Today’s violent disruption in the Little Village community and Cicero, IL is yet another example of CBP and ICE’s escalation, as well as a powerful display of neighbors coming together.

JOINT STATEMENT from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, La Villita Se Defiende, and Berwyn Cicero Rapid Response:

Today’s violent, disruptive operation in Chicago’s Little Village community and Town of Cicero is yet another example of ICE and CBP’s brutal escalation against all people in the state of Illinois. Local families and businesses are already struggling because of this ongoing escalation, and this will only hurt our neighborhoods even more. However, today’s escalation also showed the power in local residents coming together and looking out for one another.

Today, Rapid Response Teams in Cicero and Little Village observed:

• CBP and ICE agents driving recklessly through popular business districts, deliberately spreading fear across communities with significant immigrant populations

• CBP and ICE causing multiple car collisions in Cicero and Little Village

• CBP and ICE abducting at least five people in their rampage through Little Village. Those taken include citizens.

• CBP agents blocking in a rapid response team member, backing down only when the team member asserted their rights

• CBP and ICE agents going to various businesses attempting to open doors, including a family community clinic. As a result of this and the full operation, many businesses in the Little Village area are closing early today.

• Blatant racial profiling, using intimidation tactics, and brandishing weapons in an attempt to scare residents out of documenting and asserting their rights

• CBP agents attempting to collect their own footage to create dehumanizing propaganda, as we have seen throughout their operation in Chicago and the suburbs, with Greg Bovino acting as ringleader

• An agent using pepper spray on a community member when their operation dispersed from the Cicero area

Today also showed how communities are looking out for one another: by knowing their rights and coming together, the Little Village and Cicero communities were able to prevent even further damage and deny CBP and ICE the ability to effectively occupy our communities. Businesses in the area had signage posted and refused CBP and ICE agents entry to their stores; neighbors monitored and recorded activity in public spaces; people blew whistles to notify everyone that CBP and ICE were attempting to occupy the neighborhood; and people called the ICIRR Family Support Hotline when they suspected immigration enforcement presence - all of these contribute to collective safety rooted in local organizing by community members themselves.

We encourage all community members to know your rights: you have the right to record law enforcement activity in a public space, the right to remain silent, the right to ask for an attorney, and the right to refuse to sign anything. If you see immigration enforcement activity in your neighborhood or if someone in your family has been taken, please call the ICIRR Family Support Hotline at 855-435-7693. Together we continue to demand ICE out of Chicago, out of Cicero, and out of Illinois.