Politics

Mayor Johnson Signs Executive Order Targeting Firms Profiting From Immigration Raids

Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Wednesday designed to prevent firms profiting from President Donald Trump’s effort to implement the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history from winning lucrative city contracts.

“Chicago spends billions of dollars every year purchasing goods and services,” Johnson told reporters at the West Side offices of Arise Chicago, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of immigrants, before riffing on his favorite Bible verse, Matthew 6:21. “That is our treasure, and today we’re making it very clear where our heart is. Our heart is with the immigrant families who have endured the fear and intimidation of the Trump administration’s ‘Midway Blitz’ assault, which launched almost a year ago.”

Read the full executive order.

Contractors must certify that they have not committed a “public integrity violation, antidiscrimination or wage theft violation” during the previous five years, according to the order.

Johnson’s 26th executive order gives the city’s chief procurement officer 90 days to develop new rules requiring city contractors to disclose whether they have earned more than $500,000 from governments or law enforcement agencies in the previous five years, according to the mayor’s office.

Those firms will also have to disclose whether they have been probed for civil rights violations connected to that work in the previous five years, according to the order.

The new rules are designed to give Chicago a legal basis for refusing to do business with firms accused, but not convicted, of wrongdoing, according to the order. City ordinance already prohibits firms convicted of violating public integrity laws from holding city contracts.

In addition, firms must disclose whether they made more than $1 million in donations to a charity controlled by a public official, according to the order.

Firms doing business with the city must also disclose the diversity of their workforce, according to the order, even as federal rules requiring the disclosure of that information are rolled back, according to the order.

Contractors can also disclose the efforts their leaders have taken to recruit formerly incarcerated people as well as other initiatives that “demonstrate their commitment to Chicago’s communities,” according to the order.

Those new rules will be enforced by a new 12-member Ethical Procurement Standards Task Force, according to the order.

Johnson announced the order alongside the leadership of the group Not With Our Money, which is pushing local governments not to contract with the firms that are helping to carry out Trump’s deportation efforts.

The group identified $3.19 billion in Chicago contracts held by firms that also do business with ICE, including AECOM, a multinational firm that built the police and fire training academy and is leading the modernization of O’Hare Airport.

Johnson signed the order amid growing calls for politicians to reject campaign contributions from firms that profit from Trump’s deportation push.

Several progressive members of the Chicago City Council said they would not allow the sale of the city’s parking meters to New York-based Stonepeak because it owns Omni Air International, which had a contract with the Trump administration to carry out deportations.

Johnson, although he is widely expected to seek a second term, has not formally announced whether he will run for reelection.

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

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