8 hours ago
'They come in vans and arrest mothers': Fear of immigration raids grips Chicago
"Knowing your rights gives you a little more power," said Dulce Maria Garduno, speaking in the back of the community center in La Villita, or "Little Village," one of Chicago's poor Latino neighborhoods. On June 18, volunteers at the center, which was once dedicated to Czech and Polish immigrants in the 1950s, hosted a workshop to prepare local residents to face potential arrests. It was one of hundreds of similar meetings that have been held throughout the city since Donald Trump returned to the White House. Since then, many residents of this predominantly Mexican neighborhood have begun avoiding public spaces. They don't fear getting hit by a stray bullet from the Latin Kings or Two-Six gangs. What truly terrifies them is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"Fortunately, people in Chicago are stepping up to defend us," said Garduno, a Mexican woman who has lived in the United States for 26 years. Though she had married and been a mother to US citizens, she did not have the proper documentation. Not all of the workshop's dozen participants were undocumented, but all had a knot in their stomach out of fear.
"All those with the same skin color as me are targeted," said Baltazar Enriquez, president of the community center, who migrated to the US from Mexico in 1983, adding, "Trump would like to clean up America so that White people are the majority."
