A City Council committee is demanding more information on how and why Chicago police responded last month to calls for assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as they detained people amid protests in the South Loop.
As a Welcoming City, Chicago’s laws severely limit local law enforcement from assisting in federal immigration actions, but CPD officers performed crowd control and some traffic enforcement at the scene.
After an assessment of the situation, safety officials say, police left the scene.
Background:
On June 4, more than 20 people enrolled in an immigration surveillance program for those seeking legal status responded to texts asking them to show up at a South Loop ICE office for a check-in.
But once they arrived, the individuals were separated from their lawyers and taken away by ICE officers who did not identify themselves nor show their faces.
ICE officials say the officers had final orders of removal for all of the detainees, but ICE has failed to produce any evidence to support those claims.
