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Pro-immigrant activists demand court shut down Trump immigration raids in Chicago

COOK COUNTY RECORD

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Pro-immigrant activists demand court shut down Trump immigration raids in Chicago

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Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Chicago | Jonathan Bilyk

A group of Chicago nonprofit organization who claim they serve "immigrants" and advocate for "immigrant rights" have sued the Trump administration, seeking to shut down federal immigration raids in "Sanctuary City" Chicago by invoking the First Amendment, claiming threats made by President Trump and other administration officials to specifically target Chicago amounts to unconstitutional retribution for opposing efforts to arrest and deport illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit was filed in Chicago federal court on Jan. 25.

Plaintiffs included the groups known as Organized Communities Against Deportation; the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council; Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; and the Raise the Floor Alliance.


U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang | Youtube screenshot

The action takes aim at recent immigration enforcement actions launched by the administration of President Donald Trump, as the Trump administration follows through on pledges to ramp up immigration enforcement and deport illegal immigrants, particularly focused in the initial stages on those with criminal records or known to be involved in gangs or other criminal activity.

Since before Trump was inaugurated to his second term, Trump and his immigration enforcement officials, notably including so-called "border czar" Tom Homan, have said the enforcement actions would particularly focus on so-called "sanctuary cities," including Chicago, New York and Boston, among others.

In the past decade, these cities and some states, including Illinois and California, have enacted so-called "sanctuary" or "welcoming" laws, ordinances and policies, explicitly stating that illegal immigrants would be welcomed within their boundaries and state and city officials, including police and correctional officials, would be forbidden from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.

Those policies were driven in large part by pro-immigrant groups, like the Chicago organization plaintiffs, who routinely argue for lax border and immigration enforcement policies in the U.S.

Some officials, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker, have explicitly stated their governments would protect illegal immigrants living in their jurisdictions.

In the lawsuit, however, the immigrant groups say those "sanctuary" policies have now placed Chicago and other "sanctuary" cities squarely within the sights of Trump, Homan and others in the Trump administration.

"President Trump and his cadre of advisors consistently spew vitriol towards the Sanctuary City Movement," the organizations wrote in their complaint. "They have pledged to dismantle Sanctuary Cities and publicly affirmed that immigration raids would target Chicago in order to 'make an example' out of the City and discourage the further spread of the Sanctuary City Movement."

The organizations assert this kind of response from a presidential administration amounts to violation of their First Amendment rights, because it is intended to punish "sanctuary cities" whose governments have formally opposed the deportation policies favored by Trump and his administration.

In the lawsuit, the groups say the court should order Trump to stop immigration enforcement actions in Chicago, specifically,to end the threat to their constitutional rights to advocate against deportations and in favor of "Sanctuary City" policies.

The complaint also lists a long litany of harms allegedly facing communities and immigrant families in Chicago that could result from increased immigration enforcement in the city.

The groups say they have standing to bring the lawsuit because the immigration enforcement actions will force them to spend more time and resources on helping illegal immigrants, rather than their usual day-to-day work in support of what they say are their primary mission, such as advocating for labor rights for immigrant workers or providing family and community services to immigrants in Chicago.

The organizations are represented by attorneys Sheila A. Bedi and Eliana Green, of the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, of Chicago; Sejal Zota, Dinesh McCoy and Daniel Werner, of Just Futures Law, of Washington, D.C.; and Daniel Massoglia, of MK Law LLC, of Melrose Park.

The organizations also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order, asserting the court must take immediate action to halt the immigration enforcement actions in Chicago.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Jan. 29 before U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang.

The Trump administration has yet to respond to the lawsuit in court.

The groups had asked Judge Chang to grant their TRO immediately, without giving the Trump administration the chance to respond.

Chang, however, declined that request.

The judge noted the plaintiff organizations have yet to show they, specifically, are the target of any actions by the Trump administration.

"Instead, the targets of the planned arrests are, if the various news articles attached to the filings are to be believed, those persons who do not have legal immigration status in the United States," Chang wrote. "Whether that disconnect undermines the First Amendment claim is, at the least, deserving of briefing."

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