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CBS News
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Surprise ICE check-in texts strike fear in Chicago immigrant communities
Chicago organizers have been working to try to protect undocumented immigrants who have been subject to surprise ICE check-ins that sometimes lead to detentions and deportations. At 21st and Michigan Monday, a father and his two daughters paced up and down the street outside an ICE check-in site as organizers said they waited for their wife and mother inside. She had received a text similar to others CBS News Chicago has seen that tell recipients to report to a Chicago immigration field office and that a failure to do so will constitute a violation. The texts are sent to immigrants who have already given their information to federal officials as they work toward some sort of legal documentation. They report knowing agents also have their home addresses. "What we've seen change in the last few weeks is people are being sent last minute text messages, being asked to come in for an appointment that's out of regular schedule, and then a couple of weeks ago we saw a large number of people detained at their appointments," said Tovia Siegel, director of organizing for the Resurrection Project. Siegel said that after multiple people were detained at a South Loop immigration facility earlier in June, her group has been out offering advice and support head of check-ins. "Chicago is organized, Chicago has been building infrastructure for nearly a decade now to make sure people have access to the legal services they need," she said. She also said that level of infrastructure and organization is why President Trump singled out Chicago as he promised to ramp up deportations. "Yeah, I want them to focus on the cities because the cities are where you really have what's called sanctuary cities, and that's where the people are," Trump said Monday. "I look at New York, I look at Chicago, I mean you got a really bad governor in Chicago and a bad mayor, but the governor's probably the worst in the country, Pritzker. But I look at how that city has been overrun by criminals. And, uh, you know, New York and LA." Governor JB Pritzker responded to the concern Trump may call in the National Guard in Chicago the way he has done in California. "I do not believe that he will call out the National Guard," Pritzker said. "I think he's seen that this has not gone well for him politically, and he's all about the politics." Pritzker was not able to say how big of a show of force we should expect to see from ICE in the coming days. There was a promise to send in tactical units last week, but we have not yet seen what that looks like.
Chicago Tribune
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Two people detained on Father's Day at Broadview immigration center
Natalia Cardenas, 28, cried on Father's Day. The Cardenas family arrived in Chicago from Colombia three years ago and believed Jose Manuel, 49, was reporting for a routine appointment as part of the asylum process — a form of protection for people fleeing danger in their home countries. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Cardenas' father. After that, their calls to him stopped going through. 'We don't know where he is … whether he's OK,' Cardenas said in tears, in front of an immigration processing center in Broadview after watching her dad go inside. Manuel was detained with a woman, also from Colombia, according to an immigration attorney who was with them during their appointment. On Friday, dozens of families in immigration proceedings received a text message from the federal government instructing them to report on Sunday to the Broadview center for a check-in appointment. Most left their appointment wearing ankle monitors and were given instructions to report to an office downtown that houses the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, an alternative to detention through check-ins or other forms of supervision, such as ankle monitors. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment confirming the number of detainees or the reason for their detention. The processing center in Broadview is usually the first stop for individuals arrested by ICE in Illinois. At the processing center in the western suburbs, ICE determines whether to initiate removal proceedings, the formal process by which the United States determines whether an immigrant must leave the country. Because Illinois is prohibited from operating immigration detention centers, if someone is detained, they will be sent to a detention center in a neighboring state while they wait for trial. Cardenas didn't know where her father would go or how to get in contact with him. 'We don't have a lawyer,' she said Sunday. 'We don't have a way to pay for a lawyer.' The messages from ICE, along with an increased number of arrests at immigration courts and other offices in the area, represent an escalation from previous immigration procedures, according to Tenoch Rodriguez, deportation defense organizer with Resurrection Project. On June 4, advocates estimated 20 people were detained after they reported for appointments to an ISAP office in the 2200 block of South Michigan Avenue. '(It is) not normal for this many people to show up on Saturday and Sunday,' Rodriguez said. 'It's not even normal for this many people to be showing up on a weekday.' Immigration attorneys and local officials gathered outside the Broadview processing center on Sunday to offer legal assistance and translation help. The children of those inside waited for hours, playing in the grass. Some family members held onto one another for comfort. A 7-year-old girl named Diana brought her pet green parakeet with her. She played with the small bird and fed it tangerines as she waited for her mother to come out of the facility. ICE officials tried to detain the mother, according to Diana's grandfather, Francisco, but she begged for more time because her child was waiting. She was instructed to report the next day to the same ISAP office where the 20 arrests occurred a little over a week ago. Francisco requested that his last name and the name of her mother not be used, citing concerns about potential retribution from the government. 'We were planning to celebrate all together today, and instead we're here,' Francisco said. 'We're glad she wasn't detained today, but it's hard. We don't know how much time we have.' Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of President Donald Trump's immigration policies, said late last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should make at least 3,000 arrests a day, which marks a dramatic increase for the federal agency since Trump took office. Many of the arrests nationwide appear to be taking place in immigration court, which has sparked fear among asylum-seekers and immigrants accustomed to remaining free while judges grind through a backlog of 3.6 million cases, typically taking years to reach a decision. Now they must consider whether to attend their hearings and possibly face detention and deportation, or skip them and forfeit their bids to remain in the country. When immigration attorney Kalman Resnick was informed Friday afternoon that two of his clients had a check-in appointment at the Broadview center, he immediately reached out to the federal government for answers but was met with silence. 'We called starting at 1 o'clock on Friday, 'Please tell us why our clients are being called.' None of the calls and none of the emails were returned,' Resnick said. 'We went to political leaders like Sen. (Dick) Durbin's office and Sen. (Tammy) Duckworth's office and (Rep. Jesús) 'Chuy' Garcia's office and (Rep.) Delia Ramirez's office, and we tried to get them information, and they tried and didn't get any.' Attorneys and advocates were unsure as to why people were suddenly being called in over Father's Day weekend but broadly saw it as part of the White House's plan of arresting 3,000 immigrants a day. Immigration lawyers said it's easier to detain people at the transfer center. There is no rationale to who gets detained, said state Rep. Norma Hernandez, a Democrat from the western suburbs. 'People are being detained because of minor violations from over a decade ago,' Hernandez said. 'So we're helping them plan, figure out what they want to do with their assets.' One attorney who entered the facility with her client Sunday reported that more ankle monitors were being issued as part of a policy change with the SmartLINK app, a program used by ICE to track immigrants as a low-cost alternative to detention. ICE did not specify to whom the policy applied, she said. Marta Arango, 52, from Colombia, was given an ankle monitor and told to report back every two weeks. She left with her 9-year-old daughter and husband after their appointment. 'It feels horrible. We're not criminals,' she said. 'And the one who's going to suffer the most is our daughter.'
Chicago Tribune
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Heidi Stevens: As demonstrations over immigration policy erupt, we can't forget the human hearts at the center
A friend of mine was driving her son home from his graduation dinner the other night when their car was surrounded, suddenly, by police officers in riot gear. While she and her family were eating and celebrating, thousands of demonstrators were flooding Chicago's streets to protest the immigration crackdowns playing out across the United States. On their drive home, a tale of two cities collided. It's going to be that kind of summer. (Year? Decade?) Scenes of joyful milestones and hallowed rituals and routine living playing out alongside constitutionally protected — and unquestionably justified — unrest. Less than a week prior, aldermen and community organizers clashed with immigration officials outside a U.S. Customs and Immigration office in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood, where immigrants were told to come for a check-in appointment and then detained when they arrived. 'They are boxing them in,' Erendira Rendon, vice president of immigrant justice at the Resurrection Project, told the Chicago Tribune after the South Loop arrests. 'You will get deported if you show up to your hearing as mandated by law, but you will also get deported if you don't show up to your hearing.' In California, protests against ICE sweeps have been rocking Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, with President Donald Trump deploying thousands of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to the area despite Gov. Gavin Newsom's legal attempts to block their arrival. This may be our new normal for a while. As of this writing, 'No Kings' demonstrations were scheduled to play out in towns and cities across America, part of a national movement to protest authoritarianism and provide counterprogramming to Trump's military parade marking the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary and his own 79th birthday. Also as of this writing, I'm watching friends and acquaintances work through a series of calculations that weigh the risks of protesting a cruel and chaotic administration, versus the risks of staying silent as cruelty and chaos march onward, laying waste to so much of what we hold dear. Including our values. Especially our values. These are complicated calculations. Here's what I know. Years from now, my son's friend will remember the night he was riding home from his graduation dinner, his mom at the steering wheel, his whole life ahead of him like an unwrapped gift, and his city's streets filled with protesters. A pivotal time in his life collided with a pivotal time in history. Here's what I also know. Some of the protesters also just graduated from something — high school, maybe. College, maybe. Grad school. Law school. Whole lives ahead of them. Pivotal times colliding. Some of the protesters, surely, had kids who just graduated too. And so did some of those police officers. It's easy and convenient, when we're living through times that call for heroes and villains, to focus on what divides us. But it's more honest to look for the things we share. The things we all hold dear. The things that keep all of us awake at night. I also know this. The chance to graduate from something — high school, college, grad school, law school — compels a lot of people to leave their homes, leave their relatives, leave their land and immigrate to this country. Democracy does too. So does the right to peacefully protest. So does the right to due process. The principles that made America the proverbial shining city upon a hill — reflecting hope and promise to the world — were always intended to serve, at least in part, as an invitation to join this grand experiment. So surely when we're debating immigration, surely when we're witnessing the crackdowns and sweeps and threats of mass deportations, we can make room in our hearts and minds and conversations to acknowledge that humans are at the center of this moment. Humans who come here in search of a better life. Humans who want their kids' whole lives to lie ahead of them like an unwrapped gift. The things we all hold dear. And maybe that factors into your calculation, when you're deciding what to support and whether to protest. And maybe this does too. It's an anecdote from Michele Hornish's latest Small Deeds Done newsletter. Hornish writes about Women Strike for Peace, a group of activists who protested nuclear testing in the 1960s. At the time, radioactive fallout was showing up in breast milk and baby teeth, and Women Strike for Peace staked out on the White House lawn holding signs that called for change. 'One of the women later admitted that, standing there in the rain, she felt 'foolish, and futile,'' Hornish writes. 'And really, can you blame her? She was likely soaked, and freezing, and holding a soggy sign that was getting battered by the weather. There was no indication from the White House at the time that they were moved by the demonstration.' But a pediatrician happened to be visiting the White House that day. And he happened to look out the window and see the women protesting in the rain. And he thought, Hornish writes, that if they felt strongly enough to be out there in the rain, maybe they were onto something. 'That pediatrician's name was Dr. Benjamin Spock — whose name you may know because he became one of the leading activists against nuclear testing and proliferation,' Hornish writes. 'In fact, it was his work on the impacts of nuclear testing on children's health that was instrumental in changing policy — leading to the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 that ended above-ground testing. 'And he may never have gotten involved in the issue in the first place,' she continues, 'had that woman and her friends not stood out in the rain.' Pivotal times colliding. Complicated calculations. But humans, always, at the center.
Axios
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Chicago braces for fallout as SCOTUS lets migrant protections end
The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way Friday for the Trump administration to rescind a Biden-era order that granted temporary protections for more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Why it matters: The court decision will affect thousands of migrants who were bused to Chicago before July 2023 and comes after a different ruling earlier this month allowed the administration to revoke protection for 350,000 Venezuelan nationals. Zoom in: Officials estimated that since 2022, the city has welcomed over 50,000 migrants from the southern border. 30,000 of those are from Venezuela. The big picture: The city and state shelled out millions of dollars to house Venezuelan migrants, which caused tensions between alders, communities and neighbors. Flashback: Expanding who qualified for temporary protections was one of several requests politicians in blue states made to the Biden administration so migrants in shelters could start working sooner. Congress created Temporary Protection Status in 1990 to offer protections to migrants fleeing natural disasters or war in their home countries. The protections typically last two years at a time, though the federal government has authorized TPS holders from various countries to renew their protections several times. What they're saying:"Without Temporary Protected Status, if somebody never applied for asylum, they are in fact eligible for deportation, and they're at risk for deportation," the Resurrection Project's Erendira Rendon told CBS Chicago. The intrigue: The court's Friday ruling was unsigned, which usually happens when justices rule on emergency cases. It also means legal challenges to the reversal can continue in lower courts and possibly end up in front of the Supreme Court again. White House officials have said migrants are a public safety threat and a drain on the nation's resources. Between the lines: This ruling comes as the Department of Homeland Security released a notice identifying hundreds of municipalities nationwide that have some sanctuary policy in place.
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Thousands of Venezuelans in Chicago face deportation after Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end TPS program
Thousands of Venezuelan migrants living in Chicago could soon face deportation, after the Supreme Court ruled this week that the Trump administration can revoke Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have been in the U.S. for years. Temporary Protected Status allows migrants to live and work in the U.S. without the threat of deportation, although it does not provide a path to permanent residency or citizenship. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tried to terminate the TPS program for Venezuelans in February, but the move was previously blocked by a lower court. On Monday, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request to lift the lower court's injunction. That could impact thousands of Venezuelan immigrants living in Chicago. "Every single person that we helped apply – because we helped them in 2023 – is going to be impacted by this," said Erendira Rendon, vice president for immigrant justice at the Resurrection Project, which has helped 9,000 Venezuelans in Illinois apply for TPS and asylum status. "Without Temporary Protected Status, if somebody never applied for asylum, they are in fact eligible for deportation, and they're at risk for deportation." Since Aug. 31, 2022, Chicago officials estimated the city has welcomed approximately 51,000 migrants from the southern border. A study done by Northeastern University last fall estimated about 30,000 of those people are from Venezuela, and have settled in neighborhoods like Brighton Park. "Right now, it seems like a rollercoaster because of all the changes," said Ana Alejandre, a shelter-based care manager at Brighton Park Neighborhood Council. The council has helped new arrivals find a home in Chicago. Thanks to the TPS program, they said those same immigrants have been able to get jobs to pay rent and pay taxes. "All of us that work and contribute to this country, we all get taxes deducted. Undocumented people, they also get taxes deducted, Social Security," Alejandre said. For many Venezuelans, the fear is now overwhelming that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could use details from TPS applications to find people now eligible for deportation. "Retaliation. Coming and looking for them, knowing where they live, where they work," Alejandere said. It's not clear when TPS for Venezuelans will be terminated and deportation efforts could begin.
