CHICAGO CITY HALL (WBBM Newsradio) - A Chicago City Council resolution marking Hispanic Heritage Month turned into an emotional expression of pride and frustration.
"I'm proud of who we are, I'm proud of where we come from, I'm proud of where we're going," Pilsen alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th Ward) said at the end of about an hour of speeches during Thursday's meeting that shared stories of community ... and crisis.
Brighton Park alderwoman Julia Ramirez (12th Ward) shared details about an ICE detention sweep in her ward. "They picked up the tamale lady - the damned tamale lady on the corner of 47th and Western."
And Archer Heights alderwoman Jeylu Gutierrez (14th Ward) grew emotional as she talked about children in her ward: "How some kids don't even want to go school because they're afraid of coming back and not being able to see their parents."
West side alderperson Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) noted the challenge for the council's Hispanic members ... and those who support them: "I know to be in solidarity right now is difficult."
But Raymond Lopez from Little Village, a frequent critic of progressive voices on the City Council, accused his colleagues and Mayor Brandon Johnson of making people in Chicago's immigrant communities targets -- by refusing to work with ICE and the Trump Administration.
"Spare me your fake tears - because you brought this on our communities yourself!" said Lopez (15th Ward).
Fuentes shot back in a rare outburst on the Council floor: "You're a sellout."
Lopez responded: "And you're a hypocrite - and someone who's never had to deal with undocumented because you come from an island where you're guaranteed citizenship, so don't you dare talk to me about what my people had to go through."
Lopez then called for Fuentes to be censured, a motion which failed on a voice vote of his colleagues, and Fuentes stormed out of the chamber for about five minutes, before returning in time for the final disposition of the resolution.