Aldermen advanced a package Tuesday to grant Police Department oversight officials the power to investigate alleged cooperation between Chicago officers and federal immigration agents.
The effort to address concerns that police may have violated city rules by acting in ways that supported President Donald Trump’s Operation Midway Blitz immigration crackdown moved ahead in a joint committee vote.
If the ordinance passes the full City Council, it will empower the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to conduct investigations into complaints alleging illegal cooperation. If COPA found there was wrongdoing, it could recommend officers face punishment.
“This is not just about misconduct based on the rules and regulations that police officers have to follow,” sponsor Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, said. “I cannot do much as a local elected to change federal policy. In this moment, I’m going to do what I can locally, and that is to fix this administrative gap.”
The vote was just one example of City Hall’s focus on Trump’s immigration efforts amid the chaos sparked by the president’s latest clampdown around Minneapolis.
Aldermen discussed tactics with Minnesota elected officials and human rights experts in a separate hearing. And Mayor Brandon Johnson Tuesday zeroed in on the weekend’s “unjust killing” of nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol officer — and warned Chicago could still see a resurgence of federal immigration agents in the spring.
“I’m obviously very much still concerned about the private, masked, terrorizing police force that the Trump administration continues to sic on working people across this country,” the mayor told reporters.
He also signaled caution over Illinois leaders reportedly submitting another bid for Chicago to host the Democratic National Convention in the wake of the federal government’s actions in Minneapolis and beyond.
“I’ve expressed that there are concerns about the political climate that we’re in and … there’s no secret here that the Democratic National Convention would take place at a time in which the Trump administration would still be in charge,” Johnson said, referring to the 2028 presidential election. “To turn over the security of our city to the Trump administration — it’s not just me, but there are a number of us that have profound concerns about that.”
The police investigation ordinance won support from Johnson’s administration before it passed. Beatriz Ponce de León, the mayor’s immigration deputy, called the measure “a small but necessary step” ahead of the voice vote by aldermen on the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Committee and Police and Fire Committee.
Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling also backed the ordinance. He said it would “further transparency” in a statement of support, but did not attend the meeting. Police responses to calls for service from federal immigration agents are “solely to de-escalate” and ensure public safety, he wrote.
“This is how the Chicago Police Department has responded and will continue to do so in the future,” Snelling wrote.
But Ald. Andre Vásquez, chair of the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Committee, challenged Snelling’s sweeping defense.
Vásquez pointed to accusations that police cooperated with federal agents in early June outside a South Loop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office targeted by protesters. His committee held hearings shortly after the June 4 protest where several aldermen were aggressively pushed by agents.
After the tense protest, confusion followed about what city agency should investigate the cooperation allegations, Vásquez told his colleagues before showing body camera footage depicting police and agents talking during the June incident.
“Whenever there are any incidents that occur between ICE and CPD, it needs to be transparent, it needs to be clear, it needs to be held accountable, it needs to be investigated,” Vásquez said. “And what we have seen is that, because the ordinance itself is untested … there’s a lack of clarity as to who should be doing what, what accountability looks like, what guidelines look like.”
Ald. Maria Hadden argued the measure “does not have to be political.”
“It’s not just the right thing to do for moral reasons, but it’s also the right thing to do just structurally, administratively, procedurally,” she said. “This was a gap, and this is something that will fix the gap.”
Ahead of the morning meeting featuring Minnesota elected officials, progressive aldermen acknowledged the latest turn in Trump’s constantly shifting and increasingly controversial immigration efforts: the reported demotion of Customs and Border Protection Cmdr. Gregory Bovino.
Ald. Rossana Rodríguez-Sánchez, chair of the Health and Human Relations Committee, said she did not expect Trump’s immigration efforts to slow with Bovino seemingly out.
“I am not under any illusion that the person that is going to come back to replace him is going to be any better,” she said. “They have a goal that they want to deport as many people as possible, and they’re going to try to continue doing that.”
The Minnesota elected officials invited by Rodríguez-Sánchez to speak to aldermen urged Chicago to prepare for an eventual Border Patrol return that many at City Hall view as inevitable.
Elliott Payne, president of the Minneapolis City Council, told aldermen he had once been “witnessing from afar the atrocities in Chicago, fearful of that coming to our city.” But as Minnesota activists forcefully resist their own massive influx of immigration agents, federal authorities are reconsidering their strategy, he said.
“But just because they change their tactics, doesn’t change their mission. That means that we all need to stay united and fight back against the fascist invasion of our cities,” Payne said.
Federal agents in Minnesota have worn less tactical gear, opting at times for baseball caps, puffers and blue jeans in lieu of masks in an effort to fit in ahead of surprise arrests, Hwa Jeong Kim, vice president of the St. Paul City Council, told aldermen.
The agents have even dressed as construction workers and Uber drivers, she said. They have worked out of plumbing company vehicles and put stuffed animals on their dashboards to make cars look more normal, she added.
They have also “infiltrated” large group messages meant to coordinate protest efforts and even followed some people who record their work home, “as if to tell them, ‘We know exactly who you are, we know exactly where you live,’” she said.
Kim urged Chicago protesters to vet fellow activists in person before working closely with them. In St. Paul, she and her colleagues are holding weekly City Council meetings to get public input on the city’s response and are weighing zoning changes to block detention center construction.
“We need folks to just be prepared,” she said. “Preparation is the best defense right now.”