Chicago Mayor Says That the Police Won’t Cooperate With ICE Operations

Chicago Mayor Says That the Police Won’t Cooperate With ICE Operations
ICE arrests a man in Baltimore, Md., on Aug. 6, 2015. (ICE)
6/23/2019
Updated:
6/23/2019

After President Donald Trump’s notice that there will be a wave of deportations for people who came into the United States illegally, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded.

She said on June 21 that she will not cooperate with the ICE interventions, reported ABC15.

“I have directed—and Superintendent Johnson has confirmed—that CPD has terminated ICE’s access to CPD’s databases related to federal immigration enforcement activities,” Lightfoot said in a statement, “I have also personally spoken with ICE leadership in Chicago and voiced my strong objection to any such raids. Further, I reiterated that CPD will not cooperate with or facilitate any ICE enforcement actions.”

President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter on June 17: “Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in.”

And added on Saturday morning that “The people that ICE will apprehend have already been ordered to be deported. This means that they have run from the law and run from the courts. These are people that are supposed to go back to their home country. They broke the law by coming into the country, & now by staying.”

“When people come into our Country illegally, they will be DEPORTED!” Trump added.

Trump also said on the same day that the cities fighting the ICE raid are high-crime and sanctuary cities.

“Some cities are going to fight it. Many of those cities are high-crime and sanctuary cities,” said the President.

Ironically, the city notorious for its high murder and violence rates has been most vociferous about the president’s warnings.

Chief communications officer of the Chicago police, Anthony Guglielmi, wrote on Twitter: “No city data—including all CPD law enforcement data & records - will be shared with federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents. Supt. Eddie Johnson has also ordered CPD not to participate in any deportation raids.”

The Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, expressed himself about the subject in a somewhat different way. He said: “We agree that criminals, like dangerous gang members who came here illegally, should be deported immediately.” “As Mayor, I trust that only those individuals who represent a clear and present danger to our communities will be affected by this DHS policy.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner had a more neutral stance. “The city does not try to do ICE’s job, nor does it try to impede ICE. And we will continue to be a city that builds relationships, not walls,” he said on June 21.

Chicago has taken one of the strongest stances against Trump’s policies. “Chicago has taken concrete steps to support our immigrant communities,” Lightfoot said in her statement. “Chicago will always be a welcoming city and a champion for the rights of our immigrant and refugee communities.”

Communism Expert on What’s Behind the Push for Open Borders

As Congress holds hearing after hearing without any substantive fixes to immigration law, tens of thousands of illegal aliens cross the southwest border every week. Most families don’t bother claiming “credible fear” to Border Patrol anymore, knowing they’ll be released anyway if they have a child with them.
The Epoch Times sat down with Trevor Loudon, a communism expert and contributor to The Epoch Times, to discuss the effects of congressional inaction and the possible reasons behind it.

The Epoch Times: What is really going on?

Trevor Loudon: This is an orchestrated, communist assault on America, to destroy America’s borders, to create confusion in America, to overwhelm the system politically. Because America is [the communists’] main enemy, and if you can’t bring it down through nuclear weapons, you bring it down through illegal immigration, which is maybe just as effective in the long run.

You can see what 15, 16, 20, 25 million new Democratic voters is going to do to this country. You will lose Texas, you'll lose Florida, you will lose Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina. There will never be, ever, another Republican or conservative president in our lifetimes. You will have a one-party state in America. And that is the plan. That is why they are doing this.

This is Marxist. This is Leninist. And this goes back to American politicians cooperating with hostile foreign powers in the destruction of America. And their No. 1 weapon is illegal immigration and overwhelming the border. That’s what they’re doing.

If that’s not a national emergency, I cannot comprehend what is. What could be more pressing and more dangerous than this?

Trevor Loudon, communism expert and author of Enemies Within," during an interview on May 20, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Trevor Loudon, communism expert and author of Enemies Within," during an interview on May 20, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The Democrats, 25 years ago, were the party leading the charge against illegal immigration. They were the party. You look up on C-Span and see speeches by Harry Reid and Bill Clinton condemning illegal immigration in the harshest terms: “This is a national security threat. This is taking the jobs of American workers. This is destroying their livelihood. We must end this.”

They sounded like Tea Party guys. And now, they’re completely in favor of it, because they have so destroyed their own base among the sort of Pennsylvania union guys, the middle class in this country. They’ve so destroyed their own base, they have to import new voters. And where are they going to come from? Well, there’s a very easy source for that.

The Epoch Times reporter Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report