Mayor promises ICE raids ‘will be met with fierce resistance from Chicagoans’

Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) on Sunday promised that any Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Chicago would be met with “fierce resistance.”

“Consider the lasting harm that the mere threat of these raids is doing to children all over this country — children who go to bed every night and off to summer camps or playgrounds every morning with the constant worry that ICE agents will take them or their parents away,” Lightfoot wrote in The Washington Post.

“Any such efforts by ICE in our city will be met with fierce resistance from Chicagoans who have been organizing tirelessly in their communities, and with an unshakable resolve to stand with, and never against, our immigrant neighbors,” she continued.

{mosads}Sweeping raids targeting illegal immigrants are expected to take place this week across the U.S.

The operation to deport people in the country illegally fulfills a pledge from President Trump, who earlier this month vowed the raids would commence after delaying them for a few weeks.

Lightfoot on Friday moved to bar ICE from accessing the Chicago’s police databases. 

“These actions cut off ICE access to the Chicago Police Department’s databases and prevent the department from facilitating raids, setting traffic perimeters for ICE checkpoints, or otherwise aiding ICE in arrest or deportation activities,” Lightfoot wrote in the Post.

“Our law department issued new specific protocols advising all personnel working at city-owned facilities, including libraries, Park District buildings, senior centers and schools, not to cooperate with ICE. And we significantly increased funding for the city’s legal defense fund to offset legal costs for undocumented Chicagoans,” she added.