Thousands showed up Saturday morning at Daley Plaza for a planned rally to protest the Trump Administration’s immigration policies with deportation raids set to take place this weekend in Chicago and around the country.
Demonstrators held signs that read “close the camps” and “stop deportations now,” with a large sign hanging from the side of the Daley Center reading “End detention welcome immigrants.”
”It’s about damn time we tell this racist president loud and clear: Stop criminalizing desperation,” said Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., who represents many largely Latino communities including Little Village and Humboldt Park.
During his speech, Garcia, who immigrated to the United States in 1965 with his family, spoke passionately against the “cruel and inhumane policies of this administration.”
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who followed Garcia at the podium, said she is “proud to say I stand with all our immigrant and refugee communities.”
”Here in Illinois we are making it abundantly clear to everyone watching, including Donald Trump, that Illinois is and always will be a welcoming state,” Stratton said. “And we will protect our immigrant communities.”
After the rally, march stepped off through downtown, starting south on Clark Street from the plaza.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not attend the rally, but planned to spend the day in neighborhoods. She appeared on CNN Saturday morning and said Chicago police “will not help or facilitate” efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
“We can not have the police on one hand asking (residents) for their support to help keep people safe in this city and then facilitating a weaponized agency like ICE,” Lightfoot said.
“The most haunting thing that I’ve experienced, because I’m visible and out in communities across the city, particularly in these last few weeks, is hearing from young children, preteens the age of my daughter who may be the only English speaker in their home.” She said to “have them to have to shoulder this very, real, scary adult burden because of the role they play in their family — they’re terrified.”
The mayor told CNN that based on her experience as a former federal prosecutor, she expects that ICE agents will visit neighborhoods early in the morning “and capture people at home. They’re going to go to businesses where they think that people might be in existence whether it’s a restaurant or whether it’s an actual workplace.”
Many groups held smaller rallies before they marched to the downtown plaza. An Asian- American immigrant rights group met near the Chicago Cultural Center, and several aldermen gathered crowds in Northwest and Southwest Side neighborhoods.
With temperatures expected in the 90s and the sun glaring down on the crowd, the Chicago Transit Authority parked a few cooling buses near the plaza.
