Chicago’s immigrant communities and advocates are on high alert after President Donald Trump and senior administration officials threatened to expand deportations in Democrat-led cities this week.
The fears come after Trump in a social media post Sunday called on ICE officials to deliver “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History” by expanding enforcement “in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.”
The president’s declaration has stoked fear in Chicago’s immigrant communities, which have already faced added anxiety from enforcement threats and raids since Trump’s January inauguration. Some of the more recent arrests have included immigrants who advocates say were in a legal process to receive asylum or residency status.
Brandon Lee, spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said organizations are working to inform communities of their rights if they’re confronted by ICE agents and to connect families with legal resources. He said they’re trying to fulfill as many training presentation requests as they can and have increased their frequency since November. Lawrence Benito, the coalition’s executive director, said the group has seen a high demand for training.
Some groups say they haven’t yet seen a rise in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the area, while others have received increased reports in recent days, including in the Pilsen and Uptown neighborhoods and in Elgin.
Nonetheless, many are bracing for more raids and status check-ins where immigrants could be detained. The Trump administration also backtracked on an order to stop raids in some workplaces, and advocates have their eyes on area factories, gas stations, car washes and shopping centers for potential enforcement threats.
Advocates are also looking out for new tactics by which federal officials might detain people. Many immigrants received messages calling them in for check-ins with immigration officials the past few weeks — including on Father’s Day. Some have been detained at those impromptu meetings, and others have walked out with ankle monitors.
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and groups including The Resurrection Project, Organized Communities Against Deportations and the National Immigration Justice Center are staffing tables outside a few facilities in the city and suburbs to quickly share resources with immigrants on their way into their check-ins. The groups are seeking more volunteers.
Parents are encouraged to set up child care in case of detention, and people are advised to memorize a hotline number (855-435-7693) where detained individuals and their families can get help.
Families can also use an online detainee locator search tool to find their loved one, but Benito noted that updates to detainee whereabouts have been slow to come through the system.
“They’re moving people quickly without due process,” Benito said. “So it’s difficult for even their attorneys to even know where their client is.”
Longtime Chicago immigration attorney Carlina Tapia-Ruano said she lost sleep this week over whether one of her clients would be taken into custody at an immigration court hearing. To be safe, she had the client appear remotely on video.
“It’s extremely stressful and distressing because of the change not only to due process, but the respect and terror affecting my clientele,” Tapia-Rauno said.
Advocates in the Haitian community are also connecting immigrants with attorneys and other resources.
Trump ended temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants, which had been in place since 2010, exposing tens of thousands of Haitians nationwide to potential deportation when the protection expires Aug. 3. The administration also indefinitely banned entry to the United States of citizens from Haiti and 11 other countries. A more limited travel ban affects seven other countries.
Patrick Brutus, an advocate representing the Coalition of Haitian American Organizations in Chicagoland, said there were fears that ICE agents would be in Chicago a few days ago, but he didn’t hear of any raids or arrests in Haitian communities.
That could be, in part, due to the lack of a concentration of Haitians in any one Chicago neighborhood or suburb.
“It makes it hard to track where ICE has made an impact,” he said, adding that, for now, groups are focused on reversing the travel ban.
The attention on Chicago comes after Trump sent the U.S. National Guard and Marines into Los Angeles in recent weeks to stamp out protests amid an increase in raids and detentions.
“Chicago is next, if they go too far,” a senior Trump administration official told Rolling Stone magazine. “The second they do, the president is prepared to prove that nobody is above the law.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson has forcefully rebuked the administration’s warnings, proclaiming this week that Chicagoans “have to go as far as necessary” to “protect our Constitution.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-LA, visited the ICE Chicago field office Wednesday, telling Fox News in an interview afterwards that he aimed to “make sure that these brave men and women that serve in ICE, who are protecting our communities and upholding federal law, I want to make sure that they know that Republicans have their back.”
Members of the Illinois Congressional delegation have tried to enter Chicago and suburban immigration facilities to conduct oversight checks but have been denied access or kicked out.
A day after Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Jonathan Jackson were escorted out of a South Loop ICE facility by Chicago Police officers, Jackson joined Reps. Delia Ramirez, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Danny Davis in trying to gain entrance to a Broadview ICE processing center Wednesday morning.
The four Democratic members of Congress said they presented their congressional identification cards and pins and were told by a masked man through a hole in a barbed wire gate that they had to email a supervisor to gain clearance.
“We are here today because as members of the United States House of Representatives, we have a right to be here,” Jackson said. “Right now, the Department of Homeland Security is breaking the law.”
The four left the facility uneventfully after failing to gain access.
Contributing: Michael Puente, Tina Sfondeles
