Politics
Johnson Brushes Off Threat of Arrest for Failing to Help Trump’s Mass Deportation Effort

In an interview with WTTW News, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday brushed off threats from federal officials to jail him for defending the Chicago law that will block police officers from carrying out the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants ordered by President Donald Trump.
Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, set to be the second highest ranking law enforcement official in the U.S. Department of Justice, directed federal prosecutors across the nation on Wednesday to investigate and charge local officials who refuse to carry out the administration’s mass deportation agenda.
“We are not going to be intimidated by those acts of terror to radically shift our way of living,” Johnson said. “That’s what individuals who stoke fear into people want to see happen.”
Johnson said he was far more concerned about Trump’s efforts to target working people.
“We are going to hold to our values,” said Johnson, who has not held a full news conference since Trump took office.
Federal officials on Tuesday lifted restrictions on two key federal immigration agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — that prevented agents from carrying out deportation efforts at sensitive locations, including churches, schools, hospitals, shelters and community centers.
“I find it, quite frankly, unconscionable and reprehensible that you have an administration that is dead-set on causing fear and anxiety,” Johnson said. “What we are not going to tolerate and accept is the bulldozing of the federal government, separating families and ripping people apart.”
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul called it troubling that Trump administration officials were threatening “to weaponize the U.S. Department of Justice’s prosecutorial authority and resources to attack public servants acting in compliance with their state laws, interfering with their ability to build trust with the communities they serve and protect.”
In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal officials may not “impress into its service — and at no cost to itself — the police officers of the 50 States,” Raoul said in a joint statement with 10 other attorneys general.
“This balance of power between the federal government and state governments is a touchstone of our American system of federalism,” Raoul said.
Johnson has repeatedly said he will not allow Chicago police officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deport undocumented Chicagoans and called for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Johnson and his allies successfully defeated an effort to weaken the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance just before Trump was set to take office and issued new guidance to officials on what to do if federal agents attempt to conduct deportation operations at schools, parks and community centers.
“We’re not going to just bow down and succumb to their view of the world,” Johnson said.
Threats issued by Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” in Chicago failed to materialize. Instead, the first reported raids by immigration agents under Trump appear to have taken place in Newark, New Jersey, and Boston.
However, an average of 400 undocumented immigrants were detained under former President Joe Biden per day, and it does not appear that Trump has significantly increased deportation efforts during his first days in office.
Johnson said he had not seen evidence that a significant number of Chicago Public Schools students stayed home out of fear of deportation raids, but acknowledged that the usually bustling business district along 26th Street was quieter than normal. That could deal a significant blow to the city’s already cash-strapped budget.
“The economic impact of the kind of fear and terror, quite frankly that this administration has put forward, is one that we are very much conscientious of,” Johnson said. “These threats can impact the way of life that we have enjoyed in Chicago.”
Johnson said he is working to reassure Chicagoans that the city will protect them, even though it is not clear what power city and state officials will have to resist or thwart federal authorities.
“We will get through this together,” Johnson said. “We will. We’ll get through this.”
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]