Good morning, Chicago.
When reports surfaced over the weekend that mass deportations could potentially begin in the Chicago area yesterday, Martin Ramos informed his boss that he was taking time off from work, stocked up on groceries and decided his kids would skip soccer practice this week.
Ramos — who emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico, without the necessary work permits — spent the first full day of Donald Trump’s second presidency hunkered down with his family and trying to avoid being picked up by ICE agents. An arrest, he knows, would destroy everything he and his wife worked for and force their two boys into an uncertain future.
“We have to do everything possible to keep our children safe,” Ramos told the Tribune. “What will they do if we get deported?”
ICE agents did not show up at the factory where Ramos and his wife both work yesterday, but the fear inflicted upon employees was evident. A co-worker told Ramos that only 10 workers showed up.
In Little Village, one of Chicago’s largest Mexican immigrant communities, streets were mostly deserted and quiet. Tamale vendors, a hearty group used to braving all kinds of weather, weren’t lined up on the sidewalks. The hardware store parking lots, where day laborers search for work, also were largely empty.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Laura Rodríguez Presa, Talia Soglin and Nell Salzman.
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Illinois joins in lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship
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