We are living in unprecedented times. There is no way to sugar coat the nightmare that Chicagoans, especially immigrant households, are experiencing right now. Our beloved Uptown community, long known for its history of welcoming immigrants from countries all over the world, is bracing for an assault on its neighbors. At the same time, Uptown has been a welcoming space for unhoused neighbors and Uptown People’s Law Center has long stood in solidarity and offered support to them.
The onslaught of ICE via “Operation Midway Blitz” in the Chicago area has terrorized vulnerable communities. Last week, ICE landed a helicopter on the roof of a rental apartment building in the middle of the night, forcibly entered apartments, zip tied residents, even children, and arrested 37 people. Later that day, federal ICE agents raided a Bronzeville homeless shelter and detained four people. People who are housed or unhoused are no longer safe in our beloved, resilient City of Chicago.
We are now facing down the threatened deployment of the National Guard to Illinois, a clear act of violence and escalation that will further upend the rule of law, terrorize immigrant families, and could be used to sweep and displace our unhoused neighbors who live along the lakefront near our offices.
We do not need or welcome this violence. We keep ourselves safe. We must retain a vision for a beloved community - a vision for society focused on love, justice, and equity that are antidotes to the poverty, racism, and militarism we are seeing right now.
The Uptown People’s Law Center stands in solidarity to all of those who have been harmed or at risk of being harmed in the coming days, weeks, and months ahead.
