CHICAGO, IL. (WBBM Newsradio) - Protestors gathered on Sunday at the Plaza Tenochtitlan on W. 18th Street and S. Loomis in Pilsen demanding answers over a perceived collaboration between ICE and CPD.
Organizer Omar Flores, with The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), says that he has video recording of CPD ‘white shirts’ having at least one conversation with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Wednesday June 4th, outside the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program offices at 2245 S. Michigan Avenue in the South Loop.
“That is completely uncalled for here in the city of Chicago, we have a welcoming city ordinance that prevents CPD from being able to collaborate with ICE. And they should follow that.”, said Flores.
“We saw armed, masked men, walk down our streets in broad daylight, and they kidnapped mothers and daughters. We saw them brutalize protestors and shove crying grandmothers into the back of unmarked vans,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in his account of Wednesday’s ICE raid in the South Loop, while at a celebration of Immigrant Heritage Month inside the Harold Washington Library the day after, where Johnson fielded questions from reporters about the relationship between ICE and the Chicago Police Department.
“The Superintendent and I, along with his entire leadership team and my leadership team will have a complete review of the occurrences, to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to protect the residents of this city but that we are holding onto our values as a welcoming city.”, said Mayor Johnson.
Omar Flores, tells WBBM Newsradio that the CAARPR is heartened by the mayor’s statements, “We expect, because of the sentiment from the mayor’s office, that they will do something about the collaboration that we very visibly saw with our own two eyes this past Wednesday.”, added Flores.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department tells WBBM Newsradio that their officers were only on-site to ensure the safety of all involved, including those exercising their First Amendment rights and that at no point did they assist in the immigration enforcement.
On Thursday, during one of his most impassioned speeches to date, received by standing ovation, Chicago’s Mayor described a possible future, “When our children and grandchildren look back at this time, they’re going to wonder ‘what did we do?’. What did we do when parents were being ripped away from their children, what did you do when students were being disappeared and poor and working people were being terrorized? We need to be able to tell them that we stood up, that we stood firm, that the city of Chicago didn’t flinch, we didn’t bend, we didn’t break, we stood on our values, and we fought back.”, said Johnson.
On Friday, immigrant rights advocates and elected leaders rallied outside the immigration processing plant in Broadview, Illinois where it’s believed those detained on Wednesday had been taken, including Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda, a longtime Northwest Side resident who has become a highlighted name and face from last week’s federal immigration enforcement activity. An Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD) online petition demanding her release had already garnered nearly 10,000 signatures by the weekend.
OCAD founder Antonio Gutierrez was at the rally in Broadview and told reporters that he and the organization’s legal team are demanding the release of Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda along with anyone else who is currently being detained inside the processing center.
“We know, for a fact, that many people, besides who we saw physically being taken outside the ISAP office on Wednesday were detained.”, said Gutierrez.
A.J. Johnson Reyes is an attorney with the OCAD legal team and has represented Gladis Yolanda Chavez Pineda since 2017. He was able to meet with her inside the Broadview facility where she shared a brief statement.
“She wanted to share her thanks and appreciation for all the support for herself and her family, and for everyone here today. That’s about as much as she was able to give before losing composure.”, said Reyes on behalf of Chavez Pineda.
Also at the rally, Chavez Pineda’s Alderperson Rosanna Rodriguez Sanchez, who added that the fight to have her cherished 33rd ward resident released from ICE custody is far from over.
“Gladis Yolanda is a beloved neighbor, she’s a mother, she’s part of my community, and today my community feels less safe.”, said Rodriguez Sanchez, “This is a crisis, we are going to continue organizing to get our siblings out of detention. We’re going to continue organizing to protect the people in our communities, but this is an atrocity. I think it’s very important to point out, that constitutional rights are being violated right now, we’re all watching.”
Advocates and city officials, along with a number of witnesses to Wednesday’s ICE activity in the South Loop say that many were taken into custody while appearing for what should have been a routine check-in with the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP).
