Signs during a post-election news conference held by members of local immigrant rights groups on Nov. 6, 2024, in light of Donald Trump’s presidential election win. (WTTW News)
Local immigrant rights advocates said they will defend against attacks and fight for the rights of immigrant communities, during a Wednesday morning news conference in light of Donald Trump’s election.
“Our message to the community, to folks in this room is you are not alone,” said Lawrence Benito, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “We’ve been through this before and we will get through it again.”
The coalition announced it is launching a plan that includes “Know Your Rights” trainings for community members and advocating to further restrict data sharing with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Dulce Ortiz, executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource Center.
“We will work to defend and expand the rights of immigrants at the state and local levels even when the federal government attempts to take those rights away including DACA, health care expansion and more,” Ortiz said.
Advocates were joined by elected officials who reacted to Trump being elected for a second presidential term and reiterated their commitment to protecting immigrant communities.
“It’s hard to wake up in what feels like a validation of a vision of America that's antithetical to everything that we fight for here in Illinois,” state Rep. Kevin Olickal (D-Chicago) said.
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a sweeping overhaul of U.S. immigration policy that includes mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Benito condemned mass deportations, and said the coalition will fight to strengthen the state’s firewall between immigration enforcement and community members. In 2017, Illinois enacted the TRUST Act, limiting state and local law enforcement’s participation in federal immigration enforcement.
Illinois state Sen. Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago) said she had a sleepless night and that Tuesday brought back memories of the 2016 presidential election.
“For every person that voted for that man, that voted for hatred and white supremacy, that decided to put prices of groceries and gas over the lives of people, I’m gonna tell everybody in this room and everybody listening that in 2016, we thought that we were all going to be gone and we’re still here,” Villanueva said.
This election season, the coalition and its partners contacted over 209,000 people to encourage them to vote, according to Fasika Alem, co-chair of the group's action council.
“We mobilize immigrant voters to make their voice heard every single election cycle ... that’s true regardless of who is in power,” said Maggie Lugo, executive director of Casa Michoacán Federación De Clubes Michoacános En Illinois.
Many people in immigrant communities feel anxiety and fear following Trump’s win, according to Lugo, adding the current Biden administration did not make the progress towards relief they had hoped for.
For the next several months, community organizations will be preparing for the challenges ahead with another Trump presidency, according to Ortiz.
“Many of us and our community members made it through the first Trump administration,” Ortiz said. “We know what he’s capable of.”
Contact Eunice Alpasan: @eunicealpasan | 773-509-5362 | [email protected]
