Above photo: Protest in Chicago suburbs against raids and deportations. Fight Back! News
Wheaton IL – With Operation Midway Blitz intensifying, seeing ICE terror inflicted across the area across Dupage and Kane County, particularly West Chicago and Elgin, Casa Dupage Workers Center 501c3 along with local allies from houses of worship and from the community with carry out a Caravan of Justice of dozens of cars, to show ICE that the streets of Dupage and Kane County belong to the residents of our County including our hard working Latino immigrants who are being targeted by ICE. The Caravan is a tradition in which cars, decorated with flags and placards, join together to travel the county, and in case of ICE raids, be able to respond with a mass of people ready to protest and protect our County’s most vulnerable, local Latinos working construction sites, restaurants, landscaping jobs and at area factories and warehouses. Members of Casa Dupage will also be handing out know your rights cards to the community reminding workers that in case of ICE presence, to not open the door, not sign, not talk and ask to speak with a lawyer. The Caravan will travel from Casa Dupage west on Roosevelt, south on Route 59– here we will take time to drive through West Chicago- West on Lake Street to Elgin- here we will drive through Elgin and finally east on Lake Street and south on 53 again. There will be a rally and prayer before heading out at Casa Dupage Workers Center.
Says Cristobal Cavazos, Director of Casa Dupage Workers Center, “Charlie Daniels was the man who chased the devil out of Georgia, we will chase ICE out of Dupage and Elgin! We in the immigrant rights struggle must remain on the streets, because if not, ICE will take them, and then not just ICE, but a police state in which any “enemy” of the government can be taken at anytime like we are seeing in the Latino community. We seek to give expression for justice for immigrant workers being kidnapped by ICE, justice for the families being ripped apart and a place where the more than 70% of US citizen who are against ICE-Gestapo like raids on our friends and communities can call out this injustice. 95% of the people currently being taken by ICE are not violent criminals and more and more people are coming out of the shadows to denounce this great injustice. Trump thinks that the old tried and true tactic of blaming it all on the immigrant is going to distract us from a hateful agenda for the majority of the people while carrying out corporate tax cuts, genocide in Gaza and environmental destruction. Oh no, it was not the low wage immigrant worker that it destroying our democracy and upending the constitution and Roosevelt and Civil Rights era victories for the people to live lives of dignity and decency, it is you!’
According to Gaby Hernandez Chico, “The caravan is a bridge between the present oppression and a new day of human rights and justice for even the immigrant in our community. We forget that the Bible judges whole nations on the way we treat the immigrants in our land. And to think what the Bible would say about the kidnapping of roofers, cooks, landscapers and factory workers, let’s be real, essential workers being treated like criminals? No way. WE have been inspired by all the people coming out of the shadows in support of the Latino immigrant community: senior citizens, African Americans, Asian brothers and sisters and Anglo brothers and sisters of all ages, many of the houses of Faith in Wheaton, even. It is time to come together for human rights, human dignity and decency, Keen on the eternal words of Christ, what you do to the least of these, you do for me! We will stop this reign of ICE terror on Illinois and the US, we are headed towards liberation, this too shall pass and we need our allies and friends to come together and join us.”
