Yesterday, I was going to make dinner at the ODS, but then it turned out that the current volunteer coordinator had put in their notice, and forgot or didn’t have time to purchase supplies for making dinner. I went to the shelter anyway, picked up some sweets from Vanille, and spent two hours in conversations with staff and residents. There were too many private moments in these conversations, so I am not sharing them except for one thing: I was thinking about taking a break from volunteering for the Night Ministry, but I am not going to do it.
Even though I am not there often enough, I still can do something good. And a little bit is better than nothing.
Yesterday was a very emotional and a very long day, and the whole week seems to be long and emotional. The fear of the National Guard’s appearance dominates the environment and touches my life in many different ways. Between escorting, which I did twice this week, ODS volunteering, and conference attendees coming from abroad, and all the conversations I have with people, it’s almost too much.
However, I have a hope (maybe too soon) that Chicago’s readiness to fight back stopped the worst that could happen. We’ll have to see, but I really hope…
All this week, I worried about my friend from Kenya, who was going to travel to Chicago to participate in next week’s conference. I worried that she would land in Chicago in the midst of raids and social unrest.
A couple of hours ago, I received a mass e-mail from the conference organizers, which I am just going to copy/paste here.
We’re excited to see you in Chicago! We know that travel in the United States may not feel as safe and easy as it has in past years.
To help provide some peace of mind, we’ve built a Travel Safety Check system. You can enter your contact and arrival info as well as an emergency contact. DEFNA board members will reach out to you via Whatsapp or Signal soon after your scheduled arrival to make sure you made it safely. If we’re unable to reach you, we’ll notify your emergency contact.
We know travel can be stressful whether you are traveling within the country or flying in from abroad. If you’re traveling alone, it can feel especially overwhelming, and we want you to know you don’t have to navigate it entirely on your own.
If that sounds like something that would give you some peace of mind, please register today. Only DEFNA board members have access to the system, and we’ll delete the data 30 days after the conference.
What’s going on in Chicago?
There has been a lot of posturing and public comment over the past week or so about the US federal government sending National Guard troops or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Chicago. At this point it looks like movements are being made to follow through on this, but we do not know exactly what to expect on the ground–or when.
Here’s what we know: – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increased its activity in the Chicago area. These agents tend to wear masks over their faces, baseball caps, and minimal uniforms that say “police.” If you see people fitting this description, avoid them. They are likely looking for someone particular rather than wanting to investigate the general population in the area. We do not expect them to be active in the downtown area where the conference is located. –
The National Guard is making logistical movements that make it look like they are planning to send troops to Chicago in the near future. These are military troops wearing a proper uniform. From what we’ve seen in other cities where they have been deployed, their job is going to be to stand around and not bother anyone. They may well do this in the downtown area near the conference. –
The Chicago Police Department is completely separate from both these groups and has an official policy of not cooperating with ICE or the National Guard. Chicago Police officers will have patches on their uniforms that say “Chicago Police” and tend to wear a blue shirt with dark pants. They want all our attendees to have a great time in their city and are people you can approach for help should you need it.
In the United States, you are allowed to record the police and military in public. If you or someone you’re with has an encounter with agents, take a video recording and please report the incident to the Code of Conduct team.
We do not expect any of these developments to directly impact you while you’re in Chicago for DjangoCon US, but we do want to be prepared. Please attend opening remarks each day during the conference as we will provide any updates to these situations at that time. We may also send emails to attendees if there are important developments to be aware of.
The Sun Times article – see below. Proud for the State of Illinois 🙂
Yesterday, Gov. JB Pritzker signed the “Safe Schools for All Act” into law, which advocates say will help protect families. The law prohibits public schools from denying access to a free education based on immigration status. It also requires schools to have procedures for law enforcement requests to enter a building.
Immigrants, advocates and elected officials gather in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side to celebrate the signing of the Safe Schools for All law protecting the right of undocumented children to attend public schools.
When immigration enforcement operations in Chicago ramped up in January, a woman named Maria saw the chilling effect it had on the Belmont Cragin community firsthand.
As a parent-mentor at Lloyd Elementary in the Northwest Side neighborhood, she said some students expressed fears that they or their family members would be detained and deported by federal agents, perhaps on their way to school. Families considered leaving, she said.
The thought crossed her mind, too. Maria, whose last name isn’t being published to protect her identity, is undocumented, though her three children, including a third grader at Lloyd, are American citizens.
“I had a lot of fear,” she said.
That’s why she joined immigrant rights groups and elected officials Tuesday to celebrate Gov. JB Pritzker signing the “Safe Schools for All Act” into law, which advocates say will help protect families. The law prohibits public schools from denying any student access to a free education based on their immigration status or that of their parents.
“Now many families across the state can feel safer in their children’s public school,” Maria said. “Thanks to this new law we have more peace of mind that ICE is not welcome in our schools.”
The law also prohibits schools from disclosing or threatening to disclose information related to the immigration status of the student or an “associated person.” And it requires schools to develop procedures for reviewing and authorizing requests from law enforcement trying to enter a school.
In January, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era policy that protected certain places, such as schools and churches, from immigration enforcement actions.
The new law comes as students in Chicago Public Schools and suburban districts return to classes for a new school year.
State Rep. Lilian Jimenez, D-Chicago, and State Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, were lead sponsors of the bill. It strengthens at the state level protections that already existed at the federal level but feel tenuous under the current administration, they said. In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe that states cannot deny students a free public education on account of their immigration status.
But that hasn’t stopped some states. Earlier this year, Tennessee tried to pass a bill allowing public schools to refuse enrollment to children without legal immigration status. The effort failed after pushback from advocates and community members.
“All of these students, all of these teachers, all of our parents across the state of Illinois know that they have a safe school today, yesterday, tomorrow and we will stand up to this administration every single time,” Villa said.
Jimenez said her family of immigrants and many others see education as a path to success, which is why it’s important to make school buildings “sanctuaries” for them.
“Children need to be in school — and parents shouldn’t be afraid of going to school — because that’s a place where we can help children succeed so our community can succeed,” Jimenez said, noting Monday was the first day back for Chicago Public Schools.
CPS policy does not allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into school facilities unless they have a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. The district also does not share student records with ICE or any other federal representative without a court order or parental consent.
One of the topics of our conversation with my friend, who visited me on Saturday, was how we both strive to break away from the imperial mindset we had for most of our lives, and how the war in Ukraine has forced both of us to re-examine our beliefs and our “defaults.” She told me about a project she is working on with the Chicago Kyrgyz community, and how she knew virtually nothing about Kyrgyzs before that. She feels a great deal of respect and admiration for this community, and she regrets that she was once clueless, following the “younger brothers” shortcuts of Soviet propaganda. I understand her very well, because I feel the same way, and I am ashamed of the younger me looking down at the “smaller nations.”
One particular story she told me, struck me. When she was teaching a gymnastic class in a Russian-speaking daycare for pre-schoolers, she noticed a girl, sitting by herself and not coming to participate in the gymnastics activities. She encouraged the girl to join, but the teacher, who herself was a Ukrainian refugee, dismissed the move: “What would you expect from aul?” The aul is a word for a small rural village, and the whole sentence was a diminitive reference to the girl being from a “small nation.” My friend was appauled by the fact that a person who just experienced the Russian agression would say this, but she said nothing and still encouraged the girl to participted. Months later, that same teached approached my friend and said: I was thinking about that episode and our conversation, and I am sorry I said that. Now I realize how wrong I was.
I do not think there is much to comment on that, but I shared both my friend’s respect for this person who came a long way to realize that her believes needed some corrections, and also my friend’s deep regret about how deep inside each of us this sense of superiority was rooted.
Not sure whether this article is available for non-subscribers, but leaving a link just in case, and copying the article, because I couldn’t agree more! That’s how it works! And always worked, and will always work!
During his speech at the World Refugee Day rally in Chicago on Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said pretty much “We will do everything to defend our Constitution from President Trump.” Not exactly those words, but very close, which is both ironic and sad.
Hettie's Reflections 