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ICE Now Grabbing People Out Of Churches

Chicago — ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), in an ever-expanding unconstitutional crime spree, is ushering in the Christmas season by launching immigration raids inside churches across the country. Trump’s holiday gift to the nation is the administration’s new policy that it is legal to enter churches as people worship and round them up in the immigration raids happening from coast to coast. Not waiting for the fightback on the part of immigrants and their supporters that has already begun, ICE agents began their terror campaign here in Chicago on a recent Sunday.

ICE Raids Turn Schools Into Battlegrounds To Defend Students

Educator Carolyn Brown was meeting with school counselors when she got the call: ICE agents were out front. By the time she got out of the building, ICE had abducted a woman and her 17-year-old daughter, an American citizen. Brown, a coordinator of the International Baccalaureate program at Thomas Kelly College Prep, is also part of the rapid-response team for the school, in a Mexican enclave in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. The ICE agents were gone, for the moment. But in the stores across the street, people were too frightened to venture out.

How ICE Is Terrorizing Chicago’s Working Class

When federal immigration agents thread through her Chicago neighborhood and circle above her home in a helicopter, Araceli hides with her husband. ​“You hear the whistles,” she says through an interpreter. ​“You hear the people yelling, ​‘Don’t go out! Stay inside! There’s immigration here!’ ”  Sometimes they are forced to hide for days.  “It’s alarming, it’s not normal, it’s like being in a crisis,” explains Araceli, who is 55 and originally from Mexico City, though she has lived in Chicago for 30 years. That means Araceli often misses work as an apartment cleaner and her husband misses work in construction.

Veterans Demand An End To War And Occupation

Chicago, IL – On November 11, hundreds of people gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, demanding an immediate end to the militarization and federal attacks on our communities, divestment from state-funded violence such as genocide and war, and rights for all workers. “I wanna ask you veterans, I wanna ask you workers, for your solidarity as we demonstrate, as we organize, and we clarify the principles of this country, that it is freedom, it is democracy, it is solidarity that moves us, not disunity, not exclusion, and certainly not ICE,” said Stacey Davis Gates

An Interview With A Chicago Teacher On Fighting Back Against ICE

Since early September, Chicago has been the latest target of the Trump administration’s brutal Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raids. Trump  has declared war on the city and threatened to send in the National Guard, — as he has done in Los Angeles and Washington, DC — with the intent of undermining what few protections exist for immigrants living in these cities and expanding federal repression against working-class and oppressed communities as a whole. Over the past two months, ICE has terrorized communities daily, including military-style raids in apartment buildings and even entering a daycare and abducting a teacher in front of her students.

Six Indicted On Federal Charges In Chicago Over Anti-ICE Protests

Six people have been indicted on federal charges stemming from protests in Chicago. The indictment accuses the defendants of conspiring “to prevent by force, intimidation, and threat” an ICE officer from carrying out his “duties.” The defendants include several people involved in progressive politics in Chicago, including Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, Cook County Democratic Committee member Michael Rabbitt, and Cat Sharp, a candidate for the Cook County Board of Commissioners and chief of staff to Alderperson Andre Vasquez. If found guilty, the defendants could receive sentences of up to six years for the conspiracy counts and up to eight years for the intimidation charges.

National Guard Members: ‘I Won’t Turn Against My Neighbors’

Chicago — Two Illinois National Guard members told CBS News they would refuse to obey federal orders to deploy in Chicago as part of President Trump's controversial immigration enforcement mission — a rare act of open defiance from within the military ranks. "It's disheartening to be forced to go against your community members and your neighbors," said Staff Sgt. Demi Palecek, a Latina guardswoman and state legislative candidate from Illinois's 13th District. "It feels illegal. This is not what we signed up to do." Both Palecek and Capt. Dylan Blaha, who is running for Congress in the same district, described growing unease among Guard members after the White House federalized 500 troops.

Eviction By ICE?

Rodrick Johnson, 67, had just returned home from a trip to the hospital and was trying to get some rest. But in the early hours of September 30, bright lights suddenly flooded his apartment. A fleet of Black Hawk helicopters descended on his five-story building — a 130-unit apartment complex at 7500 South Shore Drive — shortly before armed, masked men stormed past the doors of the ground floor. “The next thing I knew, they were kicking my door in,” Johnson says. He and dozens of his neighbors were marched outside at gunpoint during the multiagency raid carried out by some 300 federal agents in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Black and Latino residents were zip-tied, separated by race and detained inside cargo vans, as South Side Weekly reported in the raid’s aftermath.

Chicago Day Laborer, In ICE Detention, Facing Retaliation

Willian Giménez González, a known advocate for the rights of day laborers who was abducted by federal agents on September 12, is speaking out from ICE detention. He says that federal authorities transferred him from the Broadview, Ill., ICE facility, to a detention center in Michigan, to move him away from his supporters. “I believe I was moved to Michigan at the last minute because I had the support of the community, and because my lawyer and politicians were protesting outside the jail,” he said, referring to the Broadview ICE facility. “I believe that because I had people fighting for me, I was targeted for transfer to prevent my supporters from helping me.”

How Chicago Residents Are Resisting ICE Invasion Of The City

If there’s one thing President Donald Trump and the people of Chicago might agree on, it’s that America’s third-largest city is currently a ​“war zone.” But for most Chicagoans, it’s the Trump administration that has made it so, with its military-style ​“Operation Midway Blitz,” led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and ​“Operation At Large,” which Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched in Los Angeles and brought to the Windy City in September. “I have lived here for 28 years and I have never felt so profoundly unsafe until this week,” one resident recently posted on social media.

Closing The Gap Between Housing And Home With Upcycled Furniture

Homelessness in Chicago has surged in recent years, with the number of unhoused Chicagoans tripling last year. As housing costs climb and public funding shrinks, more families are cycling in and out of shelters without the resources to make a new place feel like home. One local nonprofit is tackling that gap, offering support that social service agencies aren’t able to provide. By collecting and upcycling donated furniture, the Chicago-based nonprofit Digs With Dignity designs and furnishes homes for families transitioning out of homelessness, creating spaces that feel comfortable, functional and dignified.

Chicago Residents ‘Refuse To Budge’ As ICE Terrorizes Communities

From hunting people down through the aisles of retail stores, to intentionally crashing into a vehicle on a residential street and then deploying tear gas against a gathered crowd of residents and protesters, agents with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been wreaking havoc in Chicago as part of their “Operation Midway Blitz”. According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents have made more than 1,500 arrests in the greater Chicago area since September 8 when the operation was announced – although data reveals some of these arrests to be outside of the state of Illinois.

Anti-ICE Protests Continue As Judges Block National Guard Deployments

A US federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on October 9, blocking the Trump administration’s deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago. Hundreds were already stationed in the midwestern city at the time of this ruling. This comes days after a separate judge blocked the deployment of the National Guard to Portland, Oregon. Currently, there are around 500 National Guard troops in the greater Chicago area, 2,400 in Washington, DC, and 100 still in Los Angeles down from a peak of 4,700 in June. With the support of the Governor of Tennessee, the state’s National Guard troops are set to begin patrolling the city of Memphis.

Judge Bars ICE Attacks On Journalists And Protesters While Hearing Lawsuit

United States District Judge Sara Ellis issued a temporary restraining order to prevent attacks by federal agents on journalists or non-violent protesters. She instructed agents to wear “visible identification” on their uniforms or helmets. Also, Ellis restricted the use of crowd control weapons on journalists, protesters, or clergy, including a prohibition against shooting individuals “to strike the head, neck, groin, spine, or female breast, or striking any person with a vehicle.” The order [PDF], which applies to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies, will remain in force for two weeks while a court reviews a lawsuit alleging significant First Amendment violations.

Chicagoans Mobilize To Demand An End To The Federal Occupation

Chicago, IL – On October 8, 7000 Chicagoans mobilized in the Loop to demand an end to the occupation of the city by ICE and the National Guard. The thousands of people coming out on a Wednesday evening shows that the momentum of the resistance against Trump’s occupation is not slowing down. Chicago is in the center of this country’s fight back against Trump’s reactionary agenda, alongside LA and DC. “We must build the largest united front against the invasion of our city and state. We need to escalate our defense and go on the offensive! To block the movement of the National Guard and shut down ICE operations,” opened Husam Marajda of the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). He urged people to join the movement and get involved with an organization.
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