Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday that Windy City police "will not ever cooperate" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities.
"You know, again, it's unconscionable at a time in which so many working people and poor people need government to show up for them, that this administration, the Trump administration, has caused so much consternation and division," Johnson said at a press conference, according to the New York Post.
He was responding to a question about whether the city would use the police department to shield students from federal agents conducting immigration raids without warrants.
"Look, we are welcoming city ordinance," Johnson said. "Our local police department will not ever cooperate with ICE, whatever their constitutional authority is. That is obviously relegated to the Trump administration. All of our sister agencies, city departments have been thoroughly briefed by a corporate counsel, and I'll pass it over to her in a second about what they can and cannot do."
Johnson, a Democrat, has been a fierce critic of the Republican administration's use of ICE to carry out immigration enforcement activities.
In June, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he urged city residents to "rise up in this moment" against ICE.
"This is a necessary fight for all of us to be able to push back," Johnson said at the time. "Whether we use the courts or whether we continue to protest and raise our voices, dissent matters in this moment.
"It's a war on our culture. It's a war on our democracy. It's a war on our humanity," he said. "I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment, because, whatever particular vulnerable group is being targeted today, another group will be next. … None of us are immune from this disease."
The Chicago mayor has also called on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to "speak up" about ICE's mass deportation operation, which he described as "terrorism."
According to the Post, more than 51,000 illegal immigrants have made their way to Chicago from the southern border since Aug. 31, 2022.
Last week, Trump border czar Tom Homan appeared on "The Will Cain Show," where he slammed a new app called ICEBlock that is reportedly being used to alert people to sightings of ICE agents.
"Assault against ICE is up over 500%," Homan said. "Now you've got an app that's going to tell where ICE operations are going to. It's only a matter of time before ICE agents are ambushed by some nut, like what happened in L.A., throwing them out a [Molotov] cocktail, throwing bricks at these officers. This is just disgusting at every level."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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