Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Thursday dismissed President Donald Trump’s threats of potential federal investigations and prosecutions over immigration enforcement, vowing the town will keep its sanctuary standing.
“There are a bunch of threats that this president has put ahead, and we’re not intimidated or overwhelmed by any of them,” Johnson stated in a cellphone interview with WBEZ. “I don’t sit round enthusiastic about the hypotheticals.”
The Division of Justice Tuesday threatened state and native officers who impede immigration enforcement might be investigated and face federal prosecution. A 3-page memo warned “federal legislation prohibits state and native actors from resisting, obstructing, and in any other case failing to adjust to lawful immigration-related instructions or requests,” in keeping with NPR. Native leaders and authorized consultants known as the menace “performative,” “harmful” and a “tortured interpretation” of the legislation whereas defending Illinois and Chicago’s sanctuary statuses.
Johnson stated Thursday he was not conscious of any subpoenas acquired by the town’s legislation division on this challenge, and tried to ease fears of prosecution police or elected officers could also be feeling.
“Whether or not you’re an area elected official otherwise you’re an area police officer, the message is: observe the legislation,” Johnson stated.
Presently, Illinois and Chicago legislation prohibits cops from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Law enforcement officials are usually not allowed to, as an example, ask about an individual’s immigration standing, or detain an individual longer than their launch date, per the federal authorities’s request, to offer an immigration agent time to indicate up.
Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, stated “threats to prosecute and jail elected officers who defend the legislation are usually not acceptable political discourse in america.” He vowed legislation enforcement will observe Illinois legislation.
“If the intention is to intimidate officers from defending the Structure — it won’t work,” Gough stated in an announcement.
Courts have made clear that state and native officers have the authority to direct legislation enforcement assets as they see match, stated Ed Yohnka, the ACLU of Illinois’ Director of Communications and Public Coverage.
“It’s not the job of the White Home to determine that for the town of Chicago, for the state of Illinois, or for every other municipality throughout the nation,” Yohnka stated. “The one factor that they appear to be doing that the White Home objects to, is disagreeing with Trump administration coverage, and for the second not less than, that’s not towards the legislation. It’s not against the law to disagree with Donald Trump.”
However Yohnka stated regardless of the “largely performative” threats, he worries it might give sheriffs or elected officers who don’t agree with state legislation an excuse to violate Illinois legal guidelines that largely prohibit implementing federal immigration legislation.
“We predict it’s actually essential for that motive that state officers stand as much as these bullying efforts and clarify that the duty of elected officers in Illinois is to observe Illinois legislation,” Yohnka stated.
Mark Fleming, the affiliate director of litigation for the Chicago-based Nationwide Immigrant Justice Middle, known as the memo a “basic misstatement of many years of constitutional legislation from the Supreme Court docket” and stated the tenth Modification of the Structure makes “very clear that the federal authorities can’t command state and native officers to implement federal regulatory packages.”
Fleming added that the federal statute cited within the Trump administration memo is supposed to ban particular person folks from smuggling immigrants into the U.S., serving to them evade immigration enforcement, reminiscent of “hiding them in a home or offering false data.”
Sanctuary legal guidelines in Chicago and Illinois don’t direct cops to “harbor” undocumented immigrants or assist them evade enforcement. Officers within the overwhelming majority of instances are prohibited from even inquiring about an individual’s immigration standing.
However Fleming stated whereas he’s “very uncertain” that the Trump administration may really prosecute and convict native officers, the memo represents “an extremely harmful weaponization of the powers of the Division of Justice.”
“The previous adage goes … ‘you possibly can indict a ham sandwich,’” Fleming stated. “My largest worry is that they’re in a position to get any person indicted and that has an actual chilling impact, even when it by no means results in a trial or even when it by no means results in a conviction.”
Chicago has been bracing for the promise of mass immigration raids which have but to materialize. On Thursday afternoon at an unrelated press convention, Pritzker stated Illinois nonetheless hasn’t acquired phrase from the Trump administration.
“That is a sign to all of you that it’s all about chaos and confusion. It’s not about undertaking one thing,” Pritzker stated.
On Thursday, a federal choose sided with Illinois and different states by quickly blocking Trump’s government order that aimed to finish birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born kids of immigrants with out authorized standing. Johnson introduced Thursday the Chicago Transit Authority would show advertisements connecting riders with the town’s guides on what to do when encountering federal immigration authorities.
Chicago Metropolis Council members have been working with volunteers and advocates to supply “Know Your Rights” trainings, vet rumours of immigration raids and begin to lay the groundwork for laws to shore up extra protections.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, thirty third Ward, stated native officers are consulting authorized consultants themselves to guard themselves towards threats of prosecution by the Trump Administration.
“All of us must know what our rights are and we’re going to study them very properly and we’re going to discover ways to train them,” she stated. “It’s all the time regarding to listen to [these threats] however it’s not one thing that deters me or the remainder of the electeds that I manage with from doing the work that we have to do.”
The previous couple of days navigating the slew of government orders signed and making an attempt to remain vigilant amid experiences of potential raids have been “overwhelming,” Ald. Nicole Lee stated. She worries federal immigration authorities now being licensed to conduct arrests in “delicate areas,” like homes of worship and colleges, will solely result in extra trepidation.
“We don’t need mass panic. We would like folks to really feel comfy interacting with the town and getting providers and going to high school and going to church and going about their lives that individuals are making an attempt to construct right here,” Lee stated.
Ald. Andre Vasquez, fortieth Ward and chair of the Metropolis Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, stated the committee is trying to handle the place gaps exist in metropolis authorities and what laws to pursue.
A majority of the Metropolis Council earlier this month rejected an try to carve out exceptions to Chicago’s Welcoming Metropolis Ordinance. Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez, twenty fifth Ward, pointed to Evanston’s Welcoming Metropolis Ordinance as one Chicago ought to emulate so as to add stronger protections to guard towards Trump’s ideas of utilizing the army to assist in immigration enforcement.
“I feel strengthening that ordinance is inside attain to ensure that we bought zero collaboration with any federal authorities,” Sigcho Lopez stated.
On Wednesday, the Metropolis Council’s Committee on Well being and Human Relations superior an ordinance to ascertain a working group to higher shield the transgender group. The working group, which Johnson initiated final yr by way of government order, will advocate updates to metropolis coverage, with a give attention to hate crimes, transfemicide and boundaries trans folks of colour face.
It heads to the complete Metropolis Council for approval, and its formation is taking over a brand new urgency within the wake of Trump’s government orders that focus on the transgender group. Rodriguez Sanchez vowed the Metropolis Council will proceed “getting into the wrong way” of the Trump administration.
“The present presidential administration has proclaimed solely two genders, female and male. However the actuality of the human expertise demonstrates that gender expansive folks have, do and can all the time exist,” Albie Gutierrez, a therapist with the Chicago Remedy Collective, advised alderpersons.
Tessa Weinberg and Mariah Woelfel cowl authorities and politics at WBEZ.
