Immigration policy protest draws crowd
Thousands rallied against the detention of children and possible ICE raids.
Eirene Salvi was a child when she came to the United States as an immigrant from Japan, and now as an adult, she was among thousands of Chicagoans who marched in blistering heat Saturday to protest U.S. immigration policy at Daley Plaza.
The 29-year-old Bucktown resident stood in the plaza with her friend Joy Anderson, a child of immigrants from Panama, as the crowd swelled with people before the event. Salvi feels a kinship with the 120,000 people forced into internment camps during World War II, and the two women see parallels in the children separated from their parents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities near the border.
“They did it to us,” Salvi said. “They haven’t learned anything.”
Thousands of people crowded into the Loop in nearly 90-degree heat, chanting “Immigrants are welcome here” and holding signs. Large, rainbow-colored block letters floated above the crowd, spelling “Resist.” Several signs quoted lines from Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” which is cast onto a plaque on the Statue of Liberty.
For many attendees, the event took on an added urgency due to the threat of immigration raids in Chicago this weekend. The rally was the city’s second in two days, after hundreds gathered in Federal Plaza on Friday night ahead of deportation sweeps expected Sunday. Other rallies unfolded in the suburbs and across the country.
Chicago’s immigrant communities are preparing for the possible raids as advocates educate city residents about their rights should they encounter federal immigration agents. This comes two weeks after President Donald Trump tweeted about raids before delaying them. The president on Friday confirmed plans to target people facing a final deportation order.
“The children being separated from their parents makes me cry,” said Casey Byrne, a 71-year-old Andersonville resident who attended the rally.
The event began with about a dozen speakers, including U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, as well as a number of advocates and people who told personal stories of immigration and deportation. The crowd then marched to a federal building that houses the Chicago field office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 101 W. Ida B. Wells Drive, chanting “Abolish ICE.”
A man detailed in Spanish his family’s escape to the United States after cartel members killed his father and brother. He was separated from his wife, mother, brother and 2-year-old daughter as the family members were detained in separate facilities, some for months. Eventually, the family members were granted asylum. Another man told of how his brother was detained by immigration officials after being caught with a small amount of marijuana.
Mahalea Velasco, 11, stood at a lectern and told the crowd that her father was deported eight years ago.
“Aren’t I a child?” she yelled to the crowd. “Don’t they deserve the right to a family?”
Advocates from the more than 100 groups that organized or supported the rally are demanding that the federal government unite families that are separated and stop deportations, among other reforms to immigration policy. They are also urging the government to count everyone living in the country, including immigrants, in the 2020 census.
The groups are also demanding that the city end Chicago police collaboration with ICE and erase gang data, which has been criticized as inaccurate. After Trump first threatened raids last month, Mayor Lori Lightfoot assured residents that police do not share data with ICE, though the department still shares data with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.
Police and organizers estimated the crowd was between 5,000 and 10,000 people.