Latest news with #OrganizedCommunitiesAgainstDeportations
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
What does Juneteenth have in common with today's immigration raids?
Law is the one thing restraining an American president who regularly exceeds his authority. More than 300 lawsuits against the second Trump administration have led to at least partial relief in a number of domains, including unlawful deportations and purges of federal workers. Those victories are fragile, however, in part because they are subject to review by an often unsympathetic Supreme Court, but also for a deeper reason: They involve too few of us. The court rulings are the work of a small number of lawyers and judges and are largely opaque to most Americans. In this moment, we must do away with the common assumption that law is best left to lawyers. If we want to sustain the rule of law, we need to participate in it. The difference between law and legal empowerment is akin to the difference between the Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth. Although President Lincoln's proclamation theoretically went into effect on Jan. 1, 1863, it was not until 2½ years later, when Union troops arrived in Texas, that 250,000 people who were enslaved there could assert their freedom. We remember the proclamation as the first federal legal instrument to reject slavery. We remember Juneteenth for something even more important: the moment when the people whose freedom was at stake were aware of their rights and able to act on them. To protect democracy in the U.S. today, we need mass legal empowerment. In some places, it's already begun. Federal workers are learning the details of administrative law so they can respond to arbitrary and unlawful orders. Volunteers working with Organized Communities Against Deportations are helping immigrants to understand their rights and defend one another. In 27 neighborhoods across Chicago, volunteers show up within 10 minutes of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid. When people invoke their rights — for instance, insisting that agents present a valid judicial warrant before entering a private space — ICE agents have sometimes backed away. You don't need to read statutes, regulations or court decisions, which are often written in impenetrable legalese. Credible civil society organizations and some government agencies have simplified important laws. To understand the scope of the 1st Amendment, you can turn to plain language explanations from a group called Freedom Forum. A foreign student writing for a university newspaper has the same free-press rights as any other student journalist, for example, and the government cannot use federal funding to regulate the speech of nongovernmental organizations. To take climate action in spite of the government's political stance, you can begin by accessing clean energy tax credits in state and federal law. The climate laws we have will become more effective and more durable if more people understand and use them. The key is not to do it alone. The law protects our rights as individuals, but learning and using law on your own can be intimidating, especially under a government that is hostile toward basic rights. Legal empowerment works when we come together. With time, legal empowerment can address the root causes of authoritarianism. Political scientists including Cas Mudde and Pippa Norris describe a vicious cycle: Distrust in institutions leads to sympathy for authoritarian politicians, authoritarian politicians undermine institutions, and distrust deepens. When we use law to tackle problems we face, we reduce the distance between our institutions and ourselves. My colleagues and I recently analyzed interviews with 95 'justice seekers' across Kenya, India and Myanmar — people who used law to address violations of their rights. Of those interviewed, 90% had developed greater confidence in engaging government institutions; 92% said they were either willing to help or had already helped others facing similar problems. In all three countries, people who faced similar challenges came together to demand improvements in rules and systems. In Kenya, Muslims who had navigated a decades-old discriminatory ID system fought for equal treatment for all. In February 2025, after years of community meetings, marches and parliamentary hearings, President William Ruto abolished discriminatory vetting. When we do achieve positive changes in law or policy, we shouldn't assume those changes will implement themselves. Today, Muslims in Kenya are applying for IDs and tracking their experience to make sure the government follows through on the president's decree. This is the legal empowerment cycle: the journey from knowing and using law to shaping it and back again. By taking part in the legal empowerment cycle, we can build institutions that deserve our trust. I don't want to understate the problems with our current legal system or the current administration. Law is overly complicated, unaffordable and, in this moment, often disregarded by those who should be upholding it. But all of that can change. As Juneteenth reminds us, law belongs to the people. If we know it, we can use it. If we use it, we can fix it. Vivek Maru is founder and chief executive of Namati, a nonprofit organization that convenes the Grassroots Justice Network, which is open to people everywhere.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Immigrant advocates, elected officials call for release of Chicago mother detained by ICE
When Gladis Yolanda Chavez finally had a chance to speak to her attorney, two days after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the first thing she asked him to do was keep her daughter safe. Chavez's 10-year-old daughter was in school when her mother was detained at an ICE check-in Wednesday, one of an estimated 20 people who were rounded up during surprise check-ins at the federal agency's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program offices in Chicago. Similar arrests were reported that day in New York, San Jose and Birmingham. Chavez and about 20 others were still at the ICE processing center in Broadview Friday morning. Since the facility is not a detention center, something prohibited in Illinois due to the state's Way Forward Act, there are no beds. So they had been sleeping on the floor and sitting around on the few chairs available, she told her lawyers and supporters, who were finally able to see her Friday. She'd been difficult to locate, her attorneys said, because Chavez and others recently detained had not been added to the ICE detainee online locator system, typically the only way for families to find their loved ones after they've been detained. If you're arrested by ICE in Illinois, what happens next? Legal experts explain the process. 'We are angry, and this is not the end. We will continue to visualize how ICE is engaging and exposing their racist tactics targeting immigrants of color,' said Antonio Gutierrez, a co-founder and strategic coordinator of Organized Communities Against Deportations, where Chavez worked. 'This is fascism and racism at its finest example, while having the U.S. government doing illegal kidnapping, coercion and human trafficking without orders of removal.' Supporters of Chavez, elected officials and her attorneys spoke at a news conference Friday in front of the Broadview processing center to demand ICE release Chavez and others detained on Wednesday. A.J. Johnson Reyes, one of Chavez's lawyers and a member of Beyond Legal Aid, said that while an ICE agent he spoke to before showed his desire to help, he said the agent told Reyes could no longer do so because now 'he is following orders.' 'They are forced to put their humanity aside,' Reyes said. Still, he said, his team is committed to doing everything legally possible to stop Chavez's deportation. The lawyers sought two stays of removal in an attempt to stop the deportation. The temporary stay was granted by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said Reyes. Another request for a stay was submitted with ICE, but not granted. While they remain hopeful, they're bracing for the worst. Several migrants in restraints are escorted to vans for transport out of the Broadview Immigration Processing Center on June 6, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Broadview police officers provide crowd control as community members and immigrant rights advocates gather outside the Broadview Immigration Processing Center on June 6, 2025, to demand the immediate release of Gladis Yolanda Chaves. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Attorneys A.J. Johnson Reyes and Nadia Singh enter to speak with clients at the Broadview Immigration Processing Center on June 6, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Two men try to leave a bag with supplies and money for a detainee at the Broadview Immigration Processing Center on June 6, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Attorney Nadia Singh, of Beyond Legal Aid, community members and immigrant rights advocates gather at the Broadview Immigration Processing Center June 6, 2025, to demand the immediate release of Gladis Yolanda Chaves. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Show Caption1 of 6Carlos Pineda and girlfriend Stephanie Tlatenchi get emotional as several vans filled with migrants leave the Broadview Immigration Processing Center on June 6, 2025. The couple were there to try to communicate with one of the detainees. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)Expand At any point, Chavez could be put on a plane back to her native Honduras or to a detention facility across the country, said Xanat Sobrevilla, a longtime friend of Chavez and member of OCAD. 'She was completely dedicated to her daughter,' Sobrevilla said in tears. Chavez served as a community organizer for OCAD, an organization that provides resources and legal aid to undocumented individuals facing deportation to guarantee a right to due process. Ironically, as Chavez urged others to comply with the law, she was detained. According to her supporters, Chavez received a message on June 2 to report to the ISAP office at 2245 S. Michigan Ave for a 'check-in,' despite already being subject to electronic monitoring via an ankle bracelet. She arrived on Wednesday with her two attorneys, they said. But after more than 90 minutes, she was handcuffed and ICE agents ordered her attorneys to leave. She was being detained. Chavez arrived from Honduras more than a decade ago, seeking refuge from extreme poverty and violence in her home country. She lived on the city's Northwest Side and had been attending routine check-ins with ICE for nearly eight years. The system — which required her to also wear an ankle monitor the last two months — allowed for individuals like Chavez, who are not considered a threat or had an ongoing immigration case, an alternative to detention and deportation. What was meant to be a routine check-in ICE has, for many, become a turning point. Agents have broad discretion to decide whether individuals can remain in the country or face removal. But advocates warn that new quotas imposed by the Department of Homeland Security are leaving little room for discretion or compassion — even for those who have lived in the United States for more than a decade. Though she has become the face of this most recent ICE operation in Chicago, there are dozens of families waiting for help and clarity, Gutierrez said. And there are dozens of parents leaving behind their U.S. children, he said. Many were detained during a surprise check-in at the ISAP Chicago office even after having complied fully with every requirement imposed by ICE, including wearing an ankle monitor, supporters said. Outside the Broadview facility, Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said that the new operations were part of 'Trump's racist agenda,' and that they are committed to continuing to organize to 'make sure that people know their rights. Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez of the 33rd Ward, in which Chavez has been living, said that she, too, would advocate for immigrant rights despite the clash with ICE agents outside the facility on Wednesday, where she and other aldermen said they were roughed up. 'We will take the risks necessary to protect our community,' she said.
CBS News
05-06-2025
- General
- CBS News
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker responds to Chicago ICE operation in South Loop
The governor of Illinois is responding to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Chicago's South Loop Wednesday that drew protesters and resulted in at least 10 people being detained. Sources said migrants and asylum-seekers were called to an immigration supervision program site in the South Loop for what they thought were routine check-ins by immigration authorities. "People under this program has also received a similar text message, either yesterday or Monday, being told to come in and check in for an unexpected or unscheduled check-in," said Antonio Gutierrez, strategic coordinator and co-founder of Organized Communities Against Deportations. Instead, they were put into vans and taken away by heavily masked and armed ICE agents who showed up unannounced. "What we saw today is Gestapo-style abductions happening in front of all of us," said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th). Chicago police were also at the scene and have faced sharp criticism since. The City of Chicago has a welcoming city ordinance that largely prohibits police from cooperating with ICE agents and investigations in most cases. Chicago police said they were at the scene only to help with crowd control and did not assist ICE in the operation. "Let's be clear, the Chicago police followed the law," Gov. JB Pritzker said Thursday. "When ICE is engaged in raids like this, if there is a situation where there is a court ordered warrant for someone's arrest, then it is absolutely appropriate for police to be engaged." Immigration attorneys said the migrants were compliant and some had work permits. A group of aldermen is now calling for an investigation into ICE's strategy, which they say undermines trust and sets a dangerous precedent. Please note: The above video is from a previous report.
