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A crowd estimated in the dozens gathered outside Village Hall in Morton Grove Wednesday – ahead of the Village Board meeting – for a rally where demonstrators hoped to urge town leaders to adopt anti-ICE resolutions.
Demonstrators chanted and hoisted signs during the nearly hourlong rally, pushing for legislation that activists say would help protect residents – and others in the village – against federal immigration enforcement agents, including from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol.
Organizers say such “ICE-free zone” resolutions, as they are commonly known, call for explicitly prohibiting federal immigration agents from using public land and facilities as part of their immigration enforcement efforts in municipalities, including Morton Grove.
“I feel your frustration. I feel your anger. And I understand that protesting against inhumane immigration policies can feel futile. Sometimes, it can seem like our objections to this invasion are just a drop in the bucket,” Bushra Amiwala, a member of the Skokie School District 73.5 Board of Education and candidate for Congress, said to the rally goers. “But they’re not.”
Amiwala took part in the Morton Grove rally after participating in a similar effort earlier this month in her hometown of Skokie, where that Village Board was also urged to adopt an anti-ICE ordinance. She is among the candidates running to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in the 7th Congressional District.
“When you take seemingly small actions like giving out ICE whistles, sharing (Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights) hotline resources and telling your local authorities to do more, it matters. It does make a difference,” she said during the Morton Grove rally.
Representatives from Indivisible Skokie-Morton Grove-Lincolnwood said the activist organization coordinated the demonstration. After the showing before the start of the meeting, rally participants moved inside Village Hall for the board meeting where some spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Amiwala told Pioneer Press she would not address the Morton Grove board – as she had done in Skokie – because she is not a resident.
During the rally, the crowd also sang, and there were some impromptu speeches, including Amawali’s. One person called out “silence is violence,” and another person added, “the mayor is complicit,” referring to Morton Grove mayor Janine Witko.
Municipalities across Chicagoland, including in Evanston, Oak Park and Aurora, have adopted ICE-free resolutions. And in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an ICE-free zone executive order in October.
However, Witko said her town adopting anything like that would be a pointless gesture.
“What is being asked of us tonight … would not change the reality of the situation,” Witko said during the board meeting. “The village does not have authority, as you know, over the federal agents or their operations. … Placing signs and making proclamations would be purely symbolic.”
Morton Grove and neighboring Lincolnwood are among the villages to publicly post that the towns would follow state law when it comes to municipal police and other employees getting involved with federal immigration enforcement. The Illinois TRUST Act prohibits local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement activities, the posts explain.
Witko repeated that Wednesday night, adding that village staff do not ask anyone their legal status in order to provide village services. Witko said that as far as she knows, immigration agents have not used village property for anything.
There were, however, reports of people detained in and near Morton Grove the week of Halloween. Officials told Pioneer Press that local police were not given advanced notice of the agents’ presence in town, and Morton Grove police did not assist.
Witko said defiance against the immigration enforcement agents could only invite more attention. The mayor said Evanston, which now has an ICE-free resolution in place, has not seen a decrease in federal attention.
But, members of the public addressing the Morton Grove board Wednesday night argued that even if only symbolic, taking a stance matters. People need something, they opined.
“As if symbolism is something pejorative. It’s not. There’s a flag right there, that’s a symbol. And that’s something that carries a lot of meaning. I hope it carries meaning to everyone in this room,” said civil rights attorney Marci Sahinoglu.
Sahinoglu lives in Skokie, and told that a neighbor of hers was arrested at Menards hardware store in Morton Grove. She said she drove the man’s wife to the parking lot to pick up his truck because the man was taken to El Paso, Texas.
“Symbolism matters,” Sahinoglu said. “What this village does, symbolic or not, matters.”
Another speaker said that if the village does nothing, that, too, is something.
“Your silence is a stance,” said Haley Aichholzer. “It’s a prime example of moral hypocrisy.”
Bob Burkhart also called the issue a moral one. He told the board he is no longer able to garden and maintain his lawn or shovel snow on his sidewalk. He depends on a crew to do the work for him.
The men who did that work for him are believed to have been taken into federal immigration custody, he said.
“We couldn’t believe this happened to our person, our hardworking guys,” Burkhart told village trustees. “You know what their offense was? Being Mexican. That seems to be very high on our nation’s priority these days; hating Mexicans.”
An elderly man, Burkhart said he and his wife aren’t sure what they’re going to do when the snow comes.
“For us having landscape service isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity,” he said. “We’re able to stay in our home. I cannot take care of the lawn. I can’t plant flowers, I can water them. We can’t take care of the snow. What’s the village going to do? What are we going to do?”
Jesse Wright is a freelancer. Pioneer Press staff contributed.
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Jesse Wright, Pioneer Press
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