[ad_1]
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Saturday afternoon aimed at holding federal law enforcement in the city to municipal rules on policing while also keeping tabs on new deployments and informing citizens of their rights.
The order, “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” comes after the Chicago Sun-Times first reported Naval Station Great Lakes near North Chicago — the Navy’s largest training station and the largest military installation in the state — is being considered as a possible staging ground for an immigration blitz that could bring more than 200 federal agents to the area from Tuesday to Sept. 30, though Johnson said the city’s reports set Friday as the arrival date. National Guard troops could also be sent to support the effort.
The measure, signed Saturday afternoon in the mayor’s ceremonial office, says the Chicago Police Department would remain a city agency and requires federal law enforcement to abide by city laws on policing under threat of being taken to court. This includes barring officers from hiding their identities with masks, wearing active body cameras during engagements, and displaying identifying information such as badges and uniforms, and also stating CPD will not work with federal or military units in the city.
“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Johnson said. “I would’ve preferred to work more collaboratively to pass legislation … but unfortunately we do not have the luxury of time. We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some kind of militarized activity by the federal government.”
President Donald Trump has threatened to send troops to Chicago to get a handle on what he has characterized as rampant crime and lawlessness — a move that Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker and have deemed unnecessary given that crime has fallen significantly.
The city also plans to submit information requests to the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to obtain information about future deployments to the city while also working with consular officers to document federal law enforcement activity. The mayor’s Office for Immigrant and Refugee Rights will also lead city agencies to help ensure Chicagoans know their rights around the impending deployments.
It comes after talks with Illinois leaders and the mayors of other cities that have also been subject to federal siege, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Johnson said the city would use “every single tool at our disposal,” which included the courts, to ensure federal law enforcement abide by the executive order.
“This executive order makes it emphatically clear this president is not going to come in and deputize our police department,” Johnson said. “We do not want to see tanks in our streets. We do not want families ripped apart. … And I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
In a statement to the Sun-Times, the White House called the order a “publicity stunt” and praised D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who recently said she “greatly appreciates” the surge in federal law enforcement in the city, which includes thousands of National Guard troops.
However, White House officials have distinctly said the operation in Chicago would mirror Los Angeles more than D.C., which saw thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines — some of whom are still stationed there through November — activated to quell protests against immigration raids.
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” wrote White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. “[Democrats] should listen to fellow Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser who recently celebrated the Trump Administration’s success in driving down violent crime in Washington DC.”
The White House says over 1,200 people have been arrested and 135 firearms have been seized since the surge started on Aug. 7. The city’s police department says crime rates have plunged in the district, including a 60% decrease in carjackings, a 56% drop in robberies and a 58% reduction in violent crimes as of Wednesday compared to the same one-week period in 2024.
But judges, defense attorneys and grand jurors are already poking holes in many cases, including due to lack of evidence or use of illegal searches.
The order has drawn support from Johnson’s City Hall allies like Ald. Andre Vazquez (40th) and Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) who attended the signing, though Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) said it “wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on” in a social media post. Lopez did not respond to a request for comment.
The Chicago Teachers Union also praised the move, saying, “we know that safety does not come from federal forces invading our city.”
Legislators, including Lt. Gov Juliana Stratton, have told the Sun-Times they’ve been hard-pressed to come up with solutions without specifics on what the operation will entail.
But Esiah Campos — Lake County Board Commissioner and second generation Navy corpsman who finished his training at Naval Station Great Lakes in 2020 — called on state legislators Friday to ban law enforcement from using masks statewide and for Lake County mayors to reaffirm their commitment not to assist ICE.
“It hurts to see the base I drilled out of to house ICE and Homeland Security agents to terrorize our people,” Campos said at a Friday morning news conference with other legislators and community groups in North Chicago’s Veterans Memorial Park. “This is not a time for platitudes. Now is a time for action.”
Contributing: AP
[ad_2]
Violet Miller
Source link