Chicago City Wire

Chicago alone could keep incoming Trump administration border Czar Tom Homan busy rounding up illegal immigrants with criminal histories. 

America First Legal (AFL) recently reported that documents the group obtained from the Illinois Cook County Sheriff’s Office show the increasing threat of criminal illegals, particularly from members of the vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

In a recent statement, AFL noted that Sheriff’s records show:

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson | Twitter / Brandon Johnson

• Chicago law enforcement learned over a year ago that TdA was engaging in human trafficking, sex exploitation, drug trafficking, and retail theft rings, and employing extreme brutality — including dismemberment — to intimidate their adversaries.
• In October 2023, Chicago Police identified graffiti matching a TdA slogan in the Magnificent Mile district, signaling the gang’s involvement in retail theft and boldness in claiming territory near tourist destinations.
• On July 29, 2024, the Chicago Police Department warned its own police officers that TdA gang members had a “green light” to shoot police officers in the sanctuary city of Denver, Colorado.

In spite of growing concerns over TdA gang activity, Illinois and Chicago could make Homan’s job harder than it has to be.

Sanctuary laws in Illinois and Chicago prohibit local law enforcement from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to deport those here illegally. 

And both Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have promised to honor the laws and protect criminals from the Trump administration’s plans to deport them.

Their statements are not sitting well with residents. In a recent city council meeting Johnson, who has a 14 percent approval rating, was blasted during the public comment period. Council had earlier rejected Johnson’s proposal to increase property taxes by $300 million.

"Typically, I'm here, and I'm fussing. I want to say thank you to the city council,” said P-Rae Easley, host of the “Black Excellence Hour” podcast. “Our mayor is embarrassing us around the world, and you all took the power back from him to say the city of Chicago is out of the business of funding illegals.”

Easley later appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss her criticism of Johnson.

“…we’re not going to work to pay for illegals,” Easley said. “They chose to come to Chicago illegally. We don’t allow people to feast off their criminality.”

For an earlier story, Don Rosenberg, president of Advocates for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime, said there is little that Pritzker and Johnson can do legally to stop Homan from doing his job, but they can slow the process down.

“Sanctuary states don’t participate in [ICE program] 287 (g) where local and state governments allow agents to be stationed in their prisons to pick up illegals convicted of a crime as soon as they serve out their sentences,” Rosenberg said. “Without that cooperation agents have to spend a lot more time and money to find them and deport them.”

Rosenberg, who lost his son, Drew, to an illegal driving without a valid license, would like to see all illegals deported but acknowledges it would take a massive effort – made easier if all state and local governments would cooperate.