President Donald Trump has yet to follow through on his threat to make Chicago “ground zero” for mass deportations, beginning with immigrants without legal status who have criminal records.
But Mayor Brandon Johnson is not leaving anything to chance, turning to CTA buses and trains to make certain that immigrants without legal status know their rights.
City Hall and the CTA on Thursday launched a public awareness and ad campaign to spread the word on CTA buses, trains at mass transit stations.
“Know Your Rights” ads will be displayed on more than 400 screens across the system. Those screens will include a QR code that riders can scan with their cell phone directing them to the city’s Know Your Rights campaign website.
The website includes information in English, Spanish and French about resources available to people whose family members have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The website includes a “link to the ICE locator online” to help locate detainees, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services hotline to call for information about immigration court proceedings, and ways to access free legal services.
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), chair of the City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said spreading the word on the CTA will help, but it’s not enough. The “Know Your Rights” campaign needs to extend to the restaurant, hospitality and construction industries where many immigrants are employed.
“Let’s say a restaurant doesn’t know that ICE can’t come in without judicial warrant, they might let them in, disrupt their own business, as well as put people in harm’s way,” Vasquez said Thursday.
Already, the “economy is suffering” in neighborhoods like Pilsen and Little Village. Immigrants are afraid to go to work for fear of being arrested on the job or on their way to work, Vasquez said. Consumers in those same neighborhoods are staying home, he said.
“If you are an immigrant family, are you going to the grocery store more or less if you think there’s a chance you run into ICE? All of those things are going to affect the economy,” Vasquez said.
Trump has threatened legal action against officials of sanctuary cities and states who stand in the way of mass deportations.
Vasquez considers that threat “shock-and-awe, Donald Trump style, of trying to get people divided and fearful.” He said he’s “tougher than cowering to those kinds of threats.” But he also said, “We’re going to operate within the confines of the law and do what we can do to make sure Chicagoans are safe.”
Ever since Trump’s election, immigrant advocates have been organizing “Know Your Rights” workshops and distributing cards in Latino neighborhoods with bilingual information on residents’ legal rights. Rapid-response teams of volunteers are ready to be dispatched to the scenes of raids to take cellphone video from a safe distance.
Earlier this week, one of those teams was dispatched to an indoor soccer facility in Avondale. The officials whom residents feared came from ICE actually worked for the city’s Department of Buildings, according to Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), a City Council champion for immigrant and refugee rights.
With raid rumors running rampant, immigrants are being reminded that lawful permanent residents, U.S. citizens and those with no legal status are protected by the Constitution.
That gives individuals the right to remain silent; refuse a federal agent entry into a home or business unless the agent has a judicial warrant; and request and review a warrant if an agent shows up at a home or business and asks for entry.
Individuals also have a right to ask a federal agent to show the warrant through the window, or to slip it through the mail slot or in the mailbox before opening the door.
“Any way to get know your rights in front of folks is good — whether that’s on the CTA or whether that’s person-to-person,” said Brandon Lee, a spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.