Two Chicago aldermen, both Democrats, want to change the city’s “Welcoming City Ordinance” to allow police officers to work with the Trump administration to deport immigrants who break the law, reported ABC Chicago.
The decree, passed in 2021, prohibits agents or agencies from participating in civil immigration enforcement operations or assisting the civil enforcement of federal immigration law.
Raymond Lopez and Silvana Tabares, both aldermen, want certain crimes exempt from the ordinance and intend to bring an amendment to the decree up for a vote at Wednesday’s full city council meeting.
The added categories would include “gang related activities,” selling and buying drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, and “sexual crimes involving minors,” according to the ordinance text.
“This will narrow the scope of [Trump’s] net in the city of Chicago … and allow us to coordinate with the federal government to appease the goals of the administration, while more specifically protecting the tens of thousands of individuals who are undocumented in our city, who follow the laws every single day and who we are trying to prevent from becoming collateral damage,” Lopez, with the 15th Ward, told the Block Club.
Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, with the 25th Ward, told ABC Chicago, “If we open the door to collaborate, quote, unquote, with the Trump administration, we're opening the door to mass deportations.”