Chicago City Council Votes 39-11 to Reject Push to Scale Back Protections for Undocumented Immigrants


The Chicago City Council voted 39-11 Wednesday to reject an effort to weaken Chicago’s protections for undocumented residents as the city’s immigrant communities brace for mass deportations.

After days of increasing alarm among advocates for immigrant rights, the showdown over whether to amend Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance was anticlimactic. The vote took place without the impassioned, fraught debate that has other marked discussions of the city’s self-proclaimed status as a sanctuary city.

In less than a week, President-elect Donald Trump will take office after promising to immediately launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

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The eleven alderpeople who voted to consider the measure that would allow Chicago police officers to work with federal immigration agents in some cases were: Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward), Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward), Ald. Marty Quinn (13th Ward), Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), Ald. David Moore (17th Ward), Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward), Ald. Monique Scott (24th Ward), Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward), Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward) and Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward.)

Lopez and Tabares attempted to use a parliamentary maneuver to force the City Council to vote on a proposal they first introduced in September 2023 that failed to get even a committee hearing, much less a vote.

That measure would have reversed a January 2021 amendment to the Welcoming City ordinance that prohibited Chicago police officers from cooperating with federal immigration agents in all cases.

That ordinance was approved 41-8, just seven days after Trump’s first term ended. Lopez and Tabares both voted against it.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has repeatedly said he will not allow Chicago police officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deport Chicagoans during the Trump administration, vowed to protect undocumented Chicagoans.

“Families can be assured that today’s display of this broad coalition that beat back an ordinance that quite frankly was just stoking the flames of fear,” Johnson said. “And so, we’re already off to a stronger start than where we were, you know, eight years ago.”

Before Wednesday’s lopsided vote, Johnson urged alderpeople to vote against the change, saying it would violate undocumented immigrants’ right to due process because it would allow Chicago police officers to help federal agents deport undocumented immigrants who have only been arrested for a crime, and not convicted.

It could also conflict with state law, which prohibits all Illinois law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration agents, police officials told alderpeople.

Trump’s reelection has already prompted many undocumented immigrants to return to life in the city’s shadows, unwilling to seek help from city officials for health care or protection from the Chicago Police Department for fear of exposing themselves or their families to deportation, immigrant advocates said.

Before the city expanded protections for undocumented immigrants in 2021, officers had been allowed to assist federal immigration agents if they asked for information about individuals listed as gang members in city databases, people who have been charged or convicted of a felony or those who were wanted on a warrant issued by a judge.

The measure authored by Lopez and Tabares would have allowed Chicago police officers to cooperate with federal immigration agents seeking to deport anyone arrested on suspicion of “gang-related activities,” “drug-related activities,” “prostitution-related activities” or “sexual crimes involving minors” or convicted of similar felony offenses.

Those categories of offenses are too broad and poorly defined and could lead to “arbitrary enforcement and legal challenges,” according to the memo from the mayor’s office.

Lopez and Tabares told their colleagues that if they approved the change, Trump would choose not to target Chicago during his promised campaign of mass deportations.

However, even if their measure had been approved by the City Council, it would have scaled back protections for undocumented immigrants to the same level that existed in 2017.

One of Trump’s first acts as president in 2017 was to sign an executive order outlining a plan that was designed to cost Chicago millions of dollars if it did not repeal the Welcoming City ordinance entirely. Instead, the City Council voted to reaffirm the measure without making any changes to it.

Lawyers representing Chicago defended the city’s status as a sanctuary city in court, ultimately winning a total victory that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020.

Read More: WTTW News Explains: How Did Chicago Become a Sanctuary City?

Chicago has been a self-proclaimed sanctuary city for more than 38 years, with five mayors vowing to shield all immigrants in Chicago from federal agents, regardless of whether they are citizens, permanent residents or asylum seekers.

However, efforts to weaken or repeal Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city gained steam amid the crisis posed by the arrival of nearly 52,000 migrants in Chicago starting in 2022, many on buses paid for by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as part of a concerted effort to divide Democratic voters and boost Trump’s campaign.

In December 2023, at the peak of the crisis, the City Council voted 16-31 against even considering an effort to ask voters to weigh in during the March election on whether Chicago should remain a sanctuary city.

Efforts to care for those men, women and children — who are all in the country legally after requesting asylum after fleeing persecution and economic collapse — strained the city’s social safety net, ballooned the city’s budget shortfall and exacerbated tension between Chicago’s Black and Latino communities.

Chicago’s status as a sanctuary city does not require it to encourage immigrants to move to Chicago nor does the Welcoming City ordinance obligate officials to use taxpayer funds to care for immigrants in Chicago. The ordinance focuses on protections for undocumented immigrants, so it does not apply to any of the migrants. 

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]


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