Who will stand up to the 'Border Czar'?
Chicago to be ground zero for mass deportations, says new czar.
Trump’s newly-appointed team of miscreants and neo-fascists are giddy over their new-found power and frothing at the bit to use it against the weak and defenseless. They all know that they will be free from any legal accountability and will be pardoned for any crimes they may commit along the way. The question is, who will stand up to the new bullies on the block?
Trump has promised to deport immigrants without legal status en masse and to crack down on existing protections and programs that create pathways to legal status.
This could impact roughly half a million undocumented immigrants in Illinois. They include some 30,000 recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and tens of thousands of recently arrived migrants.
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DT created the position of Border Czar and named vicious hater of Latinos, Tom Homan, to fill the position and charged him to round up and expel millions of immigrants from this country, including their children who were born here.
Homan, former cop, border patrol agent, and acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, was among the most strident proponents of separating children from their parents as a means of deterring illegal entry into the country. Homan reiterated that there was no current plan to separate families, but said “It may happen.”
Ground Zero is Chicago
Trump has vowed to stop federal funding to sanctuary cities such as Chicago. This week, in a speech before local Republicans, Homan made it clear that he and his boss have it in for Chicago. To Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has said he would protect the city’s immigrants from federal agents, Homan said, “If he doesn’t want to help, get the hell out of the way.” Homan threatened to arrest people who were found with the criminals he was targeting, regardless of whether he had cooperation from the city. He demanded that Johnson meet with him, following the lead of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Throwing more red meat to the giddy MAGAs in the audience, Homan said: “Chicago’s in trouble because your mayor sucks and your governor sucks,” Homan said to cheers. Later, he called both “terrible” while also telling them to “come to the table.” Johnson said his team isn’t engaging in a tit-for-tat with Homan.
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So, who will stand up to Trump and his pet bulldog? Is he messing with the wrong city? I hope so.
If my memory serves me well, Chi-Town was the first city to run Trump and his MAGAs out of town when he came to UIC to campaign in 2016. The mainly peaceful (there were only 4 arrests) but militant protest not only forced Trump to cancel his planned, hate-filled anti-immigrant rally in the heart of Chicago. It also set the stage for a wave of youth activism and protests across the country, making it nearly impossible for the racist demagogue to campaign in cities with large black and Latino populations.
Then again in Feb. 2017, thousands of us ran to O'Hare Field to protect arriving immigrants in the wake of Trump’s Muslim ban and the arrest of 18 immigrants as they were deplaning. Dozens of the city’s immigration lawyers also came to the airport and worked tirelessly through the night to help the new arrivals process needed paperwork. It was only a short time later that a federal judge threw out the travel ban.
I don’t think Trump ever recovered from these protests and he’s admittedly had it in for our town ever since.
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Days after this year’s presidential election, Johnson said the city would continue to protect immigrants — and wouldn’t allow Chicago police officers to help federal agents deport Chicago residents.
Pritzker is in discussions with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office to explore what further legal resources or staff they’ll need to challenge Trump policies. This includes the potential for Trump to try to withhold federal grants for police in blue states to enact his mass deportation plan.
Pritzker has called any such action “illegal” and said the state would take legal action.
Just days after the election, the governor sounded a defiant tone.
“To anyone who intends to come to take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” Pritzker said. “You come for my people. You come through me.”
“We’re preparing to face what we think will be unprecedented attacks on American communities and families,” Lawrence Benito, executive director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told IL Playbook.
Immigrant rights groups have been meeting with officials in Pritzker’s and Johnson’s offices to address the concerns and make sure local laws, including the Illinois Trust Act and the Chicago Welcoming City ordinance, are enforced. Both policies prevent local law enforcement from taking part in immigration and customs enforcement.
Illinois’ DC delegation says it’s ready to fight:
“Tom Homan, the next time you come to #IL03 —a district made stronger and more powerful by immigrants — you better be ready to meet the resistance,” Congresswoman Delia Ramirez posted on X. “You may think Chicago needs to get out of the way of Trump's plans for mass deportation, but we plan to get ALL UP IN YOUR WAY.”
Educators in Oakland found ways last time to protect immigrants in the school system by organizing local organizations and lawyers and educating every person in the school system from cafeteria workers to superintendents, the students and families. All were armed with phone numbers to report to the team immediately if ICE showed up. Schools were locked with security guards at the front doors to keep ICE out. Once people had their names reported to lawyers, they were safe for a few years until their names came up for a legal review. Not everyone was saved but most were.