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Aldermen: Stop immigration crackdown

April 27, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Advertisement

Calling federal immigration raids a "scare tactic" designed to intimidate "the new civil rights movement," the City Council on Wednesday demanded a moratorium on sweeps while Congress debates a new immigration policy.

Twenty-six immigrants employed by IFCO Systems in McKinley Park were arrested last week and taken to an INS office in Broadview. The Chicago workers were among 1,100 people arrested nationwide.

They were released on their own recognizance after terrified family members and church leaders came to their rescue.

"I was just thinking about my family -- what my family was going to do. I'm the only one supporting my family. If I don't work, they don't eat," said Ricardo Villasenor, one of the arrested workers.

Aldermen voice anger



To Ald. Danny Solis (25th), the purpose of the sweep was clear.

"These raids are not only illogical. They are strategic in nature to try to intimidate the great outcry seen in this country since March 10, when we began a demonstration here in Chicago that has brought forth millions of people -- undocumented as well as documented, Hispanics as well as other nationalities -- looking for a humanitarian resolution to this issue," Solis said.

Community activist Emma Lozano called the raids an obvious attempt to "intimidate the . . . new civil rights movement" in America.

"It makes absolutely no sense to go after these working people in the name of homeland security when they all know they had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 or any type of terrorist activity in this country," Lozano said.

Mayor Daley questioned the timing of the INS raids. "Why all of the sudden? Where were they six months ago, five years ago?"

The resolution approved at Wednesday's City Council meeting urges the INS to call a halt to the immigration raids while Congress debates what Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) called an "admittedly complicated" immigration issue.

'I see heartbreak every day'



Rules Committee Chairman Richard Mell (33rd) noted that his Northwest Side ward is a melting pot that's home to 124 nationalities speaking 40 languages.

"I see this heartbreak every day. I see folks [who] have children born in America and have the possibility of being deported back to the country where their grandparents" were born, Mell said.

The U.S. Senate is debating legislation that would tighten border security while enabling illegal immigrants to become citizens.

Any bill produced by the Senate would have to be reconciled with a get-tough bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives. That version would turn illegal immigrants into felons and compel private individuals and employers to report them.

Wednesday's vote marks the second time in recent weeks that Chicago aldermen have taken a political stand on an immigration issue that has divided the nation.

Last month, they turned a 1989 executive order on immigration into law. That means that if the great immigration debate now raging in Congress is decided in a way that turns illegal immigrants into criminals, Chicago Police officers and other city employees will not enforce it.

fspielman@suntimes.com