“We were out en masse, like different organizations were out.”
ICE raids at the moment are targeting illegal aliens with a history of criminal behavior. Those arrested in Chicago include illegal alien pedophiles. This makes this campaign to sabotage ICE raids a case of aiding and abetting criminals.
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities in dark SUVs arrived on the streets that day, another operation began. The community launched its own counteraction: an urgent system of text chains, social-media groups and calls between local leaders.
The response was nearly instantaneous. “Videos are coming in, text messages, people are hitting the street following them throughout the neighborhood until they left,” said Alderman Michael Rodriguez.
On a recent day, the first sign came just after 3 p.m., when Alderman Rodriguez’s phone lighted up.
A sprawling network of community activists began pouring into social-media groups and text chains to track federal immigration officials. The first sightings placed the dark SUVs on the eastern edge of the neighborhood, he said. Then a few minutes later, the same group was spotted on the western edge.
“We were out en masse, like different organizations were out. Some were on foot, some were driving around,” said Jennifer Aguilar, executive director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce.
Immigrant-rights groups began preparing for stepped-up enforcement right after the November election, said Brandon Lee, communications director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or ICIRR. By Thanksgiving, his group made an initial presentation on how to conduct know-your-rights training to its 100 member organizations. It also made plans to turn its immigration hotline into a kind of dispatch center for reports of ICE raids.
A typical strategy is now used among organizers: An individual citizen sees suspicious activity and calls the ICIRR hotline. Then ICIRR dispatches various groups around the city to try to confirm the sighting, take photos and video and offer support to anyone arrested.
The WSJ documents elected officials and members of so-called civic groups being involved in sabotaging federal law enforcement activities.
Little Village Chamber of Commerce appears to be a 501(c)(6) while the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a 501(c)(3) or a straight-up nonprofit.
Both are under the jurisdiction of the IRS and the federal government. The feds have all sorts of options here if they choose to take them.
Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield
