“They’re not gonna stop and say, ‘let me see your papers,’” Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor told The TRiiBE, referring to the police. “All they’re gonna see is a Black person, or in this case a Latino or Black immigrant, and they’re just gonna take you in. They don’t care if you are guilty or not; being arrested is different than being convicted.”
CHICAGO – It was billed as a Christmas party, but the partygoers displayed absolutely no “goodwill toward men” – or women or children, especially immigrant children.
On Dec. 9 last year, while shoppers in Loop department stores were listening to carols about the baby in a manger, the official who put immigrant children in cages during Trump’s first term visited Chicago. He gave a harsh, belligerent speech at a gathering on Chicago’s Far Northwest Side, detailing the new administration’s chilling plans.
President Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan — the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — addressed Chicago-area Republicans at an event sponsored by the Law and Order PAC and the Northwest Side GOP Club.
Homan said that Chicago would see an influx of federal immigration agents after Trump’s inauguration and boasted that he would prosecute Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson if he continued to protect asylum seekers.
“Do not impede us,” Homan said. One person shouted “F—him” about Mayor Johnson, as the crowd erupted in support.
Homan warned Mayor Johnson and other Democratic officials to “get the hell out of the way.” He added that he would sue sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with ICE.
Homan was acting director of ICE from January 2017 until June 2018. He was the architect of the Trump administration’s brutal “Zero Tolerance” policy that separated more than 5,500 immigrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
As of April 2024, there were 1,401 children still “without confirmed reunification” with their parents, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security.
CHICAGO RESPONDS
But if Homan thought he could intimidate Chicagoans, he guessed wrong.
On the very day that Homan issued his threats, a member of the U.S. Congress from Chicago spoke out in defense of immigrants.
U.S. Representative Delia Ramirez describes herself as “a proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrants.”
On Dec. 9, Ramirez issued a strong statement denouncing Trump’s attempts to destroy birthright citizenship:
“The story of our nation wouldn’t be complete without the sweat, tears, joy, dreams, and hopes of so many children of immigrants who are citizens by birthright and pride themselves on being AMERICANS. It is the story of so many … communities, strengthened by the immigration of people from Poland, Ukraine, Italy, Mexico, and Guatemala, among others.”
On January 15, the Chicago City Council overwhelmingly rejected a parliamentary maneuver by two conservative Council members to gut the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance. That ordinance bars Chicago police from targeting immigrant workers. One of the sponsors of the maneuver – Alderman Raymond Lopez of the 15th ward – attended the December event with “border czar” Homan.
Chicago has been a self-proclaimed sanctuary city for 38 years, with five mayors supporting that status. The status dates back to former Mayor Harold Washington and his 1985 executive order barring city employees from helping federal officials deport people (something that is not part of the job of a city employee.)
The amendment to the ordinance proposed by City Council member Lopez and and 23rd ward Alderwoman Silvana Tabares would have allowed the Chicago police to cooperate with ICE in certain “exceptional” cases. (These cases consisted of situations where someone was accused of being undocumented and also accused of being involved in gang activity, prostitution, human trafficking, and certain other offenses.)
The City Council voted 39-11 to reject the amendment. City Council members pointed out that the proposal could subject Chicago residents to deportation simply for being suspected of a crime (before any conviction), potentially leading to massive lawsuits for police misconduct which could drain city finances.
“This is the 2025 version of stop and frisk; everyone would then be a suspect that’s Black and brown,” Alderman William Hall of the 6th Ward told The TRiiBE, a digital media platform devoted to reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago.
Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor compared the proposal to the criminalization of Black people during slavery. She pointed out that formerly enslaved Black people were required to carry freedom papers or certificates of freedom to prove that they had the right to move freely.
“They’re not gonna stop and say, ‘let me see your papers,’” Taylor told The TRiiBE, referring to the police. “All they’re gonna see is a Black person, or in this case a Latino or Black immigrant, and they’re just gonna take you in. They don’t care if you are guilty or not; being arrested is different than being convicted.”
The Chicago City Council’s rejection of the move to gut the sanctuary city ordinance came in part because of massive pressure from community groups, some of whom rallied at City Hall just days before the vote.
During the controversy over the City Council vote, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson made a strong statement vowing to continue Chicago’s long tradition of welcoming and defending immigrant workers:
“We intend to stand by and protect Chicago’s immigrant communities against threats from ICE,” the mayor declared.
“Chicago has always been a welcoming city, both by ordinance and, of course, by the great spirit of Chicago. We have long been a haven for freedom, from Eastern European immigrants coming to Chicago for new opportunities during the Industrial Revolution to Black folks coming to Chicago during the Great Migration.
“It’s important, now more than ever, that Chicago remain a haven for people from around the globe,” Mayor Johnson stressed.
So — as the second Trump regime gets underway — the stage has now been set for a major confrontation in the country’s heartland.
Chris Mahin is a writer, speaker and teacher on contemporary U.S. politics and history, particularly on the significance of the American Revolutionary War and Civil war eras for today. He is the Electoral Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board.
