WEST LOOP — Advocates for Chicago immigrants are rallying to denounce President Donald Trump's executive order that pledges to upend the city's protection of hundreds of thousands of people.
The president issued an executive order Wednesday that will crack down on immigration and punish sanctuary cities, which decline federal requests to hold arrestees with questionable immigration statuses in jail for deportation.
But that wasn't the only blow to immigrant justice advocates Wednesday.
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Trump also said he will begin work on the proposed wall between U.S. and Mexico, part of a series of actions targeting immigration that also includes blocking visas from being issued to seven Arab or Muslim countries.
As Trump announced these actions, organizers spoke out against them, pooling representatives from the Arab American Action Network, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Organized Communities Against Deportations, United African Organization, Korean Resource and Cultural Center and Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
"We are aware that these policies serve to demonize and target immigrant communities, as well as erode the hard fought-for protections that we have won over the years," said Rosi Carrasco of Organized Communities Against Deportations.
Carrasco said advocates worried the planned executive orders would be a "stepping stone" for registries, raids and deportations of Arab, Muslim, Asian, African and Latinx immigrants.
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They could also encourage hate crimes that target minority and immigrant communities, Carrasco said.
Hoda Katebi, with the Council on American Islamic Relations in Chicago, said Trump is trying to criminalize being a Muslim refugee. At a news conference Wednesday, she called on all Chicagoans to stand with immigrants that are targeted by the new orders.
"This is not a time to be silent right now," Katebi said. "If this is Trump on Day 3, Day 4, what is Trump going to be on Day 100? Where are Muslims going to be if they even are still allowed to exist in this country?"
In an effort to fight the executive actions, Lawrence Benito, chief executive officer of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, promised to sue.
“Enhanced border enforcement will not address the issues within our broken immigration system,” Benito said. “Federal courts have already and consistently ruled that under our Constitution, cities can refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement, and the federal government to withhold funds from local municipalities to force them to collaborate. If Trump follows through on this threat, he will see us in court.”
Van Huynh with Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago said that immigrant rights groups will push for strong "welcoming ordinances" throughout the state. In suburban Oak Park, the village board is set to vote on a “Welcoming Village Ordinance” in the coming weeks.
Shortly after Trump's election, Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged that Chicago would remain as is: a safe harbor for undocumented immigrants.
"Chicago has been a city of immigrants since it was founded," Emanuel said at the time. "We have always welcomed people of all faiths and backgrounds, and while the [White House] administration will change, our values and our commitment to inclusion will not."
Included in the mayor's proposed 2017 budget is $1 million to establish a municipal identification card for undocumented immigrants.
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In addition, city operators who field calls to the city's 311 system will get "special instructions" to help those concerned about their status in the wake of Trump's election, Emanuel said.
In 1985, Mayor Harold Washington signed a sanctuary city policy that prohibited city agencies from asking people about their immigration status, though the Chicago Police Department runs background checks on criminal suspects.
In a 2012 appearance at a Little Village school, Emanuel told reporters that the Police Department is not an "adjunct for the immigration service."
"We're not going to turn people over to ICE" — the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency," Emanuel said according to a Tribune report on the 2012 event.
Chicago and its surrounding suburbs house the second-largest population of Mexican-born immigrants in the United States, according to a 2014 report from the Migration Policy Institute.
Cook County has about 325,000 unauthorized immigrants, with 70 percent coming from Mexico, according to the institute's most recent estimates. Another 100,000 are in surrounding counties.
