Nearly a dozen people in the audience of the Lincolnwood Village Board meeting Tuesday were there to call on leaders to adopt a sanctuary status for the village – especially, they say, since several board members are themselves immigrants or descendants of them.
With the backdrop of recent Chicago area immigration-related arrests, along with the shooting death in Franklin Park of a Hispanic man by a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agent, at least one north suburban area activist group is asking that Lincolnwood leaders declare the town a sanctuary municipality.
“Trustees, many of you are immigrants or children of immigrants,” Pam Lefkowitz said, before naming specific board members whose families immigrated to the country. “You owe it to your constituents to protect them … to make sure they feel welcome and safe here.”
There was also a call for the village to get rid of license plate readers and make a public promise that local police will not aid federal immigration authorities.
Lefkowitz addressed the board during the public comment portion of the meeting. The issue of sanctuary status was not on the agenda, so village trustees did not comment nor was there a vote planned.
Mayor Jesal Patel said the sanctuary village requests should be made with Assistant Village Manager Madeline Farrell.
Illinois is already a sanctuary state with statutes that prohibit local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration officials without a judicial warrant. The state law does not prohibit ICE or other federal officials from enforcing immigration laws.
However, Lefkowitz and Cooper Wickum said they would like local officials to make public statements pledging their support to protect immigrants.
They also said they support cutting ties with Flock Safety, a company that provides automated license plate readers to municipalities throughout the state.
In August, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced his office discovered the Georgia-based company was giving its Illinois road data to immigration authorities. He called that a violation of state law.
“We don’t need these kinds of systems in Lincolnwood,” said Wickum. “Getting rid of them would improve public safety.”
He said the company uses AI-powered readers to scan license plates and that technology has been wrong in the past. Plus, he said sharing data with outside police agencies endangers citizens.
“I would sleep a lot easier at night knowing that people I care about very deeply are not being tracked by people who are not here in the village,” he said.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.
