Good morning, Chicago. ✶
🔎 Below: Immigration enforcement hasn’t stopped in Chicago. We look at how advocates’ tactics have changed since Operation Midway Blitz.
🗞️ Plus: The victim of a botched police raid is nearer to obtaining an oversight role, Chicago Teachers Union threatens to sue over school athletic directors’ stipends and more news you need to know.
📝 Keeping score: The Cubs beat the Reds, 7-6; the White Sox lost to the Angels, 8-2.
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⏱️: An 8-minute read
TODAY’S WEATHER ☀️
Mostly sunny with a chance of afternoon showers and a high near 60.
TODAY’S TOP STORY 🔎
Rapid responders shift tactics as ICE enforcement continues
By Adriana Cardona-Maguigad
ICE not out: Immigration enforcement hasn’t ended. Five hundred and eighty people have been detained in the Chicago area from Jan.1 through mid-March, according to a WBEZ/Sun-Times analysis of data from the Deportation Data Project, a collective of lawyers and academics. Organizers and other rapid responders who try to warn people about enforcement activity say they remain on high alert and are shifting tactics.
The tactics: Organizers say they are planning training sessions and deploying volunteer responders to verify immigration enforcement when they receive an alert — and aim to be better prepared if large numbers of agents return to Chicago.
Shifted strategies: Building on lessons learned from last year in Chicago and Minneapolis, shifted strategies include tapping new dispatch systems to speed responses when agents are spotted and encouraging block-by-block, hyperlocal communication. Some groups are training people to prepare for more aggressive enforcement tactics and to deal with obstacles immigrants might face if detained.
MORE IN IMMIGRATION ✶
Broadview protesters sue feds over DNA collection after arrests
By Violet Miller
New Blitz suit: Four Chicago-area protesters are suing the federal government over DNA samples taken after they were arrested while protesting outside the Broadview ICE facility.
The plaintiffs: Dana Briggs, a 71-year-old Air Force veteran from Rockford, was arrested Sept. 27 alongside co-plaintiff Ian Sampson, 27, a financial services worker from Chicago. Grace Cooper and Jacqueline Guataquira, 30-year-old area residents, were arrested Oct. 3; they’ve also signed onto the suit. Sampson and Cooper were arrested and detained but never charged with crimes; charges were later dropped against Briggs and Guataquira.
PUBLIC SAFETY 🚨
Victim of botched raid is slated for Chicago police oversight role
By Mariah Woelfel
Vote of confidence: A City Council committee voted to nominate social worker Anjanette Young as one of seven commissioners on the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, lauding her police reform work.
Key context: Young became a police reform advocate after a botched raid on her home in 2019. She stood naked and handcuffed for nearly 10 minutes before officers allowed her to get dressed as they carried out a search warrant on what turned out to be the wrong home. Since then, Young has pushed for state- and city-level bans on no-knock warrants, so far to no avail — though there have been changes made to Chicago police’s search warrant policy.
POLITICS ✶
- Aide charged with fraud: Gerard C. Moorer, a longtime deputy district director for Congressman Danny Davis, has been hit with federal charges for allegedly obtaining more than $31,000 in unemployment insurance benefits during the pandemic — while still working for the congressman.
- Steele on acquittal: A day after her acquittal on a DUI charge, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Samantha Steele said her position of power hurt more than it helped her in the case, and she blasted the Cook County state’s attorney’s office for prosecuting her.
- Mayor Johnson in Springfield: Mayor Brandon Johnson and mayors from around the state arrived Wednesday in Springfield to push back on Gov. JB Pritzker’s planned reductions for local government funding in this year’s proposed budget.
- Zoning chair gets started: Newly appointed Zoning Committee Chair Gilbert Villegas led his first meeting Wednesday and started chipping away at the backlog of 138 projects stalled by the stalemate over who should head one of City Council’s most powerful committees.
- Obama Center sells out: Just hours after going on sale Wednesday, tickets for the Obama Center sold out for the first month, with more flying off the digital shelves for the rest of the year. The museum opens to the public June 19.
MORE NEWS YOU NEED 🗞️
- Services for slain cop: Funeral services for Chicago police Officer John Bartholomew are set for Thursday and Friday at St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church in Edgewater. Officials will close traffic in anticipation of the many mourners expected.
- Peoples Gas seeks hike: The Illinois attorney general’s office and consumer advocates say Peoples Gas’ proposal to raise rates by $202 million would ultimately cost homeowners an average $130 per year while lining shareholders’ pockets.
- Brookfield Zoo strike ends: The strike ended on its third day after zoo and union officials reached a tentative four-year collective bargaining agreement. The deal covers staff members in animal care, facilities, custodial and security roles, the zoo said.
- Pope’s bank hung up: The Rev. Tom McCarthy recently shared a story about how, two months into his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV called his bank in South Chicago to change his phone number and address. The teller hung up on him.
- New beach parking gates: The Chicago Park District installed automated parking gates at 10 lots on the city’s lakefront and is using license plate readers to track when drivers enter and exit.
- Millennium Park music: Running June 15-Aug. 6, the Summer Music Series will host free performances from Sheila E., Arrested Development, DJ Ca$h Era and many other artists.
- ‘The Bear’ takes a bow: June 25 is the premiere date of the Chicago-set show’s fifth and final season.
ON WBEZ 91.5 FM 📻
In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons, 9 a.m.
- Midway Blitz doc: A new short film revisits the tense, illegal arrest of a man in Albany Park — and the community’s resistance. Maria Inés Zamudio of Invisible Institute and Bill Morrison, the film’s director, will discuss.
- Rohingya history: Abdul Jabbar Amanullah of the Rohingya Culture Center talks about his journey fleeing Malaysia for America and the history of Chicago’s Rohingya community.
Say More with Mary Dixon and Patrick Smith, 10 a.m.
- Cost coping: The price of food, fuel and other necessities has skyrocketed. How are Chicagoans making ends meet? Callers weigh in.
- Mother Goose reimagined: Musicians Natalie Merchant and Matt Gold stop by to discuss Cabinet of Wonder, a multimedia work that reimagines Mother Goose and her famous canon of rhymes for a new generation.
FROM THE PRESS BOX ⚖️🏀⚾
- CTU threatens suit: The Chicago Teachers Union is threatening to file a lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools over the alleged delayed payment of some $300,000 in stipends for high school athletic directors.
- Introducing Bryson Graham: Bulls team president Michael Reinsdorf introduced Graham, the new executive vice president of basketball operations, in a press conference that started with an apology and ended with promise.
- Ajša Sivka heads to college: Sivka, a first-round draft pick for the Sky, was expected to join the team this season. Instead, she has signed with the University of Kentucky.
- Here for the vibes: Rehabbing Mike Vasil has joined the White Sox on the road, despite being shelved for the season, to maintain team chemistry.
CHICAGO MINI CROSSWORD 🌭
Today’s clue: 4D: Pritzker Pavillion has 4,000
BRIGHT ONE 🔆
Chicago hosts its own Met Gala
By Brittany Sowacke
While celebrities turned up Monday at New York City’s annual Met Gala, local fashion fans gathered at an events venue in Streeterville for the fifth annual Chicago Does the Met Gala, thrown by the Chicago Fashion Coalition.
There were high fashion hijabs, towering hair pieces, stilettos and chunky boots. Ball gowns and feather collars, both handmade and bespoke.
New York’s theme was “fashion is art,” which the Chicago bash remixed, telling attendees to take an artwork by a local artist and translate that into their look.
More than 300 people showed up to the fashion celebration at Chez Event Venue. Some stuck to the assignment, donning hand-painted garments. Others just wanted to put on something and have a good time, like one attendee who wore a banana costume.
“We don’t get to choose our bodies, but we get to choose how we decorate them,” Fashion Coalition President Marquan Jones said.
YOUR DAILY QUESTION ☕️
Mother’s Day is Sunday, so we want to know: What’s something valuable you learned from your mom?
Respond to this newsletter (please include your first and last name). We may run your answer in a future newsletter or story.
Yesterday, we asked you: After companies charged consumers higher prices on items due to the Trump administration’s tariffs, what do you think of companies getting refunds from the government?
Here’s some of what you said, edited for space and clarity:
“This money was paid by consumers and should be returned to them, not corporations. They already have our money.” — Christine Bock
“That money belongs to the consumers. We have felt the brunt of extremely skyrocketing prices and have suffered since this administration took office, and companies have made astronomical revenue off of our backs.” — Patrice Brownlee Lester
“The companies passed on all or a big part of the tariff taxes to us, the customers; now they get a refund, but we do not. So the company gets paid twice, and we get taxed twice.” — Kirk Melhuish
“This is a huge rip-off to small businesses and consumers. Only big companies, the direct importers on file, will get refunds … They are NOT refunding this reimbursement to their wholesale or retail customers. This ‘reimbursement’ just worked out as a huge windfall for these importers … I prefer the government keep the money and instead pay down debt.” — Stacy McCaskill
PICTURE CHICAGO 📸
Members of Local Ironworkers 63 Union eat lunch at the topping out ceremony for Bally’s new Chicago casino location April 30.
Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
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Written and curated by: Matt Moore
Editor: Eydie Cubarrubia
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