Forward of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Chicago Metropolis Council on Wednesday blocked a proposal to permit Chicago police to help in federal immigration enforcement.
In a 39-11 vote, council members stopped Alds. Raymond Lopez and Silvana Tabares’ ordinance from even arising for a vote. Ald. Jessie Fuentes, who moved to dam the proposal, mentioned the swift defeat ought to ship a robust message to future makes an attempt to amend Chicago’s protections for immigrant communities.
“It was very clear as we speak: Thirty-nine alderpeople aren’t even going to entertain the dialog. We consider that we must always stay a sanctuary metropolis. We consider that the welcoming metropolis ordinance is doing its job,” Fuentes mentioned. “To allow them to try, however they’ll get 39 votes each single time.”
The proposal’s essential sponsor, Lopez, mentioned he’ll proceed to push to repeal sure protections for undocumented immigrants in Chicago however didn’t give specifics on what he would change about his proposed ordinance or how he’d foyer his colleagues going ahead. As a substitute, he known as on these with criticism to return to him.
“We heard plenty of speak as we speak about there must be adjustments, however merely stating that after which strolling away from the dialog isn’t how you progress laws,” Lopez mentioned. “Our doorways have at all times been open, our telephones have by no means turned off and our emails proceed to work.”
The proposal would have allowed police to “work with federal immigration officers or businesses” when somebody is arrested for or convicted of “drug-related actions,” “gang-related actions,” “prostitution-related actions” or a intercourse crime involving a minor.
It’s unclear how CPD would outline these broader classes and determine which crimes fall beneath what bucket, which is, partially, one of many causes the division opposes the proposal, in line with a memo despatched to alderpersons final week.
The proposal prompted a big group of immigration advocates to attend Wednesday’s Metropolis Council assembly. A lot of them spoke in favor of protections afforded in Chicago’s sanctuary standing, akin to 21-year-old Celine Taki, whose father immigrated from Syria to flee warfare that later killed his brother, she mentioned.
“Immigrants don’t depart their homeland except they know that staying of their nation is extra harmful than the uncertainty of immigration,” she testified. “To strip folks of their safety once they come to America searching for security is improper on so many ranges, provided that this nation was constructed on the backs of immigrants and slaves.”
Additionally in attendance was a small however constant group of anti-immigrant, pro-Trump supporters who’ve usually proven as much as council conferences to oppose assist for migrants. They shouted phrases like “Trump[‘s] coming to get you” and “Illegals haven’t any rights” as pro-immigration attendees spoke.
Immigrant rights teams who labored to take away exceptions to the Welcoming Metropolis Ordinance in 2021 expressed reduction Wednesday that it could stay intact. Fred Tsao, senior coverage counsel for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, urged Metropolis Council members to “uphold and defend the Ordinance fairly than roll it again” within the face of the incoming Trump administration.
Chicago’s Welcoming Metropolis Ordinance prohibits the police division from coordinating with federal immigration enforcement. It additionally largely bans police from asking somebody’s citizenship standing. And police can not “arrest, detain or proceed to detain an individual solely on the idea that the particular person shouldn’t be current legally in america, or that the particular person has dedicated a civil immigration violation” — even on the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The parallel Illinois TRUST Act largely prohibits the identical sort of coordination however for the whole state. The proposed ordinance may violate state regulation — some extent town’s personal regulation division and the Chicago Police Division have raised as points. The Illinois Legal professional Normal’s Workplace, which has the authority to research violations of the TRUST and VOICES Acts, mentioned the ordinance “would create potential conflicts” with the Illinois TRUST Act.
“The proposal is fraught with due course of points and appears to have unintended penalties of racial profiling, with its references to loitering, and retraumatizing survivors of human trafficking who had been pressured into prostitution,” a spokesperson for the Illinois lawyer common’s workplace mentioned in an announcement.
The “by far largest method” that ICE brokers request assist from native municipalities is thru a so-called ICE detainer, mentioned Mark Fleming, the affiliate director of litigation for the Chicago-based Nationwide Immigrant Justice Middle. An ICE detainer is a doc that asks native police to carry somebody for 48-hours previous their anticipated launch to offer an immigration enforcement officer time to reach.
Honoring such detainers has confirmed pricey for some native municipalities. Simply final month, a choose discovered New York Metropolis responsible for $92.5 million for illegally detaining folks previous their launch dates upon ICE’s request.
Lopez confirmed that honoring an ICE detainer is the principle method he envisions CPD cooperating with immigration enforcement officers beneath his proposal. He mentioned he was not conscious of lawsuits just like the one in New York Metropolis when he pitched the ordinance.
Lopez and Tabares’ effort comes amid an identical push on the federal stage forward of Trump’s inauguration subsequent week. Federal lawmakers have superior the Laken Riley Act, which might instruct federal officers to detain people who find themselves within the U.S. with out authorized standing and charged with crimes akin to shoplifting or housebreaking. And it builds on earlier efforts to have the general public weigh in on Chicago’s Welcoming Metropolis Ordinance after town struggled to deal with and take care of tens of 1000’s of migrants in the previous couple of years.
Mariah Woelfel and Tessa Weinberg cowl Chicago authorities and politics for WBEZ.
