The Chicago City Council overwhelmingly voted against an amendment proposed by a pair of Democrat aldermen that would’ve scaled back the city’s strict sanctuary law.
The city council on Wednesday voted to table a proposed amendment to Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance which forbids cooperation with local officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The amendment, proposed by Democrat aldermen Raymond Lopez and Silvana Tabares, would’ve allowed for some cooperation when illegal migrants have been arrested or convicted of certain crimes.
The official vote tally was 39 yeas to 11 nays to dismiss the proposal, crushing any hope by the moderate Democratic members that Chicago could help deportation officers apprehend and remove criminal illegal migrants.
The debate over the amendment included raucous speeches from citizens on both sides of the issue. Liberal activists who occupied the city council building constantly cheered after opponents of the proposal spoke and shouted down supporters. In one of the earlier speeches, a man who identified himself as “Mr. Chicago Conservative,” was forced to wait until the crowd died down due to his vocal opposition to the city’s sanctuary status.
“Who are you loyal to?” Mr. Chicago Conservative asked. “The American citizens here in Chicago or the illegal immigrants here in Chicago?”
“The sanctuary law that [Mayor] Brandon Johnson allowed criminals, drug dealers, and now terrorists — we have terrorists in our city now,” he continued before the crowd temporarily shouted him down.
However, most speakers during the public comment period were adamantly against any changes to Chicago’s sanctuary law.
“All the black people and latinos in Chicago who are caught up foolishly calling for these deportations, quit sounding like the rabid white racists and wake up and get off that garbage,” said another individual.
Had it passed, the proposal would’ve rolled back an amendment that was made to the Welcoming City Ordinance in January 2021 which eliminated any exceptions to the city’s sanctuary policy. Previously, the Chicago Police Department was allowed to work with ICE agents if migrants had an outstanding criminal warrant, were in the city’s gang database or had been convicted of a felony or carried a pending felony charge.
That 2021 ordinance — a campaign pledge by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot — was passed overwhelmingly by the council’s liberal majority by a vote of 41 to 8, according to NBC Chicago.
When first proposing their amendment earlier in January, Lopez and Tabares argued that allowing for more ICE cooperation would be better for the safety of the city’s immigrant community.
“We believe that the best way to protect law-abiding non-citizens from the returning Trump Administration is by working with them in apprehending their priority targets: non-citizens that CHOOSE to engage in dangerous, illegal activity once they are in the United States,” Lopez argued in a public statement. “Our current [Welcoming City Ordinance] prohibits any coordination or cooperation, even in the most heinous situations.”
“This policy is dangerous to those law-abiding undocumented and non-citizens residents because, if someone is arrested or convicted of crimes, the federal authorities aren’t notified,” the alderman said of the current law. “Should the federal government go looking for those specific individuals seeking to deport them, there is a high probability that other targets, law-abiding undocumented and non-citizen residents, may be apprehended and deported as collateral damage.”
Johnson himself has remained a stalwart defender of Chicago’s sanctuary status, having vowed to fight President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda shortly after he was re-elected to the White House. In addition to the city’s policies, Illinois state law also restricts cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement.
Law enforcement authorities in September confirmed that Tren de Aragua gang members have been arrested in Cook County — where Chicago is located — on weapons and narcotics charges, and internal emails obtained from the Cook County Sheriff’s office confirmed that members of this Venezuelan prison gang are in the city, according to NBC Chicago. The arrival of Tren de Aragua — which has coincided with the city’s own migrant crisis — has been linked to a rise in crime and has led to concerns of an impending turf war between their members and local city gangs, according to Fox 32.
Chicago officials have welcomed in roughly 43,000 migrants since August 2022 and have so far spent around $150 million to house and accommodate them, amid the border crisis that began under the Biden-Harris administration. Many of the asylum seekers are from Venezuela and have largely been bussed into the city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as he has sought to relieve his own state government.
Regardless of how cooperative Chicago law enforcement will be, Trump has pledged to move forward with history-making deportation actions. Incoming border czar Tom Homan previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he will simply deploy more ICE agents to sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate — and he warned that any individuals that obstruct ICE’s mission will be held accountable.
Neither Lopez nor Tabares responded to multiple requests for comment from the DCNF.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
