This story was originally published by the Hyde Park Herald. Reprinted with permission.
Less than a week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Chicago City Council signaled its opposition to the President-elect’s promised mass deportation campaign Wednesday by voting 39-11 against a measure that would have weakened Chicago’s protections for undocumented immigrants.
Spearheaded by Southwest Side Alds. Raymond Lopez (15th) and Silvana Tabares (23rd), who have long been vocal opponents of Chicago’s sanctuary city status, the measure sought to reverse an amendment to the city’s Welcoming City ordinance that completely forbids Chicago police officers from collaborating with federal immigration authorities.
If repealed, it would have allowed for local law enforcement’s cooperation with agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in certain exceptional cases, such as when someone undocumented is arrested or convicted for crimes that are related to gang activity, prostitution, drugs or for sex crimes that involve a child. It did not specify how those categories would be determined.
“This amendment to the Welcoming City Ordinance is not meant to address the breakdown of enforcement by the federal government or the byzantine labyrinth individuals must navigate to enter the United States in accordance with the law,” Lopez and Tabares wrote in a letter to City Clerk Andrea Valencia defending the proposed amendment. “Rather, it will protect lawabiding (sic) undocumented residents by changing how the City of Chicago engages with our federal partners when non-citizens choose to disregard the law in four distinct and specific categories after they arrive in our city, ensuring that federal authorities will not have to scour communities for individuals that choose to commit dangerous crimes.”
Thirteen additional alders signed on to that letter as co-sponsors to the proposed amendment last week, including local Ald. Lamont Robinson (4th). In an interview with the Herald, Robinson said that was a mistake and that his name was removed ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Noting that his ward hosted two migrant shelters over the last two years, Robinson said the 4th Ward office has “done everything in our power to assist these folks with trying to get work visas, food, clothing, and we will continue to be helpful to our new neighbors.”
Robinson was one of the thirty-nine alders who voted to table the measure. Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th) also voted against the measure coming up for a floor vote.
“We’re a sanctuary city,” Robinson said regarding his opposition to the amendment. “We have to be very clear that we’re not going to share information with ICE.”
In December, Tom Homan, former acting director of ICE and Trump’s hand-picked “border czar,” told a room filled with local law enforcement that the Trump Administration’s deportation effort would “start right here in Chicago.”
But immigration policy experts say that effort is unlikely to gain much traction without extensive assistance from local, county and state authorities. ICE employs 20,000 people nationally, while state and local law enforcement agencies have more than 1.2 million employees. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office combined have nearly as many personnel as ICE, with more than 18,700 employees.
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Mayor Brandon Johnson came out publicly against the amendment, saying it could jeopardize the city’s compliance with the Illinois TRUST Act, which state legislators passed in 2017 to encourage greater trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.
That law proscribes state and local law enforcement officers from participating in federal immigration enforcement, such as holding someone in custody longer than their scheduled release solely because of a request from ICE, which are formally known as immigration detainers.
New York City and Los Angeles have settled lawsuits in recent years totaling more than $100 million to thousands of former immigrant detainees for complying with ICE detainers to hold them past the date judges set for their release.
In an interview with the Herald, Yancy cited an internal CPD memo circulated to City Council members by the mayor’s office before the vote as the principal reason for his opposition. According to Yancy, the department wrote that the amendment, as written, “is in violation of the TRUST Act,” was too ambiguous to be enforceable and could create significant legal liabilities for the city.
“I can’t support an ordinance that deprives anyone of due process,” he said.
Taylor could not be reached for comment regarding her vote.
Yancy also told the Herald that allowing collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE could have a chilling effect on immigrants’ willingness to report crimes, undermining public safety.
The Welcoming City ordinance “allows, for example, for people in abusive relationships, or people who are victims of robbery, other sorts of violent crimes, to actually bring those crimes to the police and be able to work towards some sort of justice,” Yancy said. “Where without that, you will see the opposite. These crimes will go underreported and that could be really detrimental to members of those communities.”
Yancy, whose ward includes a substantial Haitian immigrant community, said that many of his constituents are concerned about the possibility of the mass deportation effort under the second Trump presidency. About 40,000 Haitians live in the Windy City, according to data from the General Consulate of Haiti in Chicago, many of whom arrived in recent years seeking asylum.
Some currently have legal status to live and work in the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is a protection for citizens of countries that are in crisis and are thus deemed unsafe to return to. Haiti has been racked by gang violence in recent years, leading to severe political instability and widespread food and energy shortages.
But the TPS designation for Haitians expires in February 2026, and the Trump Administration seems unlikely to extend it, having vowed to end the use of the program on the campaign trail. Losing that status would render those immigrants unlawful residents of the United States and make them potential targets for deportations.
The city’s substantial communities of Venezuelan, El Salvadoran and Ukrainian asylum seekers may face similar deportation threats under Trump, as their TPS designations are set to expire in the latter half of 2026, despite recent 18-month extensions by the Biden Administration.
According to Yancy, “there’s a general fear that what is coming with the Trump Administration could be devastating to not just the Haitian community” but to immigrant communities across the city.
Max Blaisdell is a fellow with the Invisible Institute and a staff writer for the Hyde Park Herald.