Politics
Mayor Johnson Backs ‘Abolish ICE’ to Win Annual Snowplow Naming Contest
(WTTW News)
Mayor Brandon Johnson gave his “full and complete endorsement” on Monday to a push to name one of Chicago’s snowplows “Abolish ICE,” clearly linking the humorous pun to efforts to oppose President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.
Speaking on cable news network MS NOW to the Rev. Al Sharpton, Johnson said Trump had used federal immigration agents to “inflict terror and a great deal of harm” on Chicagoans and vowed to use the annual contest as part of his efforts to oppose the president’s efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
“This truck being named ‘Abolish ICE’ has my full and complete endorsement,” Johnson said, making his pick in the fourth annual contest.
“Abolish ICE” has become a rallying cry for those who want to see U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, dismantled.
The rallying cry rose to prominence during the first Trump administration, when federal officials separated parents from their children after they crossed the border without permission, sparking an uproar.
While most of the agents that conducted the aggressive raids that swept Chicago in recent months belonged to the Border Patrol, the slogan has become a catch-all phrase for opposing the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Chicagoans can submit their pick for snowplow names to ChicagoShovels.org until Jan. 10, or until 20,000 submissions of fewer than 50 letters have been recorded, officials said.
It will be up to the staff of the Department of Streets & Sanitation to select 25 finalists that Chicagoans can vote on between Feb. 1 and Feb. 14, with the top six vote-getters winning the honor of renaming one snowplow in each of Chicago’s six snow districts.
Previous winners include “Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow,” “Casimir Plowaski” and “Snower Wacker.”
Those who submit the winning names can pose for a picture with their snow plow, all the better to claim bragging rights.
Representatives of Johnson and Streets & San did not respond to questions from WTTW News about how many submissions had already been recorded as of Monday.
In addition, it is not clear how Streets & San staff members selected the finalists in previous years, or why “Abolish ICE” was not selected as a finalist in 2023 or 2024, the first snowplow naming contests run by Johnson’s administration. It is also unclear whether new rules now allow names with political implications to advance to the public vote.
The poster who sparked the push that now has the mayor’s endorsement, @BebopOtt, who identified himself to WTTW News as a “devout Chicagoan and Democratic Socialist content creator/gadfly” said it was not the first time he had submitted the name to the contest.
But “this is the year,” they posted, drawing the attention of Johnson’s official social media accounts, who shared the post with an emoji of staring eyes — internet shorthand for an endorsement.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
