The Naperville City Council expressed concern about barring federal immigration authorities from using city property as staging or operational sites for immigration enforcement, but plans to examine how the city can better communicate with its immigrant population about federal immigration activity.
Nearly a dozen people spoke at the Tuesday night City Council meeting advocating for a city ordinance drafted by residents that they called the “Naperville Due Process and Municipal Property Ordinance.” The proposed legislation would have prevented immigration agents from using municipal buildings, parking lots and other city facilities for civil immigration enforcement unless authorities have a valid court order or judicial warrant.
Some communities in Illinois have adopted similar local laws, including Chicago, Wilmette, Downers Grove and Aurora.
The proposal follows attacks on immigrant rights and increased immigration arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the country, including a wave of mass arrests that hit Chicago and surrounding suburbs in the fall during Operation Midway Blitz.
Some of those arrests by federal authorities have hit close to home in Naperville, which saw the detainment of a group of day laborers in a Menard’s parking lot, roofers working on a house and a father who was arrested outside of his home while his kids yelled “Pa, te amo.”
“This is not distant for us,” said Lili Burciaga, president of the Alliance of Latinos Motivating Action in the Suburbs (ALMAS). “We have spoken with children whose parents have been taken, with individuals who live and work in Naperville whose spouses have been taken, with employers whose workplaces have been disrupted because the valued employee was suddenly gone.”
The draft ordinance, Burciaga said, would provide “clarity and reassurance” over how Naperville “operates in moments of uncertainty” as well as how the city is working to protect its immigrant residents and workers.
“My elementary age daughter recently asked me, with the kind of clarity that only a child has, ‘Can ICE take you?’” said Diana Torres Hawken. “I am a civic leader in the city. I serve on city-appointed bodies and my daughter is afraid for me. If that fear was in my home, imagine where else it is in Naperville.”
In Illinois, all communities are required to follow the TRUST Act, a state law that limits local law enforcement from assisting in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law. That includes preventing local law enforcement from transferring a person into an immigration agent’s custody, allowing immigration agents to use local law enforcement agency facilities or equipment and giving immigration agents access to an individual who is in law enforcement’s custody.
While the local ordinance would be similar to the rules outlined in the TRUST Act, residents said that the ordinance would provide another level of safety and reassurance. Some residents also pointed towards Naperville’s history of leading on controversial topics, including the city’s ban on assault rifles that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, as further reason for the city to adopt the ordinance.
“I’ve been told that (the ordinance) is disallowed by the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution,” said Naperville resident Signe Gleeson. “I find it ironic that our current administration, which has been shown time and again by judicial findings across the country to be in violation of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments, is intimidating municipalities by using the Supremacy Clause.
Gleeson also emphasized the action taken by other municipalities should give Naperville the courage in passing its own ordinance.
While Council members expressed sympathy towardf those who have been impacted by recent federal immigration action, some members were hesitant to pursue such an ordinance, fearing that the legislation would give residents a false sense of security.
“I’ve looked at the ordinances these other communities around Illinois…passed, and I don’t think there’s any city ordinance that can stop federal civil immigration enforcement,” said Mayor Scott Wehrli. “The Constitution is very clear on this. Supremacy Clause, federal law, it’s the supreme law of the land. Cities don’t get that opportunity to override it.”
Wehrli also said that Naperville’s police officers already follow the TRUST Act and that some of the ordinances adopted by other cities put police officers in difficult situations by having those officers “insert themselves into potential immigration matters for enforcement that is taking place by federal officials.”
“If the goal here is real safety, we owe people real honesty and we need to be clear about what the city can do, what the state law already provides and what no local ordinance can ever guarantee,” Wehrli said.
Councilman Patrick Kelly expressed a similar sentiment, emphasizing that in the case of the assault rifles ban, the city knew there would be a tangible impact with the immediate ban and the city was ready to take on any litigation thanks to pro bono support from a major international law firm.
“Here, we don’t have that international law firm offering pro bono services and I have real concern about putting our staff and our city in a very difficult position. … I’d rather see our city staff be proactive in putting communication out there, whether it’s know your rights, documenting instances where ICE or border patrol or whoever might be is in the city,” Kelly said.
City staff plan to bring back a report next month on what the city has already done with regards to protecting and communicating with immigrants in Naperville and future steps to increase that communication and trust.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
