Naval Station Nice Lakes, a U.S. army base in Chicago’s suburbs, may very well be used to help ICE operations because the Trump administration gears as much as conduct a serious immigration enforcement effort in Chicago.
The Navy’s largest coaching set up and the biggest army base in Illinois, Naval Station Nice Lakes is positioned on over 1,600 acres overlooking Lake Michigan within the metropolis of North Chicago.
A spokesperson mentioned the naval station was approached by the Division of Homeland Safety over a “potential request” to assist ICE operations, and as of Wednesday, no choices had been made.
In response to the spokesman, the request “includes restricted assist within the type of services infrastructure, and different logistical must assist DHS operations” – however additional particulars weren’t supplied.
North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham mentioned he talked to the commanding captain of the bottom and discovered brokers will not be staying there.
“He mentioned that they are going to be utilizing places of work on the bottom,” the mayor defined. “I don’t know if that is Nationwide Guard or what – however they’re not going to be staged on base however they are going to be residing outdoors in the neighborhood.”
As President Donald Trump considers deploying Nationwide Guard members to Chicago as a part of a crackdown on crime, base officers mentioned they have not obtained a request to assist the Nationwide Guard.
The immigration effort, which can doubtless convey a surge of officers to Chicago, is anticipated to final about 30 days and will begin as early as Sept. 5. Not like the latest federal takeover in Washington, it isn’t anticipated to depend on the Nationwide Guard or army and is concentrated completely on immigration as an alternative of being solid as a part of a broad marketing campaign towards crime.
On Friday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker famous that ICE is a civilian legislation enforcement company and may legally function within the metropolis however mentioned “we don’t recognize after they mistreat our residents, a lot of whom have been right here for many years.”
“We now have a president and a federal authorities that’s going after them, looking folks down and disappearing them off the streets,” Pritzker mentioned after a faculty go to within the metropolis’s south suburbs. “Males with masks are grabbing folks off the streets and taking them away. That’s simply shameful.”
The immigration crackdown in Chicago may mirror an analogous one in Los Angeles, the place the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned this week that it has made 5,000 immigration arrests since enforcement efforts started on June 6. Authorities are undeterred by a short lived court docket order prohibiting racial profiling in LA, which the administration has challenged earlier than the Supreme Courtroom.
