Analysis

ICE threatens immigrants across Chicago, but the people fight back

On Jan. 17, numerous corporate media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, reported on a “leak” that between 100 and 200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would be sent to Chicago immediately following Trump’s inauguration. According to the Wall Street Journal, the raids would begin on Jan. 21 and the main targets would be those with a “criminal” record. This follows the bipartisan rightward shift nationally with both major parties using alleged criminality as a justification for racist attacks on immigrants, regardless of whether they have ever committed a crime or not. 

The alleged leaks publicized by the corporate press in the lead up to the inauguration, along with post-election statements from Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan, have aimed to create an environment of fear and paralysis within the Latino and immigrant communities in Chicago. However, Chicagoans are ready to fight back. Since Trump’s election victory, alders, community organizers and organizations have been putting plans in place for the impending attacks on the city’s immigrant community.

Prior to the leaks in the mainstream press, a coalition of more than 60 organizations, including the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Familia Latina Unida, Alma de Izote and Casa DuPage carried out a rally in Pilsen, one of Chicago’s historically Mexican neighborhoods, to stand against deportations and raids. Networks of communication have been put in place across the city as organizers prepare to protect their neighbors. Alongside this, numerous organizations have carried out know-your-rights outreach and training. The people of Chicago, in other words, are refusing to back down. In the face of this backlash and resistance, Homan came out on Jan. 19 to say that he feared for “the safety of his officers.” 

Making an example out of Chicago

Trump and Homan have been planning for months to make an example out of Chicago. Trump is no stranger to deriding Chicago, previously making the racist comment that Chicago is “worse” than Afghanistan. Chicago is a progressive city of millions of immigrants, including thousands of African Americans who fled the South during the Great Migration.

Chicago has been a sanctuary city since the city’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, issued an executive order in 1985. And much to the chagrin of the business class, Chicago is also home to the Chicago Teachers Union, which has been at the vanguard of the fight for the rights of the working class and their children as demonstrated by their years long fight for an elected school board, their recent vow to “fight Trump at every turn,” and their struggle to provide housing support for homeless students in their ongoing fight for a new contract.

Thus, it is unsurprising that Trump would seek to make an example of the people of Chicago. His attacks on Chicago are part and parcel of the billionaire class’s overall attacks on cities across the country, like New York City and Los Angeles, that refuse to bow down to their plans to scapegoat immigrants, transgender people and other marginalized groups for the real issues facing the working class. 

Wrong enemies and wrong solutions

Working people are naturally upset at the corruption of the U.S. government, the price of food, gas, and housing and the inability of young people to access education without thousands of dollars in student loan debt, all while the U.S. government starts war after war around the globe. Rather than providing an actual solution to these crises, the Trump administration has vowed to use immigrants as a “safety valve” for the ills of capitalism, redirecting anger against the system towards their fellow workers. 

Over the past two years, thousands of migrants, primarily from Venezuela, arrived in Chicago where they were provided with (albeit inadequate) shelter, food, and other resources. The Venezuelan migrants were held up to justify the ruling class’s failed attempts at regime change in Venezuela. Additionally, these recently arrived migrants were largely placed in predominantly Black neighborhoods, which have historically been neglected and disinvested in. As a result, increased divisions arose between long-term Black residents and recently arrived migrant residents. Trump and the billionaire class now seek to further these divisions between all members of the working class. 

Already, local alders like Raymond Lopez, Silvana Tabares and Anthony Napolitano have attempted to weaken the city’s sanctuary status by pushing forward a racist, anti-immigrant amendment to the city’s “Welcoming City Ordinance.” These alders sought to make it easier for ICE and other federal agents to work with local police by creating provisions for collaboration when an immigrant has a “criminal record.” Politicians on both sides of the aisle are already falling in line with the new administration, with Lopez — a Democrat — declaring that his failed amendment would “allow us to coordinate with the federal government to appease the goals of the administration.” 

The people united will defend immigrants!

The way to fight against these attacks on immigrants is not to compromise with the far right nor is it to turn against our fellow workers. We must fight back by building multinational unity across Black, Latino, Asian, Native and white workers. It is not immigrants who outsourced hundreds jobs overseas and closed down factories. It is not immigrants who raised prices on essential goods. It is not immigrants who bring violence into our communities. The root of these issues is the billionaire class and the capitalist system that prioritizes profit over people. Corporations and the billionaires who own them are the ones who raise prices, fund wars abroad that result in inflation at home and send jobs to other countries to avoid regulations. It is the billionaire class and their armed police force who inflict violence on Black, Brown and working-class communities in cities like Chicago. 

The time is now for each of us, regardless of our nationality or documentation status, to come together united as working and oppressed people to end the war on immigrants, Black America and the entire working class. The Democrats have already proven they will not protect immigrants, assisting their Republican colleagues in passing the anti-immigrant Laken Riley Bill just this week. Only the unity of the working class can defend immigrant families against the billionaire class’ coming attacks. Just as the people of Chicago mobilized in mass to rally against the failed attempt to weaken sanctuary status, we must continue to organize, mobilize and demonstrate against the already beginning attacks on all members of the working class. We must demand:

  • An end to deportations and raids.
  • The abolition of fusion centers that share data between local and federal officers to aid in deportations.
  • The abolition of ICE and the redistribution of its funding to meet people’s needs.
  • An end to U.S. intervention, sanctions and blockades on countries across Latin America, including Cuba, Venezuela, Honduras and Haiti.
  • Livable wages and guaranteed benefits for all workers.
  • Work permits and amnesty for all immigrants.
  • Affordable housing for all, and reparations to Chicago’s Black community through the removal of lead pipes in homes, refurbishing dilapidated housing, the provision of free housing to long-time homeless residents, moratoriums on rising property taxes and rents, and the removal of the racist Chicago Police Department from our streets.

We have the tools and resources at our disposal to provide for all working people’s needs. We just have to fight for it. 

Feature photo: A community organizer speaks at Chicago’s rally for immigrant rights on Jan. 12. Liberation photo

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