01/29/2025
Alarmed by the news that the incoming Trump administration was planning to separate families and break up communities with deportations, Chicago’s progressive politicians and local organizations kicked into high gear to protect our neighbors. 33rd Ward Working Families proudly joined in this mobilization, partnering with our alder Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, groups like Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD), the Albany Park Defense Network (APDN), and our fellow Northwest Side progressive elected officials and ward organizations.
Our first general meeting of the new year on January 18 was bursting with new people interested in plugging into immigrant defense work. OCAD co-founder and Strategic Coordinator Antonio G led us through some updates regarding OCAD’s expectations regarding the raids, shared some high-level ideas for how we could respond, and alerted us to some upcoming training events to learn how to observe and document ICE raids.
At 33WF, our next step was to begin distributing “Know Your Rights” (KYR) literature across our precincts, and Rossana quickly organized a meeting to coordinate flyering at 6:30am. Despite the early hour and punishing weather conditions on January 20, 45 volunteers packed our office before sunrise, ready and willing to be part of the solution during these dark times. We split up into small groups of three or four, distributing flyers to local businesses, grocery stores, and laundromats, and hanging them up on other public bulletin boards. Other volunteers stood outside of train stations to give flyers to passersby.
Our solidarity inspired more solidarity, giving us momentum to continue in the cold. At the Kimball Brown Line stop, a bus driver pulled over to ask what the volunteers were doing. After they explained that they were passing out Know Your Rights flyers, the driver invited them onto the bus to distribute them to the passengers! We know that this work is important because, as covered by Block Club Chicago, even the "border czar" had to admit that Chicagoans are "very well educated" regarding our rights.
A week later, on January 27, 33WF and neighbors from across the Northwest Side participated in a Rapid Response training event led by OCAD. They taught an audience of 200 people how to observe, document, and protect people’s rights during an ICE raid by safely recording events from a distance, providing KYR info to detained individuals, and reporting incidents to the local Rapid Response Network through the Family Support Network (FSN) Hotline (1-855-435-7693).
This may be only the beginning of these raids, but it’s also just the beginning of our community response! We’ve already held three events in the past ten days, and there are certainly more to come. If you’d like to join us in protecting our neighbors, we can always use more help at our flyering and canvassing sessions. Online, you can connect with OCAD (@ocadchicago on Instagram, or email at [email protected]) and APDN ([email protected]) to learn more and help us strengthen our rapid response networks!
Join 33WF for our next KYR canvass on Saturday, Feb 1, at 11am, out of our office at 3248 W Montrose Ave!