcome to chicago.org.
Spelled exactly the way it sounds, no numbers or anything.
Welcome to chicago.org.
And you could submit any complaints you see there.
I say that because respectfully, we've had other bodies
who are saying, well, we haven't received any complaints,
so we haven't been able to have a hearing
'cause no one's told that there's complaints.
We all know that there are plenty of complaints.
We want you to formally report them. Welcome to chicago.org.
Is the URL to go do so there'll be a quiz at the end.
Alright. Welcome to chicago.org. Yes, Alder sudo
Planes be anonymous or they have to,
uh, attach a name to it. Okay.
They can be anonymous third, so
They can be anonymous. Thank you. Thank you Chair.
Yeah, thank you for the question. So, since, uh, well as
of, uh, January 26th, we received 11 reports, seven related
to CPD, one related to Chicago Park District one
to the Department of Finance and two, uh, DHS complaints.
All complaints have been forwarded
to the appropriate investigative
agency based on the complaints.
So to be clear, we do talk about CPD as it relates
to the welcome city ordinance, but that's every single city
employee in every department.
Anything that looks or appears to be a complaint,
we want the public to submit them.
Uh, in addition to the June 4th incident,
our committee has also filed a report
to CPD officers providing escort to customs
and border patrol vehicles on December 17th, 2025.
As with the June 4th incident, COPA responded by saying
that the welcome city ordinance investigations fall
outside the scope of CPA's investigative jurisdiction
and referred the matter to CPDs Bureau of Internal Affairs
for further administrative investigation.
As of yet, we have received no updates from, uh,
BIA on investigations
of any welcoming city ordinance
violations that have been reported.
So as we're seeing, there is a lack of critical,
timely data on interactions with DHS that the public needs
to ensure that welcoming city laws are being upheld.
Uh, there are quarterly welcoming city
ordinance compliance reporting.
It's not frequent and it's not detailed at all, really.
You get a number for what the complaint is, a spreadsheet
that just shows you the numbers, no detail, not even a,
a breakdown of what has occurred.
That level is insufficient.
It is things that we are looking to also improve.
Uh, there are a number of things that are opportunities
to make sure we get more clarity.
Uh, and there's also a list of requests for assistance
with immigration enforcement from CPD, uh,
that depends on CPD for thorough data collection
and reporting methods, which we know from several OIG
reports is likely not happening.
It also does not include reporting from any other city
agency that interacts with DHS that is missing.
These are also things we're looking to address.
We need regular data to ensure that all city employees,
including law enforcement officers,
are upholding the welcoming city ordinance.
Alders shouldn't have to file data request legislation every
time an interaction occurs to force and pressure reporting.
To that end, I've introduced an ordinance oh
2 0 2 5 0 0 1 9 9 5 9,
requiring weekly reporting on any
and all city interactions related
to federal immigration enforcement
that we are all also looking to get support on.
Uh, there are also a number of opportunities in the
welcoming City ordinance that
although we are not looking at in this moment,
we are exploring to figure out
what changes can be made to improve.
And that in conversations with multiple parties,
understanding that there is risks
to looking at addressing the welcome city ordinance,
but we are gonna name opportunities for improvement.
The current ordinance doesn't address general
and special CPD orders, for example,
assist police crowd control counter-terrorism calls
that may be used as loopholes
and workarounds to liaise with, uh, DHS.
It also doesn't create a mechanism to hold DHS accountable
for breaking other city laws like motor vehicle use
and pedestrian safety laws.
Uh, it also doesn't outline clear consequences
for city employees that violate the law.
That means if and when these incidents are investigated,
if employees are found responsible for violating the law,
we have no clear mechanism for accountability,
whether disciplinary, retraining, supervision, et cetera.
I don't even think a documentation as far
as a warning note, there's nothing.
It also doesn't address indirect and backdoor usage
and sale of city data that DHS can access via fusion centers
and other local surveillance and data tracking apparatuses.
We cannot fully call ourselves a welcoming city if there's
no accountability for those who break
our welcoming city laws.
The municipal code should not just be articulating our
values, it should be clear on processes
and what accountability looks like.
We must address these gaps in order to live up
to our city's values, especially as DH S'S
reckless operations increase in violence.
So I'd like to go over all the presentations
and then open it up for questions, if
that's okay with members.
Yes, chairman.
Uh, that's okay. Chairman, I mean, we're co-chairing,
If I'm misunderstanding this slide, please help me out.
But, uh, I'm a little concerned about the, uh, the slide
that pointed that, um, that the committee, um, is,
is doing intake on, um, is doing intake on, uh, reports
of police misconduct as it relates, um,
to immigration enforcement.
And I, I wonder if that's been, um, by our law department,
because it certainly, in my opinion, creates, um,
the possibility of conflict and,
and, um, for a, a committee, um, to do intake on, um,
police reports of police misconduct.
It's, it's almost akin to, uh, the chairman of, of police
and fire being able to do intake on allegations
of police misconduct, uh,
or misconduct on, on the fire department,
whereby we already have a vehicle in agencies that do that.
Um, so I'm a little concerned that, um,
and if, if law has deemed this to be something
that we shouldn't be concerned about, I would certainly, um,
under, you know, understand that.
But I, I would like for something,
or to law to give an opinion as to whether
or not it, it, it is, um, advisable for a committee,
uh, to become an intake vehicle for reports
of mis misconduct.
Yeah, I, I, I appreciate that.
It's absolutely fair question.
I think what we've seen since I've been chair
of this committee in the current environment we're in,
is we've actually worked almost like a defacto department
slash office, not just a hearing.
So when people bring up, Hey,
you're not doing monthly hearings,
we're also doing know your rights investigations
or Know your rights canvases,
and we are getting these complaints to our committee
because they're not getting any follow through
with the existing processes, which is why we're looking
to clarify COPA for investigation, for example,
which is why there isn't a level of confidence
and there isn't an existing city form to do so.
So we as the committee, have had to fill in a gap
because we are receiving the information on a regular basis.
And so we're absolutely open to any conversation
with Department of Law and getting actual clarity
and an establishment of what the process should be,
which is another opportunity.
So we're absolutely open to what Department
of Law is willing to say on that.
In absence of anything being clear,
we're gonna continue moving
because we're getting the complaints.
Yeah, I, I think it's important to do that, um,
especially when we have a department
and a, a commissioner that can, can be, you know, encouraged
to, uh, make that a part
or some of the things that, uh, I see that you've taken on
as a responsibility, uh,
that we could actually encourage our, our commissioner
to take on those responsibilities as, as her agency should,
um, uh, our inspector general's here.
Um, and I, I know this is probably, um, a question that
you know, is, is, is, is gonna hit you from,
without having the, to look into it
or if that's your answer, I'd appreciate it.
But do you have an answer to my question
that this is something perhaps that we need a, um,
an opinion from the law, uh, the Department of Law
before we, uh, begin to take intake on,
on matters of public safety?
And,
Uh, good afternoon, chairman.
I appreciate the question. Deborah
Wisberg, inspector General for the city.
I think, um, the obligations that come to mind here in terms
of what this implicates are that, um, uh,
two things, uh, all city employees
and officials have duties to report illegal conduct
to the Office of Inspector General.
Um, and so I think that would apply to any,
any information about potentially illegal conduct that came
to city employees or officials this way.
It is also the case that that Copa pursuant both to its
enabling ordinance and to the consent decree,
is the clearing house for all complaints against the Chicago
Police Department that are received by the city.
And so the other thing that I would wanna ensure is
that any complaints against the police,
which are coming into the city through this mechanism,
are still getting to COPA for tracking purposes in,
in accordance with the city's consent to create obligations.
Thank you for that and for follow up,
that is absolutely what occurs.
I gotta inbox that literally gives me the updates.
'cause we submit all of those as we receive them,
because as city
employees, when we get the intake, it happens.
So similarly with other complaints we've gotten, we kind
of create the forms that don't exist
and then put them to where they need to,
to make sure the city is following up on them.
I think also what would be helpful,
and I would love to partner with any of the council members
that wanna do it, it also would be providing the level
of transparency we should get when those are submitted
and a timeline and turnaround
for some level of reporting back.
That's also the concern. So for example,
we would not necessarily see the nature of some
of the complaints, but people want them to be raised up
and so to provide something
that would solve that problem, right?
That would allow folks to have the form directly to Copa
that would then provide within a, a expected turnaround time
what that looks like for the public
and members of the council and,
and kind of break down what also be something
that I think we could codify. So I,
Yeah. Yeah. And you
know, my,
and my concern on, on top of this, it, you know,
it really opens up not just, uh, your committee,
but it opens up every committee, um,
to take on this added responsibility.
Um, and, and that's something I'm a little concerned about
as well as well, inspector General and,
and for our law department,
because certainly if we have one agency of the city council
that, um, that has been given the broad power of being a,
a intake for police mis allegation con, uh,
police misconduct allegation, that would require
that every committee, um, become responsible, uh,
to being an intake, um, agency for allegations
of whether it's police misconduct
or whether it's misconduct by any city agency, that
that perspective committee, um, would have
to take on that added responsibility.
And I think that's outside of the, uh, rules
and responsibilities that we have as committee persons.
And so I'm, I'm concerned if we move in this direction.
Um, it is, it is something that can be applicable
to every single committee.
Yeah. So I'm concerned about it.
I would like for our law department, um,
not necessarily now, if you need to look up on it,
that's fine, but we could do this, you know, um, off record.
Um, but I, I'm very concerned about that and,
and the implications that would be
put forth on every single committee of this body.
So I would say to that point, I,
I would even like it on record so we can figure out how
to make amendments and like clarify
that to have the processes.
'cause I think that's a fair question. I appreciate,
and you might know, you're not the first person
to tell me I'm doing too much, so
Oh, no, you're not getting too much.
Don't get. But, but to that, but to that point, I think
because we're seeing the responsibility of it needing
to be done, and there's not the clarity there,
i I am sincere in not being facetious in finding a way
to partner that, to clarify that through the municipal code.
That's, that's part of what we're looking to do, period.
So thank you for that. Um, so what I'll do now
is I'll pass it over to Kopa,
Sorry.
Oh yeah. Department of Law, sorry.
Hey, chairman Christopher Cole, uh,
assistant Corporation counsel in the legal
Counsel division of the Department
Of Law. We the mic on,
Mic on please.
Just close. It's on test. It's on. Just no, it's on.
Just a little closer.
Good afternoon. Christopher Cole,
assistant Corporation Counsel in the Legal Counsel
division of the Department of Law.
Uh, just to speak briefly on it, uh, to my knowledge, uh,
the law department, uh, did not advise on the creation
or management of this intake form.
Uh, I have not had an opportunity to review the form.
Uh, we will do so
and consult with Chairman Vasquez as well as the members
of this joint committee, uh, once we have an opportunity
to complete our review.
Perfect. Thank you for that.
Blake, for example, um, if, if I call and have a complaint
or as a resident of the city, if I have a,
a complaint about CPS, um, I can now utilize, um,
the committee on, um, education, uh,
to, to make that complaint.
And now that committee becomes a vehicle
for making complaints.
Or if there's a complaint about the police department
and the inspector general's.
Absolutely right. We have an obligation, uh, to report any,
uh, of city, uh, any misconduct of a city employee.
Um, but we all don't have, uh, uh, agencies
or vehicles in which we actually on a continual basis,
uh, accept complaints on a daily basis or,
or have that authority or responsibility.
We have it on an individual basis if something
is brought to our attention.
But on an ongoing, regular basis, we are not the vehicle,
in my opinion, we're not the vehicle for, uh,
being a receptive or intake department for, um,
allegations of misconduct.
And I, I don't, I want to try to avoid, uh, going down
that loophole with just one committee, uh,
because it can certainly be the responsibility or,
or proceed to be the responsibility
of every single committee.
So I, I would love for law to take a look at that
and to let us know, um, uh,
your thoughts and opinions on that.
I understand your concerns. I'll certainly take it back.
And, uh, I'll just add that the Department of Law is happy
to advise all committee chairs
and committee members, uh, regarding any complaints, uh,
that they receive, uh,
in their capacity as committee chairs.
Thank you, chairman. Thank you very much.
Uh, alderman sdo, followed by Alderwoman Manhattan.
Uh, thank you once again, chairman.
Uh, just for a little bit of clarity, uh, going back
to page six, um, immigration enforcement violation form,
just a little unclear to me.
Does this go to copa? Does this go to OIG?
Um, these, these complaints?
I know you said we received 11 of 'em, and can you,
and if you don't know, you can give it to me
through the chair of those 11 complaints,
how many were anonymous and
how many had a name attached to 'em.
So, and also, I just would like
to join my esteemed colleague from the
25th Ward, believe it or not.
Um, I also am a little disappointed for that.
Somebody from the CPD is not here.
I was also gonna say law,
but we do have somebody from law here,
but I felt somebody from CPD and law should be here.
So maybe we can grab one
of these high ranking police officers that are here today
to, to weigh in on it or something.
So, sure.
Who, who does the report that these Im, uh,
immigration enforcement violation form go to? Yeah,
We submitted to the relevant one.
So, for example, there was a park district one
that went to the ig, right? Because that's where we go,
Go to IG then. Yeah.
So what, what we could do to your point
to the chair is give you a breakdown of what was submitted,
where it went, and which were Aon I guess we can provide
anonymous, a non anonymous and kind of keep it at that.
Okay. But we can submit that to
the chair so members are aware.
All right. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, wo Hadn.
Hey, we agreed on something. Sorry. Huh? Oh, okay.
So other woman, hadn,
Thank you, chair.
Um, um,
as the law department is, is thinking about this issue, um,
I, I appreciate colleagues raising it.
I wanna frame it in the category as well.
Um, and hopefully then move on to the rest of the committee
of one of the, um,
amazing things about actually being an older person in the
city of Chicago, um, compared to this local elected role
and our equivalence in other cities, is, is actually
how much latitude we have and how we do our jobs.
Um, I began working with older people, uh, you know,
chairman Talia Faroh, chairman Sato, you guys are here.
You, you know, I began working with older people, um,
some time ago, like 20 12, 20 11.
And I like to say there are 50 different ways to do things.
In each ward, you will find a different style,
a different technique, a different use of technology as,
as the demands of the public become greater.
And, and this is a really good topic for us to kind
of get clarity on, because things aren't
getting easier for us.
They are getting more complex.
Um, we use tools to adapt to meet those needs.
And I do think that, um, the, the best of us,
um, do that, like, through our committees,
through our offices, um,
chairman Vasquez sometimes does too much whatever habits,
you know, he owns it, they work hard,
and they're gonna use every tool at
their disposal to do the thing.
So I've, I've noted that.
And, and it is about problem solving.
Like, Hey, we are all facing this really new situation where
what we had before is not, there's a, there's a, a gap
or a need we found, and how do we address it?
And then what are the implications?
So I do think this is really helpful
because we haven't,
like my office gets complaints about police misconduct,
about business misconduct.
Um, and I think, like most of my colleagues,
what we do is we try
and route people to the best reporting agency.
Is that the commission on human relations
for a discrimination complaint, right?
Is it COPA for, for a police misconduct issue?
And also though, we, we take that
and sometimes people don't feel comfortable going directly
to that reporting agency.
And in those cases, then we, we pass on the,
the complaints or the reports.
So I think we in practice, do a lot of things ad hoc anyway.
And I do appreciate the, the point, um,
the chairman Talia Faroh makes though of,
when it is very formal.
When you, when you go to hey, through the committee
and you make a form and there wasn't really a place before,
and now this place has become the clearinghouse, what kind
of complications does that pose?
Um, and I appreciate Chairman Vasquez, your point of
this is still a need and people actually need this.
And so if the city isn't creating it
and providing the clarity, other agents
of the city are doing it.
So just, just to say, I feel like we do this a lot anyway,
it just isn't necessarily always on, uh, a very high stakes,
or maybe we didn't formalize it in a Google form,
but I can't think of one of us who probably
through our office hasn't had to take a complaint intake
and then pass it on to the appropriate agency.
So for the law department, um, I'll say to take that into,
uh, consideration 'cause no shade.
But I imagine if you said, Hey,
law department, should we do this?
They're gonna say, well, probably not.
'cause the law department says that to everything,
we probably couldn't do it.
Um, and also we do it anyway in the course of our job.
And so, as please take that into consideration
as you're thinking about weighing in on this,
I appreciate that, uh, very much
that the analogy would be 3 1 1, you can use 3 1 1
to put in requests, ask any alderman in the city of Chicago
where people are sending the requests to handle it,
and people have forms, emails, everything else,
that then they have to then submit the 3 0 1 request
for people who aren't doing it.
Which I think is actually the same model.
So I, I really do appreciate that framing.
Um, what we'll do to continue on with the presentation
is pass it to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.
Uh, here with us are, uh, LaQuinya White,
the interim chief administrator, Shannon Hayes,
the Accu Acting Deputy Chief of Investigations,
and Angela Snell, acting General counsel.
Uh, so now I'll pass it off to interim chief, uh, white.
I've had my hand up. Oh, sorry. Is the vice chair. Yes.
Uh, thank you very much. Uh, my apologies.
Uh, vice Chair Taylor.
Thank you. Um,
I'm very concerned about what we are doing
without having CPD at the table.
And so let me, I wanna talk from a standpoint, from
Alder woman Taylor being a constituent
and not the alders.
What I would've liked to, for us to done,
and sometimes I feel sometimes I don't think that we do it,
is have a conversation about
what the law says CPD can actually can and cannot do.
Because in looking at the videos
and why they are the most horrible thing I've ever seen,
ever, majority of the times I see CPD not intervening.
And I don't know, are they supposed to intervene?
Are they supposed to watch what's supposed to happen?
And so if we are having these conversations, what I want
to see is people be educated.
And to be honest, um,
Alder Vasquez, that should be on the Commissioner
to take those complaints
and send them out and that type of thing.
That shouldn't be on you as the chair of the committee.
Um, 'cause there has to be a level of transparency.
And not that I don't trust you,
but I don't want nobody to say, I got a complaint
that nobody shared.
And so the thought
that we don't have CPD at the table is problematic.
Why the superintendent may be busy.
They could have got some, somebody should be here.
'cause there are definitely questions that a lot
of us have about how this should go.
And what I want us to know is they're coming back.
I, I know y'all know that, right?
The minute the stove stops snowing,
they will be back in the city of Chicago.
And how are we prepping the people in our community
to make sure they're safe
and that we're not engaging with this foolishness?
'cause this engagement has gotten us nothing
but killed in her folks.
And so why I agree, there has to be some way
to watch what they are doing.
I'm not interested in putting people's lives at stake.
'cause we see that they don't care about life.
How many more people we gotta see get shot for us
to understand that the federal government has lost it down,
hosted, and they have no regard for human life.
And I'm, we not gonna pretend
that this ain't happening to black folks.
We, we just not gonna do that.
We gonna have that conversation.
I think that we should have, we, we should be in a space
to figure out how response, regardless of a,
what community it happens in, how it gets reported,
and how do we make sure that there's a space for people
to be transparent about what has happened.
Because I also think that with these things that happened,
um, in broad view, a lot of
that information is not outta what actually happened.
I think the, there has been a lot of misinformation
and not a lot of clarity on the side of the community about
what CPD can do, what they cannot do.
How do we make sure people are safe?
What should people apply to?
Because a lot of the, a bunch of these complaints
that I heard from was people just not complying.
And does that leave the city of Chicago open for lawsuits?
And so I want to see us have that conversation.
But this does not work if all parties are not here.
And that's the law department, that's CPD, that's Copa
and that's us and the community.
And so I'm listening.
Thank you very much, vice chair.
Um, I, I agree with your point.
I think most members here do as well.
I think we're looking to clarify, but I appreciate you
saying it for the public record.
Um, do you have any, any questions or anything?
Chair, uh, chairwoman?
No. I wanna learn, 'cause I'm, I'm confused about
how a lot of these shootings are happening.
Um, are our CPD told to turn their camera on when they go?
There are a bunch of things that I just wanna
know for my own clarity.
And I think that's fair to folks who have come down
who are listening, but also our communities that listen, we,
we gotta realize that our community is listening.
They, they, they need to be educated
and informed about a, what the city is doing, b,
what CPD can and cannot do.
And what we will do when it comes to, if the city
of Chicago gotta sue the federal government.
'cause like I I and I, I hear these conversations about the
bandaid, the Department of Homeland Security, which I agree.
'cause I'm trying to figure out who they secure
and it they're gonna show us ain't in the community.
So I'll, I'll leave my questions.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Uh, I'll now pass it, uh, back to interim Chief White.
Good afternoon, chairman Vesquez, chairman Farrell
and members of City Council.
I am La Kenia White,
and I am the interim Chief Administrator of copa.
Next to me is my acting Deputy Chief Shannon Hayes.
And in the box I have my acting general
counsel, Angela Snell.
We thank you for the invitation
to discuss this important matter.
As many of you will recall, in July of last year,
we appeared before the Committee on Immigrant
and Refugee Rights to discuss investigative jurisdiction
surrounding alleged violations
of Chicago's welcoming city ordinance.
During that meeting, we heard clearly from members
of this body that changes were necessary.
In response, COPA immediately began working to identify
a legislative solution through a robust
and collaborative process.
We arrive at the proposal
before you today, which COPA fully supports
upon passage, COPA is prepared
to immediately begin administrative invest investigations
of all future complaints containing
allegations of this type.
We have already begun building the necessary infrastructure
to support this work.
With that said, I would like to provide a brief overview
of the current process, what to expect following passage,
and a short summary of CPA's, investigative procedures,
timelines, and transparency requirements.
Please bear with me as I walk you
through a brief presentation.
As many of you are aware,
COPA currently does not have investigative jurisdiction
over the welcoming city ordinance violations.
COPA jurisdiction is outlined in the Chicago Municipal Code,
which lists the allegation types.
COPA is authorized to investigate
allegations outside.
Those listed in the code are forwarded to the Bureau
of Internal Affairs who investigation
as our ordinance requires.
That is the process. COPA currently follows,
aside from a small subset of cases referred
to the Inspector General
or external investigative body as authorized by law.
As of yesterday, COPA has received approximately 40
complaints about incidents related to ICE activity,
including incidents that happened at protestors.
Of those 28 complaints contain allegations
that could be associated
with potential welcoming city ordinance violations.
Some of these complaints are duplicates of others, meaning
that they were about the same incident.
I want to stress that these figures reflect initial
allegations as reported to COPA
and should not be interpreted as indicating any
investigative outcome Of these 28 complaints,
26 were ultimately forward to the Bureau of Internal Affairs
and two referred
and retained by the Inspector General
across these 28 complaints.
COPPA average time
to reassign was less than two business days,
and the vast majority of cases
reassignment occurred the same day
under the proposed amendment.
Allegations of welcoming city ordinance violations
by CPD members would be added to the list
of allegation types within COPA investigative jurisdiction
under the municipal code.
This authority will take effect immediately upon passage.
As a result, if COPA receives a complaint alleging a CPD
member violated the welcoming city ordinance,
COPA will conduct the administrative investigation
COPA served as the clearinghouse for all allegations
of misconduct by Chicago Police Department members
that is sworn or a civilian.
Upon receiving a complaint,
Copeland immediately begins work on that case.
This includes collecting relevant materials,
identifying involved personnel, determining allegations,
assessing investigative jurisdiction
and reassigning cases when COPA lacks jurisdiction,
in some instances, jurisdiction is clear at intake,
allowing us to make an immediate determination without the
need for extensive preliminary investigation.
When COPA does have investigative jurisdiction,
the case is assigned to one of our general
investigation teams or special victim squads.
Investigators continue gathering evidence,
canvassing scenes when necessary, conducting interviews
and taking any additional investigative steps required
at the conclusion of an investigation.
Inve investigators work in collaboration
with supervisory staff
and for significant cases, our legal team
to determine findings.
Then that draft closure records then this,
they then draft, excuse me, they then draft closure records
and complete required post closure processes.
When it comes to timelines in 2025, COPA closed nearly half
of his cases within six months
and more than 60% within one year.
The cases that you stand
beyond one year are typically highly complex matters,
often involving fatal shootings
or allegations of domestic violence or sexual assault.
I know transparency on this issue remains critical,
critically important to members of this body
and to the communities you represent in this moment.
Transparency is not simply a value, but a necessity.
COPA has built entirely on the foundation of transparency,
and our agency exists to ensure that accountability
is conducted in the open
and with the public at the center of our work.
Therefore, I would like
to briefly highlight COPPA transparency practices.
First, all COPPA investigations produce a closing record
that describes the how and the why COPA closed the case.
If the case results in findings,
the record would explain those findings
and if applicable,
the associated disciplinary recommendation
unless prohibited by law, these documents are subjected
to disclosure requirements outlined in the municipal code
and through the Freedom of Information Act, which is foia.
Additionally, COPA maintains online case portals
and data dashboards that provide public access to case
and statistical information.
COPA also produces monthly, quarterly,
and annual reports shared with all members of this body.
These reports include intake pending
and closed figures, broken down by allegation types
per the municipal code.
COPA must report quarterly to the Committee of Police
and Fire to answer any questions about the report.
Finally, beyond these formal reporting requirements, I want
to state for the record that my phone is always on
for members of this body.
If you have any questions about trends,
investigative procedures, or any other matter,
you are always welcome to reach out to me or my staff
and I'll provide what information that I can.
We come before you today committed to resolve an issue
of understandable concern for you
and the community you serve.
COPA shares those concerns
and CPA's commitment
to work towards solutions does not end here.
I believe it is vital to keep our lines
of communication open and you have my personal assurance
that will do everything in my power to maintain that.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Uh,
before you go to questions, I wanna open it up.
I'll pass it to Deputy Mayor, be Del Leon of the Office
of Immigrant Migrant Refugee Rights, uh, for their remarks.
And also note that we've got, uh, the Inspector General here
with us and Deputy Inspector General.
So Deborah Wisberg and Tabba Richardson
and Department of Law as we've asked questions before.
Um, just wanna make that clear.
So, uh, deputy Mayor, if you've got remarks,
Thank You Chairman, and thank you everyone.
Good afternoon, I'm Pon Leon.
I'm the Deputy Mayor for Immigrant Migrant Refugee
Rights for the City.
I wanna start by by thanking everyone who came
for public comment, because hearing your perspectives
and ideas regarding this issue is, is important
as we make these critical decisions.
Um, thanks again, chairman, uh, Vasquez
and Chairman Tele Farro, your committee members
and your staff for convening this joint hearing.
As we know, these matters are incredibly important,
especially at this time.
I also just, you know, wanna say again, thank you
to Alder person Jesse Fuentes
for bringing forth the amendment.
It is an amendment that has the full support
of Mayor Johnson and of our administration.
Over the past year,
Chicago has experienced immigration enforcement at a scale
and intensity, unlike anything that we have seen
before in this city.
And it, it almost feels redundant to say that out loud
because we have, many of us have been experiencing it
and have been on the ground in the middle of, um, of this,
uh, you know, these incidents.
But it really is unlike anything we had seen before.
And what that means is
that we've been challenged in different ways.
Um, we saw the first major incident took place on June 4th
that has already been described multiple times.
And then a very rapid escalation of reckless
and dangerous enforcement through Operation Midway Blitz,
um, things that we could never have imagined, right?
People being thrown to the ground, being shoved
and pulled out of cars.
Um, tear gas in, uh, neighborhoods
where young kids were walking to Halloween party, just the,
the most unimaginable things.
Um, this very rapid blitz tested our systems
and our protocols in ways
that we had not been tested before.
And I think as policymakers, all
of us in our different roles, we know that policies
and protocols are living documents,
and that they need to be updated at
times to meet the moment.
Um, and that's part of what we're doing here today.
Our Office of Immigrant Migrant
and Refugee Rights conducted an internal review of
that June 4th incident.
It was not an investigation,
but it was an internal administrative review of things
that took place that day
and of ways, the protocols that we had in place to respond.
And out of that, we came up with, um, recommendations
to improve those policies
and protocols, including making this amendment
to the COPA ordinance.
We made that recommendation
because it became clear that there was a lack of clarity
regarding investigative jurisdiction,
and that was differ driven in part
by differing interpretations of existing law.
The proposed amendment today that is, that is being heard,
um, will give explicit authorization to COPA
to investigate alleged welcoming city violations
by Chicago police officers.
And that clarification provides, um, a level
of certainty and confidence in the transparency
and accountability that Chicagoans expect.
It's a meaningful step to reassure all Chicagoans
that complaints of possible violations
of the welcoming city ordinance will not go unheard,
and that in fact, they will be reviewed
by an independent body with clear authority.
I wanna shift for a moment to the bigger picture.
You know, the real issue, the bigger target, is the lawless
tactics of CBP
and ICE that have resulted in violations of our civil rights
of constitutional protections.
They've resulted in infringements on
fundamental human rights.
And sadly, as we are all very well aware,
they've resulted in the loss of human life, in the killing
of people who were exercising their First Amendment rights,
who are standing up for our democracy
and who are protecting their neighbors.
I wanna take a moment to share that.
We grieve the loss of Renee Goode
and Alex Preti from Minneapolis of Verio.
Viega Gonzalez from Franklin Park,
and of over 30 people
who have died in ice detention centers.
That's over 30 people, um, some
of whose names we will never know in this time.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis,
but we also stand in solidarity with all those
who are calling to abolish ice.
Uh, our mayor. Thank you.
Our mayor has made it clear that he is in support of that,
and we know that there is not enough reform
that can save the type of agency that that has become.
And, um, it is time to make that change.
Mayor Johnson often calls for us to use the full force
of government to fight back against the tyranny
and divisive tactics of our federal government.
Um, because we know that when they come
for the most vulnerable,
or when they come for one of us,
they ultimately will come for all of us.
Our administration will continue
to uphold the welcoming city ordinance
and constitutional policing.
We will continue to speak out
and to act decisively to work across departments
and sister agencies.
We will work with our community partners, advocates,
city council members, and our neighbors to serve
and protect the people of Chicago the best we can.
Given the far reach of Federal authority,
today's proposed COPA Amendment is a small
but necessary step towards these efforts.
Um, and on behalf of the Mayor's office,
I urge committee members
and all city council members to support this amendment.
And then just finally, I wanna say thank you
to the people of Chicago.
Thank you for your compassion, your kindness
and generosity, your courageous actions
to help your neighbors and
to help keep our city safe for everyone. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And lastly, before we go to members in questions, like
to pass it to Inspector General, Debra Wisberg,
in case you've got remarks.
Thank you, chairman. I don't, I, I'm happy
to answer any questions, but I'll,
I'll leave it at that. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, we'd like
to open it now to members of the committee, uh,
chairman Talia Farro, followed by Alderman Spaza.
Uh, again, again, let me thank, um,
my colleague for bringing this.
Um, it's a very important matter for it,
and thank you for your leadership in this.
Um, my question actually is for the, um,
interim administrator, chief administrator, uh, and,
and it's something that we talked about
on a little bit on the phone.
Um, as far as the, the change from OPS then
to IPR and I believe now the copa, uh,
and over that, that timeframe, uh,
when we first took a stab at, uh,
investigating police misconduct, uh, I,
I believe under OPS when I was a a, a newer police officer,
uh, OPS investigated perhaps three
or four different types of misconduct allegations, um,
if I remember correctly, excessive force, um,
death while in police ies
and, um, any police involved shootings.
Uh, now as we transition all the way to 2026, uh,
uh, the, uh, the investigative unit, uh,
COPA has what about 13 different, uh, uh,
types of investigations.
Uh, I, it is expanded over the years.
Uh, my lengthy dialogue re regarding that is,
do you have the capacity, uh, as with the number of, uh,
agents that you have, do you have the capacity to take on
yet another, um, avenue of investigative,
uh, investigations?
Thank you for that. Chairman, tele farro.
Um, so yes, we have a lot under our jurisdiction,
and I'll kind of go down the list.
We do investigate officer,
we do investigate officer involved shootings, uh,
deaths in police custody complaints involving excessive
force, um, fourth Amendment violations.
It's a lot of, I read Oh yeah,
Website. Yeah. Yeah.
So with that being said, I will tell you
that COPA has consistently maintained a caseload
of under 600, um, with the numbers
that I gave you all today, which was, we received a total
of 40 complaints as relates to ICE and potentially the WCO.
But within those 40 28 were complaints, uh,
involving WCO allegations.
And also keep in mind
that these were duplicates too in some of these cases.
So if you're asking, do we have the capacity,
we absolutely have the capacity in order
to do these investigations Okay.
And still maintain a caseload of under 600.
Thank you. And, um, then, uh, just a question
for our inspector General.
Um, could you give us your thoughts on,
on the current ordinance, on whether you believe, um,
where it currently lies, uh,
with investigations being conducted by, uh, CPD as compared
to what we're, what we are looking to change it to, um,
investigations being conducted by copa?
Um, uh, well, I think that the
clarification to the extent
that this clarification reflects the will of the body,
I think clearer is better when it comes to the law.
Um, from my perspective, the question
of which agency investigates A CPD misconduct complaint is
perhaps less important than the city's obligation to ensure
that the investigations of those complaints are complete,
thorough, objective, and fair.
And that we conduct those investigations in a way which ums
suggests that we are running a disciplinary system in which
both members of the department
and members of the public have reason to be confident.
And so I think that, uh, as we talked about over the summer,
we, if there is a lack of clarity here, then I think clarity
through legislation is a really important step.
Um, and I commend the council for taking that step, uh,
to the, to the observation
that whoever conducts the investigation,
the city has the same sort
of fundamental obligations to the people involved.
Um, I think that is the North Star
from an oversight perspective.
That's the perspective we apply when our public safety
section as part of its own statutory mandate,
reviews every closed misconduct investigation coming out
of both BIA and COPA for investigative quality.
We will continue to do that work, um, regardless of,
of from which agency those investigations come.
Thank you. Are there, um, and,
and I don't know who this, this question may be
to probably the OIG.
Are there in, um, current investigations
where city employees, um, non-police, um, have, uh,
well, allegations of assisting ICER in any, any way.
Do we have any of those currently?
I won't comment on any of our current investigations,
but I will say, um, number
Wise, not specifics of it,
What, um, what has,
what has I think been clear all along in the existing
language of the welcoming city ordinance is
that any complaints of violation
of the welcoming city ordinance
with which regard non-police employees, those come to us
and we handle them according to our,
our ordinary confidential procedures.
So you, you handle, uh, violations
of the Welcome City ordinance with all city employees
except the police department and fire department.
That's right. Okay.
Um, fire department, I'm assuming, goes to
Those, come to us as well.
Okay. Uh, that's all I have. Thank you.
And I think as stated on the intake form, there were some
that weren't CPD, so those all went to IG as well.
Okay. Not to went too much detail there.
Um, so a couple of things I'd like to mark non-member,
alderman Lawson, who's here present.
Um, also Alder person.
Rodriguez has requested a virtual option
for committee hearing attendance in accordance
to rule 59 of the City Council.
Rules of Order. Can I get a motion
to allow him to attend this hearing?
Virtually So moved by wo Gutierrez hearing. No objection.
So ordered. Uh, next we've got, uh, alderman sdo. Thank you.
No problem. Alderman Sdo.
Thank you, chairman. Um,
my previous comments were point of information.
So one thing I wanna say, just wanna thank everybody
for coming out, taking time on our busy day, taking off
of work, whatever you did to get here, uh,
whether I agreed with your comments or not.
I always appreciate people
coming out and giving public comments.
So very important to our process.
Um, my first question, and I'm not sure if it's for you
or not, chairman, so I'll direct it to you.
I think it's to the deputy mayor, but, uh,
and this was about June 4th, the incident on June 4th.
I know we, we wrote up some stuff about it.
We're talking about it.
Uh, we heard it was a screw up, whatever.
So my question is, and I,
and I'm guessing this is for the deputy
mayor, but I'll direct it to you.
Was anybody suspended from this incident?
Was anybody put on call back over this incident?
Or is anybody fired over this incident?
Uh, unless the deputy mayor's got a
different answer, the answer would be no. No.
Okay. But All right. Deputy Mayor,
I'm not aware, but I also would not comment on
any personnel matters. I can say that
I'm not asking for names, I'm just
No, but I, I, it is not if generalization,
if it had happened, that would be, um, for CPD to respond
to if it in included any CPD officers. Okay.
Uh, well, since you don't wanna mention names,
you mentioned some names earlier,
so I wanna give you an opportunity
to mention some more names.
Um, I know we mentioned, uh, the two, uh, individuals
that were shot in Minnesota.
Just wanna give you an opportunity to send your condolences
to the family of Lake and Riley.
She's a nursing student that was murdered
by an illegal Rachel Morin.
She's the mom of five kids that was murdered
by illegal Melody Whi Whitaker and Jocelyn
Order. Please.
I'm just given an opportunity
to send her condolences to those families. Uh,
I, I, I do, I do want to say
that no human being is illegal.
Mm-hmm. I,
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not, I'm not saying they're
illegal human being.
I'm saying they're here illegally.
That you can't be in this country illegally.
President Obama said that. President Clinton said that.
I didn't say they're illegal human being.
I'm saying there were people that were in this country
illegally that murdered a young, beautiful mother.
A young, beautiful nursing student.
So that's what I'm saying. I didn't call 'em illegal.
They're, they're here illegally. Everybody order, all right.
Okay. All right.
I order everyone, can you calm the peanut
gallery down please, though?
I, um, yeah. I didn't say they're illegal citizens.
I said, they're here. They're here.
They're illegal American citizens. They're here illegal.
They're not illegal people. They're here in this country.
Illegal. That's fairman.
I had, uh, thank you for
directing your comments to the chair.
Thanks. Um, I am happy to respond. Um, yeah.
No one should be murdered. And it's a sad day when you're
comparing a murderer to a federal department.
There's a difference there.
There's a different standard. There's
A difference. Criminal
And a Federal murder.
Somebody compared to, compared to some that compared there.
There's been no determination on
what happened to those people, compared to
The federal government. There is,
they were murdered.
You're gonna go out and say they were murdered when there's
no investigation or nothing.
Come on. You're better than that, buddy. You are better
Than that. I've said it. I stick to
it. Thank you.
Okay. Whatever you want. You want you, we'll continue on.
You say they were murdered. Okay, fine.
Chairman, do you have any questions? Nothing.
But you're saying they're murdered. Do you
Have any other questions, chairman?
Yes, I do. So, I,
I guess we don't wanna apologize to those families.
That's fine. C-C-P-S-A.
So I, I, I'm a little confused about do they or don't.
First of all, I just wanna let y'all know I came in here
very, very open-minded.
Um, shockingly, shockingly, shockingly.
My, my esteemed colleague from the 25th
and me are a little bit disappointed.
Well, he's way more disappointed.
I am, I'm just disappointed that there's nobody here.
No high ranking individual.
Didn't have to be the superintendent,
but I thought somebody, somebody from CPD should be here.
Uh, the C-C-P-S-A letter here,
I'm a little confused about that.
So, is, um, uh, is Ramel Terry here? Is the president here?
Not to my knowledge, no. So we got the letter.
I know, um, hel was here and somebody else was here.
I don't remember who. There's some people signed on this
letter, they say to support it.
Um, I see Anthony drivers on here. I thought he resigned.
So I'm not, I'm not sure, uh, what the deal with that is.
So do we know anything about this letter of support from cc?
He, he resigned his president. He's still on the board.
He's still on the board. Okay. So he, he, okay.
So they do or they don't support this?
They do. That's why they, they do.
Are they a hundred, 700%?
Is this, how many majority are there? Seven on the board?
Yeah. Yes. Sorry.
Okay. So, so six, six
of the seven support it then, I guess.
Okay. From what I'm looking at here. That's correct. Okay.
Um, all right. That, that's really about it.
I, my last statement would be, um, when the time comes, uh,
I would ask for a roll call.
Vote for this. And I would
appreciate that. Thank you chair. Sure.
Uh, any other questions by members? Uh, wo head?
Thank You, chair. I, um, uh,
wanna thank everybody in the box.
Um, and Chairman, wanna thank you, uh,
and Chairman Tally Farrow for, for hosting this
and of course, um, OT Woman Fuentes
for, for bringing it forward.
I know this is a, This is a
hot subject 'cause it's ever present.
Um, and we're, we're gonna have more.
And, um, I know we're not
of unified counsel opinion on this,
but at the very face, and,
and for my colleagues who come in here, open-minded, um,
this is, this is an administrative fix
to an administrative gap, right?
So whatever, whatever your opinions
or political feelings are about the issue
of immigration enforcement, we have a law.
It's the welcoming City's ordinance.
And any city employee breaking the law needs to,
we need to have an avenue for reports to be made of that.
Um, it's, this is, this doesn't have to be political.
Um, when the, the hearing was had in July,
we found there was a gap.
There was a gap, right?
Um, Copa was like, Hey, we're not authorized to do this.
And they told us what they needed, and they're here.
And these are departments
and agencies that are doing what we need them to do,
no matter the circumstance, right?
No matter the circumstances are our ordinances.
So I just appreciate that
and just want to bring it back to center, um, for folks, um,
and for my colleagues that I think want to uphold the law,
want to see laws followed,
and want to make sure that we have administrative procedures
that make that possible.
Um, so it's not just the right thing to do, um, for,
um, moral reasons, but it's also the right thing to do.
Just structurally, administratively, procedurally,
this was a gap, and this is something that will fix the gap.
And all the parties involved were consulted in this,
and this is a solid piece of legislation.
So, appreciate that.
Just wanted to put those comments out there.
I, um, don't see why we couldn't all support this.
Um, it is a procedural piece,
and there should be a place for complaints.
There should be a place for investigations, for violations
of our laws.
So, thank you.
Thank you very much. Do any other
members have any questions?
Okay. Yeah. Uh, well, prior to that, uh, thank you all.
Uh, now that the presentations have questions,
have now concluded, I'll ask, uh, the chief sponsor,
Alder person Fuentes, to speak on the ordinance.
Thank you Chair, uh, Vasquez
and Chair Talia Farrow for hosting the Joint Committee
to hear this ordinance.
I also wanna thank the Inspector General Deputy Mayor, uh,
chief White, and all of the folks in Copa
who have been supportive, particularly mackenzie,
who has spent a lot of time with us, uh,
hashing out the possibilities of fixing
what I truly believe is an administrative error on our part
as a city, uh,
to uphold along live our values as a welcoming city.
Um, I, I just wanna mention some names.
Alex Preti, Renee Goode, Keith Porter,
Isai Sanchez, OSA, Verio, Viega Gonzalez,
Manuel Mateo Lopez Hido, Luna Campos.
Just a few names of people that were killed at the hands
of federal agents in a moment in which we have a federal
administration that's turning white supremacy
and cruelty into policy with utilizing Ice
and Border Patrol as its gestapo.
This municipality, this city, the city of Chicago,
and the body that is elected to represent its constituents,
has a moral obligation
to make sure our residents feel safe, that they feel
that there is a system of accountability.
That there are no gaps for us
to truly live through our values.
And we're learning so much
with what's happening in Minnesota, both in the cities
of Minneapolis and St.
Paul. And let tell you, there's still a long way
to go here in the city of Chicago to make sure
that our people feel safe.
Whether you are documented
or not, every resident in the city
of Chicago deserves to feel safe.
This is an opportunity for us
to engage in investigations
that are independent from the police department.
And the reason that that is important is
that this is not just about misconduct based on the rules
and regulations that police officers have to follow,
but this is an issue of political persecution
that we are facing as a city.
And in order to ensure that there is transparency, honesty,
and thoroughness in those investigations,
they must be separate and apart from the police department.
And so, chief White, I thank you for being able to take
that task on, for saying that you have capacity
for putting the infrastructure in place so
that we can hold people accountable,
not just the police department,
but every single person that works for the city of Chicago.
As an elected official, I took a oath
to uphold the Constitution,
and that includes all of the pieces of legislation
that we have passed as a city.
And so, as a legislator,
because I cannot do much as a local elected
to change federal policy in this moment,
I'm gonna do what we can locally.
And that is to fix this administrative gap.
And so, despite where you are politically, I hope
that you can support something that's administrative.
We have a law, the welcoming city ordinance.
We wanna make sure we hold people to account
and that there are no violations.
And Superintendent Snelling has sent his letter of support
on paper, documented, circulated
to every city council member in this chamber.
He's saying that this is the right thing to do.
And so whether you support police officers, residents,
people who are documented or not,
or both, I ask that you support this ordinance,
favorably chair.
With that, I will support Alderman Spec's
request for a roll call.
Vote.
Sorry. Uh, alderman Curtis,
and then Alderwoman. Okay. Alderman Curtis.
Yeah. Uh, thank you.
Uh, uh, chairman, I, I just, I,
I just wanted to, uh, comment.
I was running back and forth, um,
'cause I, I have to go meet, um, uh,
another department in a few minutes.
So I, I stayed on the phone,
but I did wanna make, uh, uh, a couple comments.
Um, one, uh, number one, I don't, uh, in,
in any way condone the, the, the,
the actions of our current, uh, federal administration
or, uh, the person he sent down
to do, um,
what I call inhumane, um, uh, commander Greg Bovino,
uh, treatment to people.
Period. Um, I have a great mixing pot.
I have black, white, Hispanics, Arabs,
uh, migrants.
Hell, sometimes I, I'm a migrant.
You know, I, I'm, I'm a I'm a people person.
Um, I spent 13 years, uh, in law enforcement.
I seen good and bad. I seen good apples.
I seen bad apples.
I, and I believe it is like that in every fashion
of, of, um, uh,
not just government itself, but any occupation.
There's good people. There's bad people as a whole.
But, um,
I don't believe in people being illegal.
I don't, 'cause again, I, I think about what it was like
for black people just not long ago in the fifties.
Um, but I do want to say that I, I feel
that I, I cannot support this as it is now, only
because we don't have the right people in place.
I do want the Corporation Council
to look at the forms and go over 'em.
I would love to see someone from the police department
and their council here to answer some of these questions.
And they're not here. Um, I think it's,
it's only fair for them to be here.
But what I saw in the audience earlier today
was basically just, it, it wasn't
the ordinance really, that we was concerned about.
It was, Hey, let's beat up on
all police regardless of who they are.
Let's just beat up on police period.
And that's the perception I don't want out there.
So, um, I, I, um, again, today,
I can't support it as it is because of that reason.
And, um, that would be it for me. Thank you. Thank you.
Uh, Alderwoman Lee. Thank you, chair.
Um, I wasn't really gonna make comments today,
but I, I think, um,
after listening to, um, a lot of my colleagues and,
and comments today, just a couple things I wanna say, um,
we're living in seriously unprecedented times.
I don't think any of us, um, condone any
of the things that are going on.
There's tragedy all around us.
Um, and it's incumbent upon us as elected officials,
um, to respond to these.
Um, I, I wanna go on record
and say that I think that the Chicago Police Department, um,
in, in these situations are put in a really
impossible situation.
Um, I, I do think it's unfortunate that the, uh,
that the police aren't represented here
to be able to answer some questions.
Uh, but to my colleague, uh, chair Hadden's point, this is,
uh, an administrative cleanup.
Uh, it closes a gap.
Um, if we wanna build trust with the public,
we have to have accountability.
And, uh, providing an avenue for reporting
and investigation, I think is the right thing to do.
Um, as with any other ordinance that we pass, um,
and we should be looking at all of our laws constantly
to figure out what's working and what's not.
Um, and if there are things that can improve it down the
road, I think that we do that.
I do think that it, uh, the issue itself, uh,
warrants a a lot more examination
because I would hate to think that, um, situations that,
that folks are being put in now, it's the responsibility
of Chicago Police Department to, to keep order and, and,
and protect the city.
Um, just like I don't ask anybody when they enter my ward
office for a service, if they're a citizen,
or even if they live in the ward,
like get calls from other ward, uh, residents all the time,
my policy is that we help everybody.
Um, and, and that that is the situation.
If the police are called upon to help in a situation where
someone is in distress.
And I'm gonna say something really,
I know people aren't gonna like to hear
if things are getting out of hand in a situation,
their job is to keep order in the city of Chicago.
I think that we can probably do more to, to help the police,
uh, and provide more clarity down throughout the ranks so
that we're not putting police in a position where, um,
they are being ordered to then violate, uh,
an ordinance of the city of Chicago.
So, I will be supporting this today.
I think this is the right thing to do in terms
of providing closing this gap.
I wanna thank my colleague, uh, for her work on this.
Um, and I think we have to continue to, to, uh,
have open conversations about this.
We're we cannot have people not wanting
or not trusting the Chicago Police Department
not wanting to call for help.
We already see too much of this, um,
everywhere else in this country.
We, that's not the situation that's going
to help any of us. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Uh, other person, Fuentes,
I just wanna reiterate this.
This ordinance is not to beat up on all police officers.
Look, there are police officers in my ward
who work extremely hard to protect all residents.
This is an ordinance to hold those accountable
who collaborate with ice
and violate our welcoming city ordinance.
It's an administrative fix.
Copa already has jurisdiction
to investigate police misconduct in the case
where there's a police involved shooting excessive force,
so on and so on.
We are adding this to the list of issues
that they have the authority
and jurisdiction to investigate.
Um, and again, superintendent Snelling has
provided us all with a letter of support for this ordinance
because he too believes that this is the right thing to do,
to have an independent body investigate any violations
to the welcoming city ordinance.
This is an opportunity to continue to do the work
that we've been doing for more than two years, which is
to restore trust between residents and police officers.
This administrative adjustment allows us to do just that.
We don't want individuals maybe
who do not have documentation status
to fear calling the police if they're in a
domestic violence situation.
And so we need to continue to do everything that we can
to preserve and to restore the trust.
This is what this ordinance is about, right?
Uh, so that we are protecting everyone.
And you know, I agree with some of my colleagues.
We can invite, uh, CPD
and Superintendent Snelling here so that he can tell us, uh,
how he's training his officers to abide
by the welcoming city ordinance.
What he believes should
and should not be done as it relates
to not violating the welcoming city ordinance.
And how we can have a collaborative relationship to continue
to move our city forward, to keep all of our residents safe,
and to live by our values.
And that is to be a welcoming city.
Uh, with that, I, uh, renew my motion to, uh,
move this forward with roll call vote. Thank you, chairman.
Thank you very much. And we have other person, other
Mendo who's got questions and,
And just a statement, just a shocking
statement for everybody maybe.
So this is something I do support. Okay.
It's a tentative Yes. Pending more inf more information.
Right. Okay. Well, listen, when, when 25
and 38 agree about something, all I, as I'm saying is it's,
to me, it's kind of a nothing burger,
just tight tightening some stuff up.
It's no secret, right. Stand on a welcoming city ordinance,
but I still of a man of law and by, by the law.
So once again, I renew my motion for a roll call vote.
Or this ordinance,
Just wanna clarify, you were removing the roll call.
Oh, no, I'm, I still wanna make sure we got enough people
here to support and everything, and then we take our vote.
So that's it. Thank you, chairman.
You did say remove, right? Sorry. Renew. I thought remove.
I was like, let's keep it moving.
Uh, temporary. Yes.
No. Let's, let's, okay. Temporary. Yes. Roll call.
It is everybody. Y'all are having fun today.
Uh, uh, Alderwoman doo.
Alderwoman Gutierrez, uh, alderman Kon.
Alderman Rodriguez. Aye. Alder person.
Fuentes.
I think it's, I think it's, yeah, it's at the direction
of the chair, sir.
Thank you very much. Um,
al person Fuentes, uh, chairman.
Sai Farro. Alderwoman Cruz.
Alderman. Cardona. Alderwoman. Rodriguez Sanchez.
Alderman Casada. Aye. Alderwoman. Not Howorth.
Alderwoman. Hadden. Vice Chair Taylor. Dramatic company.
Yes. Chair Vasquez. And aye. Vice Chair Robinson.
Uh, alderman Hall? Yes.
Uh, alderman Mitchell. Alderwoman Lee.
Alderman Curtis.
Okay. Just he said not yet,
which is just gonna be clarity there.
Uh, alderman. Moey.
All right. Uh, I'll come back. Alderwoman Tamaras. Aye.
Derman.
Uh, Alderwoman Admit. Aye.
Oh, sorry. Now, member, my apologies. Uh, Al Alderman. Sdo.
I appreciate the protest. We'll make sure you're safe.
Um, alderman Mosley. Aye.
Thank you. Uh,
Alderwoman, uh, Nugent.
Alderman. Sdo, I mean, sorry, Napolitano. My apologies. No.
Okay. Uh, alderman Gardner?
No. Alderwoman
Clay and Alder Woman.
Silverstein. All right.
So, yes.
Sorry. Vice Chair Robinson.
Oh, it's a quorum call. Sure.
Yeah, that I didn't get clarity on that.
I thought you were talking about the
order as opposed to quorum.
Got you. Fair enough.
I, no, yeah, sorry.
Uh, point of information wo hadn't.
So I wanna, this is a point of clarification
for everyone on our rules.
Um, you do need a quorum present in order to use Rule 59.
The chair had a quorum.
He called roll call,
and then he allowed the Rule 59 participation.
Once Rule 59 participation has been established,
they are part of the quorum.
So there is no, um,
you may chair things the way you wanna chair them in your
own committee, but we have a quorum.
It's been established.
So then when you're taking votes, he could call the vote
and the roll call however he wants.
You don't have to reestablish quorum
unless somebody calls for a quorum check.
So, I I I was gonna, I'm just clarifying the rules.
And so, all right, everyone, I didn't hear a quorum
or I didn't hear a call for a quorum.
I did hear a call for a roll call.
So that, that was that. And I appreciate the clarity.
I did not initially hear a quorum call.
Alderman Rosado did raise up a quorum call.
The Department of Law has a remarks.
Department of Law,
DOL on the mic.
Hey, chairman, once again, uh, Christopher Cole,
assistant Corporation counsel with the Department of Law.
As always, the law, uh, department can only advise the chair
as to the rules of order.
Uh, however, I will say any member
of the committee is authorized to, uh, move
to challenge the quorum, in which case, uh,
the chair may reestablish quorum by a simple, uh, roll call.
Yep. Absolutely. Thank you.
Starting from the top, uh, auto endow.
No, we're doing the roll quorum call.
We are doing quorum Call to establish quorum
as there's been a quorum call.
Yep. Uh, wo do wo Gutierrez
Alderman Kon, uh, Alder person.
Fuentes Chair, Pharaoh Alderwoman.
Cruz Altman. Cardona. Alderwoman. Rodriguez Sanchez.
Alderwoman Manina Howorth Alderwoman Hadden.
Chair Vasquez.
Uh, Alderwoman Lee.
Alderman Curtis. Alderman
Irvin Alderman Rosado.
Present, uh, and wo Clay.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Members are here per in person.
All right, well here for clarity, we're gonna do both.
We're gonna do both. We have 15 in person.
That is a quorum already.
But in order to add to it, we have Alder person,
Rodriguez here.
Uh, Alderwoman do Alderman Casada,
Present Vice Chair Robinson
Derman Hall.
Present. Alderman Mitchell.
Derman Mosley.
Present. Alderwoman Tavarez
Present.
Alderwoman Nugent. Alderman Napolitano. Present.
Alderman Gardner Present. Alderwoman Silverstein.
That's 22 members, if you're counting that as well.
So with 15 in person, 22 total, I believe that is a quorum.
We will now continue with the vote
Issue an opinion on that particular rule as it applies
to quorum prior to vote.
Not today, but, but I'm saying in the future, the,
For clarity on whether they could, because there,
There, there seems to be a lot of confusion as as it's,
as it's been raised in the past as well.
Chairman Irvin. Thank, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Uh, I move that the, uh, ordinance passed, uh, by voice vote
with the exceptions of Alders.
Uh, uh,
Napolitano, Gardner.
Sdo. And Curtis. Curtis, sorry.
Sdo. Yes, but it was an Napolitano. Uh, Curtis.
Curtis and, uh, Gardner. Alright, are we good?
Yes. All aye for the voice vote as proposed. Thanks. Aye.
All against the motion passes.
I peace. Copies of any supplemental materials will be sent
to you and all materials will be hosted on the CIRR website.
Welcome to chicago.org.
Within a week, any through the chair follow-ups will be sent
to Alders pending response from IJ
and presenters with no further business
before the committee may I have a motion to adjourn?
So move. So moved by all the person Fuentes hearing.
No objection. So ordered the meeting
of the joint committee on immigrant refugee rights
and police and fire is now adjourned.
You.