06/06/2025

On Wednesday, June 4, community organizations from around the city, including Organized Communities Against Deportation and 25th Ward IPO, sounded the alarm about a potential ICE raid at the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) office located at 2245 S. Michigan Ave.

In response to this, organizers, politicians, and individuals from across the city gathered to defend our community members from being kidnapped by ICE, including members from our organization and our Alderperson Rossana Rodríguez Sánchez, as well as other progressive electeds like Alders Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Jessie Fuentes, Anthony Quezada, and Cook County Commissioner Jessica Vásquez.

While the community attempted to defend their siblings, the unprecedented brutality and violence deployed by ICE allowed them to kidnap 10 immigrants.

Below is a clip of Alderperson Rodríguez Sánchez's speech at the press conference held immediately after the ICE raid. This portion of the press conference was in Spanish, so the text has been transcribed and translated for Spanish and English speakers.

Spanish:

Hola, buenas tardes. Yo voy hablar en español y voy a tratar de resumir un poco lo que mis colegas dijeron y añadir un poco lo que yo presencie hoy, aquí. Nosotros recibimos una llamada mas temprano, para venir a apoyar los esfuerzos para proteger a la gente que estaban detenidas aquí dentro. Lo que vimos fue una brutalidad, absoluta. Yo no estaba preparada para el grado de brutalidad que experimentamos.

Yo llegue aquí con el concejal Quezada y luego trambien la consejal de la 26, Jessie Fuentes, y nuestra commisionada del distrito 8, Jessica Vazquez. Byron Sigcho-Lopez estaba aquí tambien.

Estuvimos turnándonos, yendo de un lado a otro tratando de asegurarnos de que protegíamos a la gente y que hacíamos el trabajo lo mas difícil posible de remover a la gente. Algunos reporteros me preguntaron que porque estábamos exponiéndonos al arresto, porque estabamos tratando de impedir el paso de las camionetas del ICE. Yo creo que en este momento tenemos que tomar esos riesgos. Especialmente la gente que tiene ciudadania, la gente que tiene puestos que les permiten hacer esto, tenemos que utilizar nuestro poder en este momento. Y si lo que hay que hacer es exponerse al arresto, pues entonces eso es lo que hay que hacer. Estoy diciendo esto particularmente para nuestros oficiales electos, pero tenemos que pensar en nuestras comunidades, como nos vamos a seguir organizando para proteger a la gente. Nosotros hemos estado haciendo ese trabajo, pero hay mucho más trabajo que hacer.

Hoy, por ejemplo, nos dimos cuenta que necesitamos mas gente aquí. Cuando llegaron los oficiales de ICE, fue un momento bien traumático. Estaban todos cubiertos, las caras cubiertas completamente, marchando. Era fascismo puro lo que experimentamos aquí.

Nos rompió el corazón completamente ver a la gente que se estaban llevando, a las familias que se estaban destrozando, a la gente llorando, hombres llorando. Nos va a tomar un poquito para recuperarnos de este momento de ver cómo se destruyen comunidades con tanta impunidad. Porque ellos sabían que podían hacerlo.

Ellos sacaron armas largas en frente de nosotros. ¡Tenian armas! ¡Nadie aquí [nuestros] estaba armado! Estabamos simplemente poniendo nuestros cuerpos en la línea para proteger a nuestros hermanos y hermanas inmigrantes.

Creo que ahora mismo tenemos que reflexionar sobre como mismo nos vamos a seguir organizando. Pero yo quiero invitar a todo el mundo en Chicago a reflexionar que este es un momento de solidaridad, que tenemos que unirnos, que sabemos que tenemos una amenaza gigante viniendo de la administracion federal de Trump.

Lo que yo vi hoy me dejo fría. La capacidad que tenían esas personas que estaban enmascaradas de hacer daño. No les importaba absolutamente nada. Como ver gente sin alma, caminando. Cuerpos caminando programados. Y yo creo que en este momento el amor de nuestra comunidad, la solidaridad que nos podemos entregar unos a otros es lo mas importante que podemos hacer.

También quiero decir que GEO Group es la agencia privada que esta manejando esto para ICE, y queremos decirles a toda la gente que tienen edificios en la ciudad de Chicago: no le alquilen espacios a gente que vienen a separar nuestras comunidades. Es bien importante que podamos hacer esto, hasta falta una campaña grande para prevenir que esta gente (ICE) puedan tener un espacio desde donde separar las familias de nuestras comunidades. Asi que vamos a seguir luchando.

English:

Hello, good afternoon. I'm going to speak in Spanish and try to summarize a bit what my colleagues said and add a bit of what I witnessed here today. We received a call earlier to come support the efforts to protect the people who were detained here. What we saw was absolute brutality. I wasn't prepared for the level of brutality we experienced.

I arrived here with Alderperson Quezada, and then with Alderperson Jessie Fuentes from the 26th District, and our District 8 Commissioner, Jessica Vazquez. Byron Sigcho-Lopez was here as well.

We were taking turns, going back and forth trying to make sure we were protecting people and making the job of removing them as difficult as possible. Some reporters asked me why we were exposing ourselves to arrest, why we were trying to prevent the ICE vans from passing. I think at this point, we have to take those risks. Especially people who are citizens, people who hold positions that allow them to do this, we have to use our power at this point. And if what we have to do is expose ourselves to arrest, then that's what we have to do. I'm saying this specifically to our elected officials, but we have to think about our communities, how we're going to continue organizing to protect people. We've been doing that work, but there's much more work to do.

Today, for example, we realized we need more people here. When the ICE officers arrived, it was a very traumatic moment. They were all covered, their faces completely covered, marching. It was pure fascism what we experienced here.

It completely broke our hearts to see the people being taken away, the families being torn apart, the people crying, the men crying. It's going to take us a little while to recover from this moment of seeing communities destroyed with such impunity. Because they knew they could do it.

They pulled out long guns in front of us. They had guns! No one here [of us] was armed! We were simply putting our bodies on the line to protect our immigrant brothers and sisters.

I think right now we need to reflect on how we're going to continue organizing. But I want to invite everyone in Chicago to reflect on the fact that this is a moment of solidarity, that we have to unite, that we know we face a huge threat coming from the Trump administration.

What I saw today left me cold. The capacity those masked people had to cause harm. They didn't care about anything at all. Like seeing soulless people walking around. Programmed bodies walking around. And I believe that in this moment, the love of our community, the solidarity we can offer each other, is the most important thing we can do.

I also want to say that GEO Group is the private agency handling this for ICE, and we want to tell everyone who owns buildings in the city of Chicago: don't rent space to people who are trying to separate our communities. It's very important that we do this; we still need a major campaign to prevent these people (ICE) from having a space from which to separate families from our communities. So we'll keep fighting.

For more background on this traumatic turning point, please see the interview with Alders Rodríguez Sánchez, Sigcho-Lopez, and Quezada on WBEZ's Reset with Sasha-Ann Simmons.

This is a developing situation, and the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights is calling for a hearing to investigate the Chicago Police Department's involvement, currently scheduled for June 24 at 10am.

Chicago is a sanctuary city, and we are committed to being a part of a political ecosystem that will continue to stand up and fight alongside our immigrant siblings!