Chicago residents, activists and elected officials demanded that the city’s civilian police oversight board launch a thorough probe into how the Chicago Police Department has interacted with or assisted federal immigration agents before, during and after Operation Midway Blitz at a heated Thursday night meeting.
Chicago police have been on the scenes of many of the highest-profile standoffs between residents and federal agents throughout the Trump administration’s highly publicized 64-day immigration enforcement surge in the city and suburbs.
While prohibited from participating in or aiding that enforcement, the Police Department has often conducted crowd control or made arrests in the chaotic aftermath of federal raids. Police brass — who have both been accused of leaving federal agents out in the cold and of aiding their efforts at different points during the blitz — have said that they’ll respond to any 911 call and ensure basic public safety when they are on-scene alongside federal agents.
Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability President Remel Terry reminded the hundreds of people who filled Pilsen’s Thalia Hall of what the police is and isn’t allowed to do at the top of the meeting Thursday night and encouraged people to report their concerns to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and Chicago’s Office of Inspector General. And most of the commissioners said they were looking forward to hearing from those at the meeting, which was intended to be a “listening session” for residents to share their accounts of how Chicago police may have acted inappropriately while responding to situations involving immigration agents.
Many commenters were focused on how the police had or hadn’t been involved with the federal personnel, from whether they could arrest agents for reckless driving to how they positioned themselves during confrontations between agents and neighbors. But the meeting was shot through with political animosity as speaker after speaker directed almost equal frustration toward the seven-member commission for its delay in holding a forum as they did toward the Police Department, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“You exist because of the power of the people,” Ald. Leni Maana-Hoppenworth, 48th, told the commission. “So I implore you to listen to what you are hearing today, to work with us, to help us hold all of law enforcement accountable, no matter what the alphabet soup of their name is. You all are a part of that too. ”
Police district council members who helped set the meeting up said they’d originally asked the commission to hold a hearing on the department’s role in the “blitz” on Nov. 13. The councilors met with the commission Dec. 11, they said, and ultimately collected 2,000 petition signatures to trigger Thursday’s listening session.
While they worked to make the hearing happen, Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino and his men made a brief, chaotic return to the city and suburbs to arrest more people.
“Through this process, we felt that this issue was not being treated with the urgency that it deserved,” 10th District Council member Elianne Bahena said. “In the face of this reality, waiting is not neutral.”
Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said it had been 218 days since Chicago police were on the scene at a pre-Blitz tussle between ICE agents who were arresting immigrants at their court appearances, elected officials and members of the public.
Vasquez, who chairs the City Council Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said his committee has had to “force these conversations to happen to find out what, exactly, are the interactions (between federal officials and CPD).”
“There is no excuse for 218 days to go by without a hearing from the body who’s charged with police accountability in regards to police accountability,” he said.
Jazmine Salas, who identified herself as an organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a key group that helped create the commission, told the seven commissioners that “you should be (expletive) ashamed of yourselves.”
Salas’ time on the microphone ended, and the meeting briefly ground to a halt while hundreds jeered and yelled, “let her speak!” as event staff sent her back into the audience.
Another speaker told the commission that “CPD is absolutely collaborating with ICE in ways that violate the law. The law has to mean something.”
“I know that you all care a lot and are trying your best, but I say to each and every one of you on that dais, your best is not good enough right now,” she continued. “You have state power. (Expletive) use it. This body is not supposed to be a nice line on your resume.”
