The first thing I noticed when I returned to Chicago was that helicopters were gone! No more dreadful sounds day and night. Gone!
I might speculate that the government shutdown limited funds for helicopter raids, but I prefer to think that ICE simply does not have the time for that, as it is trying to defend itself in multiple lawsuits.
OMG, how much I love the people of my city! I worried when I observed the initial silence as a response to the Trump administration’s actions. It seemed like everyone was paralyzed by fear. I am so happy to see that everyone remembered that there is power in numbers, and 200,000 people can’t be put into custody. And I love that our governor is keeping his promise to fight Trump in court.
Just a couple of today’s examples: an ICE agent charged with drunk driving. I copied the whole article from Tribune, and note this part:
The Trump administration repeatedly has referred to drunken driving as a justifiable reason for non-citizens to be detained and deported
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is facing drunken driving charges after police said his car jumped a curb and crashed into a hedgerow in the west suburbs.
Guillermo Diaz-Torres, 33, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, will be arraigned next month in DuPage County following a one-car crash in Oak Brook on Oct. 26. Police allege he failed several field-sobriety tests, including balancing, walking in a straight line and reciting the alphabet.
If convicted, Diaz-Torres could face penalties ranging from probation to up to a year in jail. Throughout its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration repeatedly has referred to drunken driving as a justifiable reason for non-citizens to be detained and deported.
Operation Midway Blitz — the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation effort in the Chicago area — was launched in honor of a young suburban woman who was killed by a man accused of driving drunk while being in the country without the legal paperwork.
According to police video obtained by the Tribune, Diaz-Torres told officers he had just finished working an 18-hour shift at the ICE holding facility in Broadview and was heading straight to his hotel in Lombard. Though it was nearly 2 a.m., and Broadview is less than 10 miles away, Diaz-Torres couldn’t account for his whereabouts during the roughly 90-minute period after his shift ended and said he didn’t know which direction he had traveled after work.
“I have no idea, sir,” he tells police on the video. “I’m not from here.”
One more:
A federal judge in Chicago today issued a sweeping injunction that puts more permanent restrictions on the use of force by immigration agents during “Operation Midway Blitz,” saying top government officials lied in their testimony about threats that protesters posed and that their unlawful behavior on the streets “shows no signs of stopping.”
“I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said in an oral ruling from the bench, describing a litany of incidents over the past month and a half where citizens were tear-gassed “indiscriminately,” beaten and tackled by agents and struck in the face with pepper spray balls.
Also:
The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Public Media petitioned U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to release the recordings, which were filed under seal as part of a lawsuit led by the Chicago Headline Club, a nonprofit journalism advocacy organization, and a consortium of other media groups. The journalism organizations allege federal immigration enforcement officials have systematically violated the constitutional rights of protesters and reporters during Trump’s mass deportation mission, which began in early September and shows no sign of slowing down.
I watched some of them! Thinking about whether to save them here for historical records! Let’s do just one for now:
We will continue to resist!
Hettie's Reflections 