‘We're tired of this': Cicero residents demand action from town president after Latina aunt stopped by federal agents

Chicago Tribune

5 days ago

Vanessa Mendoza, an early childhood educator in Cicero, was gathering materials for her classroom in late June when she paused to look at Facebook. What she saw shocked her.
Posted on the social media site was a video of her aunt, Rocío, being pulled over by unidentified agents driving black vehicles who questioned her citizenship — despite her legal status to be in the United States.
The agents did not specify why they pulled Rocío over or which agency they were affiliated with, Mendoza, 32, who grew up in Cicero, said at a news conference outside the town hall Thursday morning. After Rocío showed identification, she was not arrested or detained, her niece added.
'It was either a legal stop or maybe, I don't want to say, they were targeting her for being Latina,' she said.
On Thursday, local officials and community members condemned 20-year Town President Larry Dominick for remarks he previously made about the immigrant community, especially as federal enforcement actions intensify under President Donald Trump. About 90% of Cicero's residents are Latino, a group that has been repeatedly targeted by the Trump administration.
Rocío's interaction with the unidentified agents comes at a time of increased news and social media reports of citizens of Latino descent being stopped or detained. After a U.S. Army veteran was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm last week, representatives in Congress introduced legislation on Wednesday that would stop U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement from detaining and deporting U.S. citizens.
Law-abiding residents aren't supposed to be arrested or detained, and there was no probable cause for Rocío to be pulled over, Mendoza said Thursday. She said her aunt is still shaken and won't go anywhere without her identification.
Cicero has a complicated political history toward immigrants, said former U.S. Rep. Luis Guitiérrez, who used to represent the state's 4th Congressional District. Guitiérrez spoke strongly against Dominick, who he said has in recent years publicly spoken in a 'mean, nasty and violent' manner about immigrants.
'Stop destroying families that love each other,' he said. 'We're outraged. We're tired of this. '
At Thursday's news conference, lifelong Cicero resident Diana Garcia played a recording of Dominick allegedly speaking at public town meetings. In the clip, Dominick can be heard lamenting former President Joe Biden's border policies and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's approach to welcoming new migrants.
'You can't go anywhere without people selling candy, soda or water. And they don't even want to sell. Some of them just want money. The Venezuelans are robbing everybody. And what do we do to them? Nothing. It's disgusting,' Dominick was heard saying in the audio, which was also reported by the local newspaper Cicero Independiente from a Feb. 27, 2024, meeting.
In a statement released late Thursday night, Cicero officials dismissed the accusations as complaints from Dominick's political opponents. The statement didn't address the comments Dominick allegedly made.
Garcia asserted that Dominick has chosen to remain silent on the issue of immigration at a time when ICE has been 'tearing families apart.'
'Cicero deserves a leader right now. And we don't have one,' she said.
At one point during the news conference, a woman passing by with a grocery bag stopped to stand in the back to listen to the speakers. She nodded her head in agreement.
In late February, ahead of the town's municipal elections, Dominick was criticized by opposition candidate Esteban Rodriguez for his failure to advocate for the town to adopt sanctuary status. Dominick maintained Cicero's policy is to treat everyone, documented or in the country without legal permission, the same.
He referred to a 'Safe Space Resolution' passed in 2008, which formalized a commitment not to use local law enforcement for immigration matters, preventing Cicero police from asking about immigration status or enforcing federal immigration laws.
Meanwhile, Illinois is a 'sanctuary state' under the 2017 Illinois Trust Act, meaning it has rules prohibiting arresting or detaining someone solely due to immigration status.
The tension escalated several weeks before the election, when Rodriguez had a rock thrown through his home windows in what he described as a scare tactic. He believed his windows were shattered in retaliation for his public probing of Dominick's immigration stance. Dominick's Cicero Voters Alliance, however, brushed off the incident as a 'political stunt' by Rodriguez to 'get attention and stir controversy.'
Rodriguez — who received 43% of the vote for town president over the winter — was at the news conference Thursday, where those in attendance hand-delivered a letter to Dominick's office that requested 'immediate action' to declare Cicero a sanctuary city and stop any cooperation between local law enforcement officers and ICE.
The group took an elevator to the town hall's third floor, where Dominick's office is located. The town president's office was closed and locked.
'It's because he's never here,' Rodriguez grumbled under his breath.
They knocked and waited several minutes before deciding to slip the letter underneath the door. A Tribune reporter was able to enter the office later in the day and spoke to a receptionist, who directed all media inquiries to Dominick's email.
The group also delivered a printed-out Freedom of Information Act request to the town of Cicero for all emails, text messages, letters, memos and notes between top town leaders and trustees including Dominick with several defamatory words and phrases. The request sought all communication from Jan. 20, when Trump was sworn into office, to the present.
The goal, the group said Thursday, was to uncover the type of communication about immigration that might happen behind closed doors under Dominick's leadership.
Mendoza, who wore a polka-dot dress and earrings in the shape of crayons, said that as an educator in Cicero, she is constantly answering questions from worried families who ask her what to do if ICE pulls them over. She tells them to not talk to anyone who they don't know and to keep their windows up.
Ultimately, she said she isn't trying to work against Dominick, but to make sure everyone feels protected leaving their homes and driving through their own neighborhoods.
'Just make this a loving and safe place for everybody,' she urged the town leader.