Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Thursday dismissed President Donald Trump’s threats of potential federal investigations and prosecutions over immigration enforcement, vowing the city will maintain its sanctuary status.
“There are a host of threats that this president has put forward, and we’re not intimidated or overwhelmed by any of them,” Johnson said in a phone interview with WBEZ. “I don’t sit around thinking about the hypotheticals.”
The Department of Justice Tuesday threatened state and local officials who impede immigration enforcement could be investigated and face federal prosecution. A three-page memo warned “federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands or requests,” according to NPR. Local leaders and legal experts called the threat “performative,” “dangerous” and a “tortured interpretation” of the law while defending Illinois and Chicago’s sanctuary statuses.
Johnson said Thursday he was not aware of any subpoenas received by the city’s law department on this issue, and tried to ease fears of prosecution police or elected officials may be feeling.
“Whether you’re a local elected official or you’re a local police officer, the message is: follow the law,” Johnson said.
Currently, Illinois and Chicago law prohibits police officers from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Police officers are not allowed to, for instance, ask about a person’s immigration status, or detain a person longer than their release date, per the federal government’s request, to give an immigration agent time to show up.
Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, said “threats to prosecute and jail elected officials who defend the law are not acceptable political discourse in the United States.” He vowed law enforcement will follow Illinois law.
“If the intention is to intimidate officials from defending the Constitution — it will not work,” Gough said in a statement.
Courts have made clear that state and local officials have the authority to direct law enforcement resources as they see fit, said Ed Yohnka, the ACLU of Illinois’ Director of Communications and Public Policy.
“It is not the job of the White House to decide that for the city of Chicago, for the state of Illinois, or for any other municipality across the country,” Yohnka said. “The only thing that they seem to be doing that the White House objects to, is disagreeing with Trump administration policy, and for the moment at least, that is not against the law. It is not a crime to disagree with Donald Trump.”
Trump’s ‘performative threats’
But Yohnka said despite the “largely performative” threats, he worries it may give sheriffs or elected officials who don’t agree with state law an excuse to violate Illinois laws that largely prohibit enforcing federal immigration law.
“We think it’s really important for that reason that state officials stand up to these bullying efforts and make clear that the responsibility of elected officials in Illinois is to follow Illinois law,” Yohnka said.
Mark Fleming, the associate director of litigation for the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center, called the memo a “fundamental misstatement of decades of constitutional law from the Supreme Court” and said the 10th Amendment of the Constitution makes “very clear that the federal government cannot command state and local officials to enforce federal regulatory programs.”
Fleming added that the federal statute cited in the Trump administration memo is meant to prohibit individual people from smuggling immigrants into the U.S., helping them evade immigration enforcement, such as “hiding them in a house or providing false information.”
Sanctuary laws in Chicago and Illinois do not direct police officers to “harbor” undocumented immigrants or help them evade enforcement. Officers in the vast majority of cases are prohibited from even inquiring about a person’s immigration status.
But Fleming said while he is “very doubtful” that the Trump administration could actually prosecute and convict local officials, the memo represents “an incredibly dangerous weaponization of the powers of the Department of Justice.”
“The old adage goes … ‘you can indict a ham sandwich,’” Fleming said. “My biggest fear is that they’re able to get somebody indicted and that has a real chilling effect, even if it never leads to a trial or even if it never leads to a conviction.”
Raids yet to materialize
Chicago has been bracing for the promise of mass immigration raids that have yet to materialize. On Thursday afternoon at an unrelated press conference, Pritzker said Illinois still hasn’t received word from the Trump administration.
“That is an indication to all of you that it’s all about chaos and confusion. It is not about accomplishing something,” Pritzker said.
On Thursday, a federal judge sided with Illinois and other states by temporarily blocking Trump’s executive order that aimed to end birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of immigrants without legal status. Johnson announced Thursday the Chicago Transit Authority would display ads connecting riders with the city’s guides on what to do when encountering federal immigration authorities.
Chicago City Council members have been working with volunteers and advocates to provide “Know Your Rights” trainings, vet rumors of immigration raids and start to lay the groundwork for legislation to shore up more protections.
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, (33rd), said local officials are consulting legal experts themselves to protect themselves against threats of prosecution by the Trump administration.
“We all need to know what our rights are and we are going to learn them very well and we’re going to learn how to exercise them,” she said. “It’s always concerning to hear [these threats] but it is not something that deters me or the rest of the electeds that I organize with from doing the work that we need to do.”
The last few days navigating the slew of executive orders signed and trying to stay vigilant amid reports of possible raids have been “overwhelming,” Ald. Nicole Lee said. She worries federal immigration authorities now being authorized to conduct arrests in “sensitive areas,” like houses of worship and schools, will only lead to more trepidation.
“We don’t want mass panic. We want people to feel comfortable interacting with the city and getting services and going to school and going to church and going about their lives that people are trying to build here,” Lee said.
Ald. Andre Vasquez, (40th), chair of the City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the committee is looking to address where gaps exist in city government and what legislation to pursue.
Sanctuary city exceptions rejected
A majority of the City Council earlier this month rejected an attempt to carve out exceptions to Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance. Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez, (25th), pointed to Evanston’s Welcoming City Ordinance as one Chicago should emulate to add stronger protections to protect against Trump’s suggestions of using the military to aid in immigration enforcement.
“I think strengthening that ordinance is within reach to make sure that we got zero collaboration with any federal authorities,” Sigcho Lopez said.
On Wednesday, the City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations advanced an ordinance to establish a working group to better protect the transgender community. The working group, which Johnson initiated last year via executive order, will recommend updates to city policy, with a focus on hate crimes, transfemicide and barriers trans people of color face.
It heads to the full City Council for approval, and its formation is taking on a new urgency in the wake of Trump’s executive orders that target the transgender community. Rodriguez Sanchez vowed the City Council will continue “going in the opposite direction” of the Trump administration.
“The current presidential administration has proclaimed only two genders, male and female. But the reality of the human experience demonstrates that gender expansive people have, do and will always exist,” Albie Gutierrez, a therapist with the Chicago Therapy Collective, told alderpersons.
Tessa Weinberg and Mariah Woelfel cover government and politics at WBEZ.