Chicago is responding to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration raids with protests that began Sunday. Two more are planned for Monday and Tuesday nights.
Tonight’s protest is to be held in front of the Chicago Police Department headquarters to denounce alleged cooperation of Chicago police with federal agents arrests last week as they detained immigrants outside a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement office on the Near South Side.
The Police Department has denied that officers aided the federal agents.
The immigration sweep resulted in a physical clash between the agents and community organizers and several Chicago aldermen, and advocates estimate at least 20 people were rounded up during the surprise check-ins last Wednesday at the federal agency’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program offices in Chicago. Protesters tonight plan to gather at 3510 S. Michigan Ave. at 6 p.m.
Chicago organizers are also planning to protest Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard over the weekend in Los Angeles to confront immigration protesters demonstrating against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region. The protest is planned for 5:30 p.m. at Federal Plaza on Tuesday .
“We’re encouraging people to come out, to mobilize in a peaceful fashion, to have a demonstration where we’re saying that Chicago is a place where ICE is not welcomed,” said Diego Morales, chair of the 25th Ward Independent Political Organization, which is part of Tuesday’s protest. “The idea is to show strong solidarity all across the city that Chicago is a place where these sort of inhumane and frankly unlawful actions by the Trump administration will not be tolerated.”
Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and intensified immigration crackdown has been denounced by lawmakers and advocates, who said that the actions are a violation of rights.
“What we saw last week and over the weekend was not lawful enforcement. It was a belligerent power grab,” said U.S Rep. Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia Monday morning at a rally in Daley Plaza with other other immigration advocates and elected officials. “ICE raids, people abducted from jobs, from homes, from community spaces ripping parents apart from their children, kidnapping people from showing up to what they thought was a routine check in at ICE. National guard patrolling our community like we are the aggressors. This is cruelty with intent.”
“We have a message for you,” the Democrat added. “We are not going anywhere.”
The protests Monday and Tuesday follow the rally held Sunday when dozens of immigrant advocates gathered on the Lower West Side to call for an end to aggressive immigration raids in Chicago. The light rain did not dampen the spirits of demonstrators, who led a march down Cermak Road following the rally, ending at Benito Juarez Community Academy.
“I’m proud to be an immigrant, and we are not criminals,” said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, whose ward includes the Lower West Side. “We saw the shameful events in our city early this week, and we continue to see the shameful actions in Los Angeles. Full solidarity to all the people in L.A., all the oppressed people who are fighting for dignity and respect.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he planned to file a lawsuit Monday against Trump’s actions. The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
“Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral,” Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC on Sunday.
The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.
The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.
Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.
The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.
Morales said he does not expect for Tuesday’s demonstration to be met with the same force that protestors in Los Angeles are seeing.
“We just fully expect to show up, speak with our voice, make some speeches, have a march and express the fact there’s so many people in the city that are coming together to unite on this message of love and solidarity for our neighbors,” Morales said.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
On Sunday, Gov. JB Pritzker added his name to a statement from Democratic governors calling Trump’s deployment of the National Guard “an alarming abuse of power.”
“Governors are the Commanders in Chief of their National Guard and the federal government activating them in their own borders without consulting or working with a state’s governor is ineffective and dangerous. Further, threatening to send the U.S. Marines into American neighborhoods undermines the mission of our service members, erodes public trust, and shows the Trump administration does not trust local law enforcement,” the statement said, which was also signed by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“It’s important we respect the executive authority of our country’s governors to manage their National Guards,” it said, “and we stand with Governor Newsom who has made it clear that violence is unacceptable and that local authorities should be able to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation.”
The Associated Press contributed.
