Several reports indicate that so far under the Trump Administration the rate of deportations is similar in numbers to the Biden Administration, even as the president publicizes immigration arrests and claims he’s “getting them out fast.”
Sara Dady, a Rockford based immigration attorney, said currently, ICE is running out of money for immigration arrests until Congress passes a budget. She said it’s one reason why immigration officials are putting pressure on Illinois.
“They need more people doing their job for them,” Dady said.
Illinois has been a target of the Trump Administration, whose officials, such as “border czar” Tom Homan, say the state is harboring criminals with policies such as the Illinois Trust Act.
President Donald Trump and large sectors of the Republican party have labeled many if not all immigrants as criminals, including those without legal status, Haitians on immigration parole and Venezuelan asylum seekers.
On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, appearing with mayors of other Democratic-led cities, testified in Congress to defend his city’s response to the arrival of migrants who were sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbot from the southern border.
In February, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state citing the Illinois Trust Act as an obstacle to deportation activities.
The law passed in 2017 and was signed by then Republican Governor Bruce Rauner. The Trust Act prohibits local law enforcement from communicating and coordinating immigration enforcement arrests with ICE, immigration enforcement agents without a criminal federal warrant.
“You can come in and do your own job with your own budget,” Dady said, “but you are not going to use our state budget and our local and state police to do your job for you. You are civil law enforcement.”
Trump in a joint address to Congress on Tuesday called for more funding for deportations.
Know Your Rights
Since Trump’s inauguration, immigrant rights groups have ramped up know your rights trainings in response to Trump’s plan for mass deportation.
Dady, who has practiced immigration law for nearly 20 years, has traveled throughout northern Illinois holding such trainings as a volunteer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
She held a training in February at Mendota in a school auditorium. As part of the presentation, Dady leads the audience in a rehearsal of their response if faced with an immigration enforcement officer.
“I wish to exercise my right to remain silent,” they learned to say. “I do not consent to your entry or search.”
About two dozen attended the bilingual event and repeated her prompts and the Spanish translator's.
“There's this idea that the government can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, to whoever it wants,” Dady said, “but it can't. We have a constitution.”
Mendota is about an hour's drive from Rockford, and has a population of about seven thousand people. The Latino community makes up nearly 30 percent of that.
Aurora Medina is President of the Illinois Valley Hispanic Partnership Council. Her organization helped promote this training. She hopes the training helps ease the uncertainty prevalent in Latinos.
“A lot of the fear comes from not knowing their rights and not knowing the right information,” Medina said. “So, we really wanted to just bring that to our community.”
Dady’s presentation described ICE operations in stark terms:
“ICE is not going to let you go because you have a hard life or because your family will suffer without you,” she said. “They do not care. So, you are important to your family -- keep your mouth shut.”
Her presentation dismisses any suggestion that Trump’s mass deportation plan is merely rhetoric or that it will only affect a handful of people She also encourages resilience:
“So, yes, ICE is going to come to town,” said Dady. “Do not lose your minds. We know they're coming, and we know how we're going to react.”
She illustrated an example of 20 people arrested in an ICE workplace raid and the impact it would have on the whole community:
“That is 20 families that are affected and friends,” she said. “It's going to be like a natural disaster response, and that's why we have to be prepared not just as individuals, not just as families, but as a community.”
Among those in attendance was social worker, David Gorenz. He said what struck him most about the presentation was her explanation for the difference between civil law and criminal law.
“Civil law, such as immigration law, is no different than IRS law,” he said, “and we don't have police officers arresting people for traffic violations and then asking them if they paid their taxes correctly or if they claim the right number of dependents.”
Dady added that people detained by ICE are not read Miranda rights because they are civil proceedings. Whereas if they were criminal cases, they would have all the protections afforded in a criminal proceeding, including the right to an attorney.
Immigrant rights groups across the country are holding similar trainings. They're also calling on Congress to dismiss any budget proposals that reduce safety net programs like SNAP or Medicaid to fund deportation efforts.
