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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
A message to Trump protesters in California: Put down the Mexican flags
As thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of Los Angeles protesting immigration enforcement operations, images of Mexican flags waving alongside burning cars and clashes with federal agents are once again dominating news coverage. While the passion and commitment of these protesters are undeniable, they are making a critical strategic error that could undermine their cause and harm the very communities they seek to protect. They are ignoring an important lesson from history on how prominently displaying this flag can backfire with the broader public. More than 30 years ago, Californians were facing intense economic insecurity as the state was crawling out of a recession amid a dramatic influx of immigrants, trends eerily similar to today. It led to a public backlash against immigration led by then-Gov. Pete Wilson. The political centerpiece of the movement in 1994 was Proposition 187. The measure called for denying public services to undocumented immigrants. Latino students and activists organized massive protests across the state. Like today's demonstrations, these protests featured prominent displays of Mexican flags. One demonstration at Los Angeles City Hall drew an estimated 70,000 protesters, one of the largest protests in city history. But it only served to inflame a distressed public. Proposition 187 passed decisively with 59% of the vote. Post-election analysis revealed that the Mexican flag imagery had become a powerful weapon in the hands of the measure's supporters. Harold Ezell, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service Director who helped author Prop. 187, later declared that the 'biggest mistake the opposition made was waving those green and white flags with the snake on it. They should have been waving the American flag.' Technically, opponents of the measure eventually would win. Courts ruled that Prop. 187 was unconstitutional. But the political damage for supporters of immigrants would extend far beyond that single election. Prop. 187's passage, aided by the visual narrative of foreign flags at protests, helped transform California politics for a generation—but not necessarily in the way protesters intended. While an entirely new generation of Latino political activism was stirred by the heated passion of that campaign, so too was an anti-immigrant fervor that consumed California politics for a generation. Rather than just building sympathy for immigrants and a show of ethnic solidarity when the community was under attack, the imagery reinforced opponents' framing of immigration as a question of national loyalty rather than human and constitutional rights. Today, protesters in Los Angeles risk repeating this strategic blunder. The Mexican flag being waved amid destruction, violent interaction with law enforcement, and burning vehicles allows opponents to shift the narrative away from legitimate concerns about immigration enforcement tactics and toward questions of patriotism, lawlessness, and national identity. It transforms what should be a debate about American constitutional rights and due process into a conversation about foreign loyalty and cultural assimilation. It highlights division and, at least optically, prioritizes foreign loyalty over American loyalty. This messaging problem is particularly acute given how Latino political attitudes have evolved since 1994. Research shows that today's Latino voters, especially younger generations, are increasingly assimilated and respond differently to ethnic appeals than their predecessors. Millennial and Generation Z Latinos are more motivated by intersectional movements that promote equality for all Americans rather than country-of-origin symbolism. For these assimilated voters, substantive policy discussions prove more influential than ethnic appeals tied to ancestral homelands. Pew Research Center shows that more than half of all Hispanics view themselves as 'typical Americans.' That number grows to 80 percent in younger Latinos. The Mexican flag imagery also alienates more than just Latinos. It also turns off potential allies who should be natural coalition partners. The 1994 protests should have included not just Latinos but also far more whites, Asian Americans, and African Americans who opposed Prop. 187 on civil rights grounds. In the end, Prop. 187 lost only among Latinos but was supported by white, Black, and Asian voters due, at least in some part, to the ethnic polarization Latino activists were imparting to rally their communities. Similarly, today's immigration enforcement concerns affect diverse communities across Los Angeles. But when protests are visually dominated by Mexican flags, these broader coalitions understandably feel excluded from what should be an American civil rights movement. Perhaps most damaging, the flag imagery provides opponents with exactly the ammunition they need to dismiss legitimate grievances. This is how immigration activists lose the message to Donald Trump. Using the flag of a foreign nation undermines the moral high ground of this position. Moreover, it cedes the American flag to the rising extremism we're witnessing on the American right. Latinos are Americans concerned about American issues like economic opportunity, public safety, and constitutional rights. Treating them as a monolithic bloc defined by ancestral nationality not only misreads their political priorities but also reinforces stereotypes that opponents can exploit. Put away the Mexican flags. Embrace American symbols and American values. Frame the debate in terms of constitutional rights and due process rather than ethnic identity. The stakes are too high, and the lessons of history too clear, to repeat the strategic errors that helped doom the fight against Prop. 187. American protesters fighting for American rights should carry American flags. Mike Madrid is a political analyst and a special correspondent for McClatchy Media.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘I read him my seven-page sex scene': Gay Bar author Jeremy Atherton Lin's transatlantic love story
The Admiral Duncan is empty when Jeremy Atherton Lin arrives to meet me, save for a few meandering flies. In the final pages of his bestselling book, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out, Lin visits the old Soho boozer in London with his husband, where they encounter a 'despondent' scene: spilled beer, backed-up toilets and a wasted drag queen. Even so, they are charmed by an older couple across the bar and wonder if they'll be lucky enough to end up like them. The site of a homophobic nail-bomb attack in 1999, the Admiral Duncan is another kind of survivor, and Lin admires it in spite of the mess. Such ambivalence is typical of his memoiristic writing, which spirals outward into digressive analyses of social and political events. This time, the place is quiet and clean, and Lin has come alone – all of which is probably for the best, since we're here to discuss his latest book, Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told. At once more personal and more political than anything he has ever written, it follows him and his partner as they navigate a precarious legal landscape for immigrants and LGBTQ+ people in their effort to build a home and life together. The couple met 29 years ago at Popstarz, a club night, when Lin was passing through London on a backpacking trip. (In Gay Bar, Lin refers to his partner in the third person, mostly as Famous Blue Raincoat. In Deep House he remains unnamed, though most of the book is addressed directly to him.) 'I depict myself in the book as feeling a little unsure and resistant at first; counterintuitively, this bashful boy is the pursuer,' Lin says. 'He's so lovable that I wanted the reader to feel a little exasperated with me, like, 'You're never gonna get any better than this.'' Not long after returning to northern California, Lin seemed to get the message and invited his new British beau to visit. 'Famous' came and never left. Overstaying his visa, he became a fugitive for love. It took a while for them to fully understand the implications of that decision. They struggled to find an apartment given that only Lin – on a writer's income – could be named on the lease. Every loud noise or bright light outside their door sparked fears of an imminent raid. Accidents were a worry because 'we were convinced you couldn't go into hospital without being deported,' Lin writes. 'We found ourselves laying down roots on a fault line – literally earthquake territory, but also a contentious political framework,' he tells me today. 'By 2000, when we rented our first weird, damp apartment, 18 states still had sodomy laws on the books.' They were considered 'illegal' in more ways than one. Lin writes extensively about the case law that led to the 2015 US supreme court decision in Obergefell v Hodges which legalised same-sex marriage across the US. Some of these are relatively obscure, such as Baker v Nelson (1971) and Boutilier v Immigration and Naturalization Service (1967), and he sympathetically details the lives of the plaintiffs, aware that most of them weren't asking for much. Lin and his partner were less interested in pushing a gay rights agenda than safely crawling back into bed together. 'We were half innocent and half obscene,' he writes. 'We'd been infantilised by our governments – our 'twink' years prolonged.' At times, this could be a minor thrill. 'I can't deny there was an exhilaration when we went underground,' he tells me. For a middle-class kid in San Francisco's Mission District in the early 2000s, being undocumented may have seemed like a punk bona fide. Marriage certainly did not – though at the time it was unavailable to them anyway. 'A lot of queers, of course, didn't want in on the historically proprietary and patriarchal institution in the first place,' Lin writes. Open relationships and polyamory were typical in their urban gay enclave; they duly navigated threesomes and foursomes, including, at one point, with another couple with whom they shared an apartment. The idea of marriage seemed almost too conventional by contrast. Nonetheless, Lin acknowledges that marriage 'affords privileges, including mobility across borders. Marriage is, among other things, a passport'. Unable to cross international borders or even state lines without worry, Lin and his partner often felt stuck. As a white British person, Lin's partner was perhaps in a more privileged position than those subjected to racial profiling. Lin writes about several suits filed by Asian immigrants, many of them in San Francisco, dating back to a string of racist laws passed by the US government in the 19th century, including the Chinese Exclusion Act. He also tells the story of his own parents, who met in the 1960s after his father emigrated to the US from Taiwan. As a biracial couple, they were only able to marry in Florida because anti-miscegenation laws had been struck down by Loving v Virginia a few years earlier. It's unclear if Lin's father or partner would have been able to remain in the country had Donald Trump been president at the time. Lin says he finished edits on Deep House before Trump returned to the Oval Office in January, and he never expected the immigration crackdown to be this bad. 'There are a lot of moments in the book where we think that whoever comes through the door is going to be [Ice],' he says. 'That was very far-fetched then. But our paranoia has become the reality.' In 2007, Lin and his husband relocated to the UK, where they obtained a civil partnership (backdated as a marriage, once same-sex unions became fully legal in 2014). Their timing was lucky. 'When my next letter arrived from the UK Home Office, with a visa that established my leave to remain, it was genuinely welcoming, almost chipper,' he notes. 'But less than five years later, then home secretary Theresa May would usher in the 'hostile environment' policy, a brutally monikered set of measures intended to drive out undocumented denizens that would send ripples of malice toward foreign nationals and minority groups more generally.' Lin began writing Gay Bar while working a string of retail jobs in London. 'I would be writing on the cash register or on the back of the receipts,' he recalls. Eileen Myles was a big influence on his personal, essayistic prose style, as was Michelle Tea (briefly an upstairs neighbour in San Francisco). The 2010s were an exuberant time for London's gay scene, but also a challenging one for nightlife spaces; by the time the Covid-19 pandemic hit, nearly half of the city's clubs had already closed. Lin found himself documenting these losses, which eventually became Gay Bar. That book won the National Book Critics Circle award for autobiography and spent weeks atop international bestseller lists. Lin never anticipated the success. 'It's amazing but also terrifying,' he says. 'We weren't prepared for it.' Meanwhile, 'London had lost its sense of wonder'. He and his partner relocated to St Leonards-on-Sea, where he says they often walk along the beach twice a day. When the news cycle or writer's block is stressing him out, he says, 'We go down to the beach and pick up a pebble, name it with whatever is bothering us, and throw it into the water. It's surprisingly effective.' As for how Famous Blue Raincoat feels about all the public attention, Lin says his partner is able to read his work with a certain detachment. 'I'm working within the idiom of nonfiction, for which the criterion is accuracy, but I'm also writing my remembrance of the past. He's more forgiving of my confabulations, because he's an artist. There's a part of him that's quite good at loosening up. Although there's a seven-page sex scene in Deep House that I read out loud a couple years ago, and I think he felt a bit exposed,' Lin admits with a laugh. Does he have any advice for open relationships? 'Communication,' Lin says without hesitation. 'So much of the communication that we've been fortunate to have is based on implicit trust,' he says. 'I think maybe it's so robust because of our experience feeling like it was us against the world.' Some wisdom has also surely come with age. 'I had come to identify as someone who crossed borders – but slowly understood that adult life had to involve the creation and maintenance of boundaries, a matter of recognising that the world is not just one's own,' he writes towards the end of Deep House. Marriage may have been a way of protecting their relationship and immigration status, but it also confirmed that they really did want to settle down. If 'we go out to be gay', as Lin writes in Gay Bar, he realised that remaining home with his husband wouldn't make him any less of a homosexual. 'This book is the domestic antidote [to Gay Bar],' he explains. 'It's 'why we stayed in'. Which is to say, inside the interior of our home, but also inside each other.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chicago's more than 40-year history as a sanctuary city
Chicago's path to being a sanctuary city began more than 40 years ago. Here's a look back at the leaders and laws that have shaped Chicago's involvement with the sanctuary movement. The Wellington Avenue Church congregation votes to join the sanctuary movement — becoming just the second church in the U.S. to harbor refugees who entered the country illegally. The movement, which has roots in the medieval tradition of churches providing sanctuary for those fleeing persecution, was aimed at providing a safe haven for Central Americans running from political repression and violence in their home countries. They were refused asylum here because of U.S. support for the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala. About 20 Chicago-area churches became sanctuaries in the 1980s. Recognized for its work in organizing and transporting refugees from El Salvador to a network of welcoming churches around the U.S., the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America becomes the national clearinghouse for the sanctuary movement. The group distributes books on the sanctuary movement and holds rallies in downtown Chicago to bring awareness to the issues facing Central American refugees. A week after 18 workers driving cabs were arrested, Corporation Counsel James Montgomery recommends Chicago not cooperate with federal immigration authorities in arresting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally unless subpoenas are obtained. Chicago's Immigration and Naturalization Service Director A.D. Moyer criticizes Montgomery's suggestion. Mayor Harold Washington signs an executive order ending the city's practice of asking job and license applicants about their U.S. citizenship and halting cooperation by city agencies with federal immigration authorities. Calling cabdrivers who are living in the U.S. illegally 'a serious menace,' the city's immigration director, Moyer, orders spot checks of drivers' identification at airports and other hangouts. Dubbed 'Operation Taxicab,' 129 drivers are arrested in a single day — 51 could later prove they were in the U.S. legally. Though there was no federal law prohibiting employers from hiring workers in the country illegally, Moyer blames Mayor Washington's earlier executive order for opening the door. Less than 1 1/2 years after overseeing raids on taxi drivers in the U.S. illegally, Moyer details plans to open four centers to help immigrants with paperwork to become legal U.S. residents. The effort is part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, a law passed by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan to offer a path to legal residence for people in the U.S. illegally since Jan. 1, 1982. The Chicago Religious Task Force, a national clearinghouse for the sanctuary movement helping Central American refugees, said in a Chicago Tribune story that it was planning to urge priests, nuns and 'employers to break the law by hiring undocumented workers' in the Chicago area, where tens of thousands of the immigrants live. Shortly after taking office, Daley signs 13 executive orders including one that reaffirms 'fair and equal access' to employment, benefits and licenses to all — regardless of nationality or citizenship. The group asks Mayor Daley to amend the 1989 executive order to allow Chicago police to share citizenship information with the INS to help combat street gangs. Later, Daley says any information about a person involved in serious crimes would be turned over to the feds. (This provision would be added as part of the city's 2012 Welcoming City ordinance.) Ordered to be deported, Elvira Arellano and her U.S.-born son take refuge inside Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. She had been arrested in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, sweep of O'Hare International Airport, where she was working as a cleaner. Authorities discovered she had been using a fake Social Security number and had been previously deported to Mexico. Arellano would spend a year living in the church with her story receiving national attention. While awaiting a decision on her application for political asylum, Arellano is living in Humboldt Park with her partner and two sons. In a vote of 10-5, the Cook County Board passes an ordinance to free immigrants suspected of living in the U.S. illegally who are jailed in both felony and misdemeanor cases despite federal immigration authorities' requests to detain them. The ordinance was based on a recent federal ruling in Indiana that determined ICE detainers are voluntary requests and not criminal warrants. Building on an existing ordinance that prohibits agencies from inquiring about the immigration status of people seeking city services, this ordinance also prevents local police from detaining people solely on the belief that they are in the U.S. illegally, and cooperating with federal agents when they suspect status is the only reason the warrant has been issued. With its introduction in July 2012, Mayor Emanuel said the ordinance would 'make Chicago the most immigrant-friendly city in the country.' The City Council passes a resolution encouraging Congress and President Barack Obama to pursue immigration reform. 'Children and their families should not have to live in fear of government-forced separation,' it stated. Following the Paris terrorist attacks, 31 governors — including then-Indiana Gov. and now-Vice President Mike Pence and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner — sought to turn away Syrian refugees from their states. In a resolution reaffirming Chicago's sanctuary city status and 'refuge for refugees from around the world,' Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, says it's up to the federal government to make that decision. Following Jianqing Klyzek's case, aldermen amend 2012's Welcoming City ordinance to require that reports of 'physical abuse, threats or intimidation' against immigrants, in the U.S. legally or illegally, be sent to oversight agencies that cover the Chicago Police Department and other city agencies. Suggested in 2015 by a City Council ordinance, Mayor Emanuel launches a program to give all Chicagoans — including immigrants in the U.S. illegally, the homeless, the formerly incarcerated, young adults and the elderly — official identification that will not convey information about national origin or legal status. New City Clerk Anna Valencia will oversee the program. 'Since the Presidential Election, there has been a sense of uncertainty among many immigrant communities in Chicago and across the nation. I want to assure all of our families that Chicago is and will remain a Sanctuary City,' Mayor Emanuel said in a Nov. 13, 2016, news release. 'Chicago has been a city of immigrants since it was founded. We have always welcomed people of all faiths and backgrounds, and while the administration will change, our values and our commitment to inclusion will not.' A resolution sponsored by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, new Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and 35 of the city's 50 aldermen calls on Governor Bruce Rauner to issue a statement of 'support for cities that welcome our undocumented family members and neighbors and condemn any effort to strip the city of Chicago of federal funding.' The resolution calls on Rauner to speak at a special council meeting 'held solely for the purpose of discussing the president-elect's plans for cities that welcome and protect immigrants.' Asked to respond to the specifics of the city resolution, a Rauner spokeswoman instead issued a general statement reiterating the governor's support for immigration reform. In response to President Trump's signing of an executive order intended to block federal funding to sanctuary cities like Chicago, Mayor Emanuel says, 'There is no stranger among us. We welcome people.' The city's aldermen vote to reaffirm that Chicago protects all residents regardless of race, ethnicity, immigration status, criminal record, gender identity and sexual orientation. 'You mess with one in Chicago, you mess with all of us,' said Northwest Side Ald. John Arena, 45th. Chicago immigration reform advocates and Muslim leaders denounced President Donald Trump's executive order to temporarily block refugees coming to the U.S. while the government reviews screening processes, calling it an effective ban on Muslims in America. In issuing the order, which calls for a four-month halt on all refugee admissions, an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and a temporary moratorium on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries with terrorism concerns, Trump said he seeks to protect the nation from terrorist attacks. He called for a review of all screening procedures for those seeking immigrant visas to the U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, of Chicago, and 32 Democrats introduce a bill that would 'ensure that federal funds cannot be unduly withheld from any state or local authority that limits or restricts compliance with a voluntary immigration detainer request.' This bill was introduced during a previous session of Congress but was not advanced. Asked if he would support legislation to make it harder for federal authorities to access information about immigrants living in Illinois, Governor Bruce Rauner didn't reply yes or no, saying he is 'very pro-comprehensive immigration reform' and wants the state 'to continue to be welcoming and diverse.' Legislation under consideration at the state Capitol would allow schools, medical facilities and places of worship to decline access to federal immigration authorities, and it would limit cooperation and communication between local police and immigration officials. The plans were introduced as part of a broader 'sanctuary state' effort to extend statewide some protections like those in Chicago and Cook County, where local laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking about residents' immigration status. The legislation is sponsored by Democrats, and their party controls the General Assembly. Pressed to provide his position on the sanctuary state idea Friday, Rauner declined. 'I've answered it,' he said. 'I've said what I'm going to say.' Elvira Arellano, the twice-deported immigration activist whose year of living in a Humboldt Park church a decade ago made her a lightning rod in the immigration debate, was granted a reprieve and allowed to remain in the United States for another year. She is awaiting a hearing on her petition for political asylum, which she filed three years ago. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he is 'urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws.' He says the Justice Department will require compliance with immigration laws in order for the cities to receive grants through the Office of Justice Programs. The Obama administration had a similar policy in place. The Justice Department escalated its promised crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, saying it will no longer give cities coveted grant money unless they give federal immigration authorities access to jails and provide advance notice when someone in the country illegally is about to be released. Mayor Emanuel's Law Department files its much-touted lawsuit against President Donald Trump's Justice Department over its effort to withhold some grant funding from so-called sanctuary cities. During a news conference in Miami, Sessions vowed to continue fighting cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities — aiming much of his frustration at Chicago. Francisca Lino, 50, a Bolingbrook resident and mother of six children — five of them U.S. citizens — is taking sanctuary in the same Chicago church that protected immigration activist Elvira Arellano. Lino was scheduled to meet with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, but, instead, she held a West Side news conference at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park. A federal judge in Chicago blocked the Trump administration's rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to cooperate with immigration agents in order to get a public safety grant. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration could suffer 'irreparable harm' in its relationship with the immigrant community if it were to comply with the U.S. Department of Justice's new rules requiring sanctuary cities nationaide to cooperate with immigration agents in exchange for receiving public safety grant money. They allege the U.S. government violated her Fifth Amendment rights and expeditiously deported her in 1999 without due process. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upholds a nationwide injunction prohibiting Attorney General Sessions from requiring cities to give immigration agents access to immigrants in the U.S. illegally who are in their lockups, in order to get certain public safety grants. Following the ruling, Mayor Emanuel calls on President Trump's Justice Department to hand over grant money to Chicago. The city has already sued over the matter, but now the DOJ has imposed a new round of restrictions, city officials say. Among other things, the new stipulations include requiring local police to inform immigration officials about immigrants in custody who have questionable legal status and allowing them to access the prisoners for questioning. A federal judge sides with the city of Chicago in its sanctuary city lawsuit, ruling that the Trump administration does not have the authority to withhold federal public safety funding from the city if it limits its cooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Adilene Marquina Adam, 34, says she was told to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, the family takes refuge inside a small storefront church, the Faith, Life and Hope Mission, on 63rd Street in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Robert Guadian, ICE's newly appointed Chicago field office director, held a news conference to underscore what he said are the dangers of local police not cooperating with his agency in so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago. But outside of ICE's Chicago office, Lightfoot appeared with a group of immigration activists and called Guadian's criticism of the city's sanctuary ordinance 'nonsense.' Speaking at the annual gathering of the International Association of Chiefs of Police at McCormick Place, Trump slammed Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson in front of his peers and criticized the type of federal order the city is under to reform the CPD. Trump also called Chicago 'the worst sanctuary city in America' and cited the refusal of the city's Police Department under Johnson to detain people in the country illegally for immigration enforcement. The Trump administration is deploying law enforcement tactical units from the southern border as part of a supercharged arrest operation in sanctuary cities across the country, including Chicago, an escalation in the president's battle against localities that refuse to participate in immigration enforcement. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot released a video condemning the news that additional agents were being sent to sanctuary cities to help immigration enforcement, and warned residents that they did not have to open doors to anyone who doesn't have a warrant. Chicago politicians and immigrant advocates vowed to push back against plans by President Trump's administration to deploy tactical units from the southern border to strengthen immigration enforcement in Chicago and other so-called sanctuary cities. U.S. Rep. Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia contended the timing of the initiative was intended to 'instill fear' in immigrants not just about deportation but about participating in the 2020 census. 'The timing is no accident,' Garcia said at a news conference. 'The attempted intimidation has a clear purpose: It is to intimidate our neighbors who are Latino, African American, Asian American communities in particular, not to open their doors. Trump succeeds if we do that. Trump wants us to be undercounted in our communities so that we would lose federal resources and services that are vital to our communities and weaken our political power.' President Donald Trump's Justice Department can't withhold federal grants from sanctuary cities such as Chicago that extend protections to undocumented immigrants, a federal appeals court ruled. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was delighted by the ruling, saying she 'let out a cheer' when she found out about it. The battle started in 2017, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the federal government would require sanctuary cities that want federal public safety funding to give notice when immigrants in the country illegally are about to be released from custody and allow immigration agents access to local jails. Around 9 p.m. along the Canal Street side of the station, a group of about 15 people, some of whom were from Venezuela and were waiting for another bus, were standing or sitting on a sidewalk. Some were looking at their phones as others were speaking to each other and to a Tribune reporter. Most were men, but there was one woman with her young daughter and husband. They were waiting to be picked up and taken to a shelter, they told the Tribune reporter. Read more. The executive order is in response to the thousands of migrants settling in the city, often under harsh living conditions, after crossing the U.S.' southern border to seek asylum. Chicago Public Schools officials had a calm, seemingly friendly conversation with two U.S. Secret Service agents outside Hamline School hours before the district sparked a nationwide panic when it falsely proclaimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had tried to enter the building, according to recently released security footage. The lawsuit argues that the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause 'prohibits Illinois, Chicago, Cook County, and their officials from obstructing the Federal Government's ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted or to take actions entrusted to it by the Constitution.' Sources: Tribune reporting and archives, city of Chicago, Cook County Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
Chicago Tribune
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago's more than 40-year history as a sanctuary city
Chicago's path to being a sanctuary city began more than 40 years ago. Here's a look back at the leaders and laws that have shaped Chicago's involvement with the sanctuary movement. July 18, 1982: Church congregation begins taking in refugees The Wellington Avenue Church congregation votes to join the sanctuary movement — becoming just the second church in the U.S. to harbor refugees who entered the country illegally. The movement, which has roots in the medieval tradition of churches providing sanctuary for those fleeing persecution, was aimed at providing a safe haven for Central Americans running from political repression and violence in their home countries. They were refused asylum here because of U.S. support for the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala. About 20 Chicago-area churches became sanctuaries in the 1980s. November 1982: Group becomes national leader in sanctuary movement Recognized for its work in organizing and transporting refugees from El Salvador to a network of welcoming churches around the U.S., the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America becomes the national clearinghouse for the sanctuary movement. The group distributes books on the sanctuary movement and holds rallies in downtown Chicago to bring awareness to the issues facing Central American refugees. Jan. 20, 1985: Chicago's chief legal officer: Don't assist the feds A week after 18 workers driving cabs were arrested, Corporation Counsel James Montgomery recommends Chicago not cooperate with federal immigration authorities in arresting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally unless subpoenas are obtained. Chicago's Immigration and Naturalization Service Director A.D. Moyer criticizes Montgomery's suggestion. March 7, 1985: Mayor encourages 'equal access by all persons' to city services, licenses Mayor Harold Washington signs an executive order ending the city's practice of asking job and license applicants about their U.S. citizenship and halting cooperation by city agencies with federal immigration authorities. Dec. 17, 1985: 'Operation Taxicab' rounds up immigrants suspected of living in U.S. illegally Calling cabdrivers who are living in the U.S. illegally 'a serious menace,' the city's immigration director, Moyer, orders spot checks of drivers' identification at airports and other hangouts. Dubbed 'Operation Taxicab,' 129 drivers are arrested in a single day — 51 could later prove they were in the U.S. legally. Though there was no federal law prohibiting employers from hiring workers in the country illegally, Moyer blames Mayor Washington's earlier executive order for opening the door. April 30, 1987: Feds offer immigrants ways to gain legal status Less than 1 1/2 years after overseeing raids on taxi drivers in the U.S. illegally, Moyer details plans to open four centers to help immigrants with paperwork to become legal U.S. residents. The effort is part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, a law passed by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan to offer a path to legal residence for people in the U.S. illegally since Jan. 1, 1982. Nov. 1, 1987: Sanctuary group urges 'hiring undocumented workers' The Chicago Religious Task Force, a national clearinghouse for the sanctuary movement helping Central American refugees, said in a Chicago Tribune story that it was planning to urge priests, nuns and 'employers to break the law by hiring undocumented workers' in the Chicago area, where tens of thousands of the immigrants live. April 25, 1989: Daley adopts Washington's sanctuary stance Shortly after taking office, Daley signs 13 executive orders including one that reaffirms 'fair and equal access' to employment, benefits and licenses to all — regardless of nationality or citizenship. June 4, 1992: Chicago Crime Commission asks for amendment The group asks Mayor Daley to amend the 1989 executive order to allow Chicago police to share citizenship information with the INS to help combat street gangs. Later, Daley says any information about a person involved in serious crimes would be turned over to the feds. (This provision would be added as part of the city's 2012 Welcoming City ordinance.) Aug. 15, 2006: Woman seeks church refuge to avoid deportation, reviving sanctuary movement Ordered to be deported, Elvira Arellano and her U.S.-born son take refuge inside Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood. She had been arrested in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, sweep of O'Hare International Airport, where she was working as a cleaner. Authorities discovered she had been using a fake Social Security number and had been previously deported to Mexico. Arellano would spend a year living in the church with her story receiving national attention. While awaiting a decision on her application for political asylum, Arellano is living in Humboldt Park with her partner and two sons. Sept. 7, 2011: Cook County won't fulfill ICE detainer requests In a vote of 10-5, the Cook County Board passes an ordinance to free immigrants suspected of living in the U.S. illegally who are jailed in both felony and misdemeanor cases despite federal immigration authorities' requests to detain them. The ordinance was based on a recent federal ruling in Indiana that determined ICE detainers are voluntary requests and not criminal warrants. Sept. 12, 2012: 'Welcoming City' ordinance passes Building on an existing ordinance that prohibits agencies from inquiring about the immigration status of people seeking city services, this ordinance also prevents local police from detaining people solely on the belief that they are in the U.S. illegally, and cooperating with federal agents when they suspect status is the only reason the warrant has been issued. With its introduction in July 2012, Mayor Emanuel said the ordinance would 'make Chicago the most immigrant-friendly city in the country.' April 2, 2014: City Council urges President Obama to stop deporting 'individuals with no criminal history' The City Council passes a resolution encouraging Congress and President Barack Obama to pursue immigration reform. 'Children and their families should not have to live in fear of government-forced separation,' it stated. Nov. 18, 2015: Alderman pushes for Rauner to reverse decision on Syrian refugees Following the Paris terrorist attacks, 31 governors — including then-Indiana Gov. and now-Vice President Mike Pence and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner — sought to turn away Syrian refugees from their states. In a resolution reaffirming Chicago's sanctuary city status and 'refuge for refugees from around the world,' Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, says it's up to the federal government to make that decision. Oct. 5, 2016: City workers, police can't use immigration status for intimidation Following Jianqing Klyzek's case, aldermen amend 2012's Welcoming City ordinance to require that reports of 'physical abuse, threats or intimidation' against immigrants, in the U.S. legally or illegally, be sent to oversight agencies that cover the Chicago Police Department and other city agencies. Oct. 12, 2016: Municipal ID program launches Suggested in 2015 by a City Council ordinance, Mayor Emanuel launches a program to give all Chicagoans — including immigrants in the U.S. illegally, the homeless, the formerly incarcerated, young adults and the elderly — official identification that will not convey information about national origin or legal status. New City Clerk Anna Valencia will oversee the program. Nov. 13, 2016: Following Donald Trump's election, Mayor Emanuel defends city's stance 'Since the Presidential Election, there has been a sense of uncertainty among many immigrant communities in Chicago and across the nation. I want to assure all of our families that Chicago is and will remain a Sanctuary City,' Mayor Emanuel said in a Nov. 13, 2016, news release. 'Chicago has been a city of immigrants since it was founded. We have always welcomed people of all faiths and backgrounds, and while the administration will change, our values and our commitment to inclusion will not.' Dec. 5, 2016: City looks for Rauner's backing of sanctuary status A resolution sponsored by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, new Democratic state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and 35 of the city's 50 aldermen calls on Governor Bruce Rauner to issue a statement of 'support for cities that welcome our undocumented family members and neighbors and condemn any effort to strip the city of Chicago of federal funding.' The resolution calls on Rauner to speak at a special council meeting 'held solely for the purpose of discussing the president-elect's plans for cities that welcome and protect immigrants.' Asked to respond to the specifics of the city resolution, a Rauner spokeswoman instead issued a general statement reiterating the governor's support for immigration reform. Jan. 25, 2017: Emanuel defends city from President Trump's threats In response to President Trump's signing of an executive order intended to block federal funding to sanctuary cities like Chicago, Mayor Emanuel says, 'There is no stranger among us. We welcome people.' The city's aldermen vote to reaffirm that Chicago protects all residents regardless of race, ethnicity, immigration status, criminal record, gender identity and sexual orientation. 'You mess with one in Chicago, you mess with all of us,' said Northwest Side Ald. John Arena, 45th. Jan. 27, 2017: Chicago advocates condemn Trump's order on migrants Chicago immigration reform advocates and Muslim leaders denounced President Donald Trump's executive order to temporarily block refugees coming to the U.S. while the government reviews screening processes, calling it an effective ban on Muslims in America. In issuing the order, which calls for a four-month halt on all refugee admissions, an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and a temporary moratorium on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries with terrorism concerns, Trump said he seeks to protect the nation from terrorist attacks. He called for a review of all screening procedures for those seeking immigrant visas to the U.S. Jan. 30, 2017: 'Safeguarding Sanctuary Cities Act' introduced in U.S. House Rep. Mike Quigley, of Chicago, and 32 Democrats introduce a bill that would 'ensure that federal funds cannot be unduly withheld from any state or local authority that limits or restricts compliance with a voluntary immigration detainer request.' This bill was introduced during a previous session of Congress but was not advanced. Feb. 10, 2017: Rauner doesn't take a position on Democrats' immigration plan Asked if he would support legislation to make it harder for federal authorities to access information about immigrants living in Illinois, Governor Bruce Rauner didn't reply yes or no, saying he is 'very pro-comprehensive immigration reform' and wants the state 'to continue to be welcoming and diverse.' Legislation under consideration at the state Capitol would allow schools, medical facilities and places of worship to decline access to federal immigration authorities, and it would limit cooperation and communication between local police and immigration officials. The plans were introduced as part of a broader 'sanctuary state' effort to extend statewide some protections like those in Chicago and Cook County, where local laws prohibit government workers and police officers from asking about residents' immigration status. The legislation is sponsored by Democrats, and their party controls the General Assembly. Pressed to provide his position on the sanctuary state idea Friday, Rauner declined. 'I've answered it,' he said. 'I've said what I'm going to say.' March 15, 2017: Former sanctuary seeker allowed to stay in the U.S. another year following ICE meeting Elvira Arellano, the twice-deported immigration activist whose year of living in a Humboldt Park church a decade ago made her a lightning rod in the immigration debate, was granted a reprieve and allowed to remain in the United States for another year. She is awaiting a hearing on her petition for political asylum, which she filed three years ago. March 27, 2017: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says sanctuary cities could lose federal funding Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he is 'urging states and local jurisdictions to comply with these federal laws.' He says the Justice Department will require compliance with immigration laws in order for the cities to receive grants through the Office of Justice Programs. The Obama administration had a similar policy in place. July 25, 2017: Justice Department rules intensify crackdown on sanctuary cities like Chicago The Justice Department escalated its promised crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, saying it will no longer give cities coveted grant money unless they give federal immigration authorities access to jails and provide advance notice when someone in the country illegally is about to be released. Aug. 7, 2017: Emanuel sues Trump's Justice Department over sanctuary city policy Mayor Emanuel's Law Department files its much-touted lawsuit against President Donald Trump's Justice Department over its effort to withhold some grant funding from so-called sanctuary cities. Aug. 16, 2017: Sessions blasts sanctuary cities, singling out Chicago During a news conference in Miami, Sessions vowed to continue fighting cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities — aiming much of his frustration at Chicago. Aug. 23, 2017: Mother of 6 seeks sanctuary in a Chicago church to avoid deportation Francisca Lino, 50, a Bolingbrook resident and mother of six children — five of them U.S. citizens — is taking sanctuary in the same Chicago church that protected immigration activist Elvira Arellano. Lino was scheduled to meet with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, but, instead, she held a West Side news conference at Adalberto United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park. Sept. 15, 2017: Judge rules in city's favor on sanctuary cities, grants nationwide injunction A federal judge in Chicago blocked the Trump administration's rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to cooperate with immigration agents in order to get a public safety grant. Oct. 13, 2017: Chicago judge refuses to change ruling on sanctuary cities U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration could suffer 'irreparable harm' in its relationship with the immigrant community if it were to comply with the U.S. Department of Justice's new rules requiring sanctuary cities nationaide to cooperate with immigration agents in exchange for receiving public safety grant money. November 2017: Lino's attorneys file a civil rights lawsuit They allege the U.S. government violated her Fifth Amendment rights and expeditiously deported her in 1999 without due process. April 19, 2018: Emanuel wins legal victory in sanctuary city lawsuit The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upholds a nationwide injunction prohibiting Attorney General Sessions from requiring cities to give immigration agents access to immigrants in the U.S. illegally who are in their lockups, in order to get certain public safety grants. Following the ruling, Mayor Emanuel calls on President Trump's Justice Department to hand over grant money to Chicago. October 2018: Chicago sues Trump administration for withholding police funding The city has already sued over the matter, but now the DOJ has imposed a new round of restrictions, city officials say. Among other things, the new stipulations include requiring local police to inform immigration officials about immigrants in custody who have questionable legal status and allowing them to access the prisoners for questioning. July 27, 2018: Judge — Feds can't dock sanctuary cities A federal judge sides with the city of Chicago in its sanctuary city lawsuit, ruling that the Trump administration does not have the authority to withhold federal public safety funding from the city if it limits its cooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. May 2019: Pregnant mother of three takes sanctuary inside Chicago church Adilene Marquina Adam, 34, says she was told to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, the family takes refuge inside a small storefront church, the Faith, Life and Hope Mission, on 63rd Street in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Sept. 26, 2019: Mayor Lightfoot upstages ICE press conference Robert Guadian, ICE's newly appointed Chicago field office director, held a news conference to underscore what he said are the dangers of local police not cooperating with his agency in so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago. But outside of ICE's Chicago office, Lightfoot appeared with a group of immigration activists and called Guadian's criticism of the city's sanctuary ordinance 'nonsense.' Oct. 28, 2019: President Trump makes his first visit to Chicago as the nation's chief executive Speaking at the annual gathering of the International Association of Chiefs of Police at McCormick Place, Trump slammed Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson in front of his peers and criticized the type of federal order the city is under to reform the CPD. Trump also called Chicago 'the worst sanctuary city in America' and cited the refusal of the city's Police Department under Johnson to detain people in the country illegally for immigration enforcement. Feb. 15, 2020: Border Patrol to deploy to Chicago The Trump administration is deploying law enforcement tactical units from the southern border as part of a supercharged arrest operation in sanctuary cities across the country, including Chicago, an escalation in the president's battle against localities that refuse to participate in immigration enforcement. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot released a video condemning the news that additional agents were being sent to sanctuary cities to help immigration enforcement, and warned residents that they did not have to open doors to anyone who doesn't have a warrant. Feb. 18, 2020: City leaders call for end to attacks on immigrants Chicago politicians and immigrant advocates vowed to push back against plans by President Trump's administration to deploy tactical units from the southern border to strengthen immigration enforcement in Chicago and other so-called sanctuary cities. U.S. Rep. Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia contended the timing of the initiative was intended to 'instill fear' in immigrants not just about deportation but about participating in the 2020 census. 'The timing is no accident,' Garcia said at a news conference. 'The attempted intimidation has a clear purpose: It is to intimidate our neighbors who are Latino, African American, Asian American communities in particular, not to open their doors. Trump succeeds if we do that. Trump wants us to be undercounted in our communities so that we would lose federal resources and services that are vital to our communities and weaken our political power.' April 30, 2020: Judges rule in favor of Chicago in sanctuary city fight with Trump Justice Department President Donald Trump's Justice Department can't withhold federal grants from sanctuary cities such as Chicago that extend protections to undocumented immigrants, a federal appeals court ruled. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was delighted by the ruling, saying she 'let out a cheer' when she found out about it. The battle started in 2017, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the federal government would require sanctuary cities that want federal public safety funding to give notice when immigrants in the country illegally are about to be released from custody and allow immigration agents access to local jails. Aug. 31, 2022: Seventy-five migrants who arrived in Texas were dropped off at Chicago's Union Station Around 9 p.m. along the Canal Street side of the station, a group of about 15 people, some of whom were from Venezuela and were waiting for another bus, were standing or sitting on a sidewalk. Some were looking at their phones as others were speaking to each other and to a Tribune reporter. Most were men, but there was one woman with her young daughter and husband. They were waiting to be picked up and taken to a shelter, they told the Tribune reporter. Read more. May 9, 2023: Mayor Lightfoot declares state of emergency: 'We've reached a breaking point' The executive order is in response to the thousands of migrants settling in the city, often under harsh living conditions, after crossing the U.S.' southern border to seek asylum. Jan. 24, 2025: CPS security video shows Secret Service trying to enter Chicago's Hamline School Chicago Public Schools officials had a calm, seemingly friendly conversation with two U.S. Secret Service agents outside Hamline School hours before the district sparked a nationwide panic when it falsely proclaimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had tried to enter the building, according to recently released security footage. Feb. 6, 2025: Trump administration sues Illinois, Cook County and Chicago over sanctuary immigration laws The lawsuit argues that the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause 'prohibits Illinois, Chicago, Cook County, and their officials from obstructing the Federal Government's ability to enforce laws that Congress has enacted or to take actions entrusted to it by the Constitution.' Originally Published:
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Column: Orange County once was an anti-immigrant hotbed. What changed?
For decades, I could count on my native Orange County to act against immigrants, legal and not, as regularly as the swallows returned to Capistrano. It was like a civic version of the Broadway classic 'Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),' except not as clever and with more xenophobia. Cue the lowlight reel! In a 1986 article in Time magazine, Newport Beach resident Harold Ezell, then director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Western region, criticized immigrants who use fraudulent papers. 'If you catch 'em, you ought to clean 'em and fry 'em yourself," he said. Republicans illegally posted uniformed security guards outside voting booths in Santa Ana in 1988 with signs stating noncitizens couldn't vote. A group of residents — including Ezell — drafted Proposition 187, the 1994 California ballot measure that sought to make life miserable for "illegal aliens" and their children. After downing margaritas at El Torito, they named the initiative 'Save Our State." In 1996, the Anaheim City Council allowed immigration authorities to screen the legal status of detainees in the city jail — the first program of its kind in California. Three years later, Anaheim Union High School District trustees passed a resolution to sue Mexico for $50 million for the cost of educating people like me, who were the children of unauthorized immigrants. Long before it became a GOP tradition, local Republican candidates and politicians took trips to the border to boast about how tough they were on the 'invasion.' In 2005, Mission Viejo grandfather Jim Gilchrist created the Minuteman Project, which enlisted suburbanites to help the Border Patrol find migrants who illegally crossed into this country. That same year, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor tried to get police officers to enforce federal immigration laws, which would have been a first in the nation. Read more: O.C. can you say ... 'anti-Mexican'? From theorizing about how to repeal birthright citizenship to suing California over its "sanctuary" state law and allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold detainees in city and county jails, Orange County has shown the rest of the country how to be as punitive as possible toward the undocumented. With Donald Trump in the White House again, this Know Nothing legacy has its most powerful acolyte ever. If you're against mass deportations and want to see some sort of amnesty, it's easy to feel deflated and even easier to curse Orange County for its past. I've been doing the latter for nearly all of my adult life — first as a college activist, then as a columnist. It's a subject I wish I could leave but — to paraphrase Michael Corleone — it keeps pulling me back in. Because I've covered Orange County for a quarter-century, though, I haven't lost all hope. I know the result of O.C.'s scorched-earth campaigns against illegal immigration: initially shoving the national conversation rightward, but eventually, repeatedly, becoming the political equivalent of an exploding cigar. Though Proposition 187 passed, it famously made my generation of California Latinos vote Democratic for decades and permanently kneecapped the O.C. GOP. The local anger over the ballot initiative led to Loretta Sanchez's historic 1996 win over incumbent Rep. Bob Dornan, as she became the first O.C. Latino elected to Congress. Her victory was so stunning that a House subcommittee investigated Dornan's claims that immigrants illegally voted in the election and swung it for Sanchez (they didn't). The Minuteman Project? It quickly fizzled out. John Eastman, the former dean of Chapman's law school who sparked Trump's interest in banning birthright citizenship with a cockamamie 2020 article claiming Kamala Harris wasn't a 'natural born citizen'? He faces disbarment for pushing Trump's unfounded claims that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. Costa Mesa? It now has a progressive, Latino-majority City Council that has loudly distanced itself from Mansoor's actions. As the years went on, trashing immigrants for political gain in Orange County just wasn't as popular or effective as before. Trump, despite his noxious rhetoric over three presidential campaigns, never won the county. A UC Irvine School of Social Ecology poll released this month showed that 28% of O.C. residents thought immigration was a 'top problem' locally — compare that with a 1993 Times poll putting that number at 80%. Meanwhile, the UC Irvine poll found that 58% of people in O.C. favored some type of legal status for immigrants who have none, while 35% preferred deportation. This ain't John Wayne's Orange County anymore. Hell, it's not mine. What changed? Demographics, for one. In 1990, as anger against illegal immigration was beginning to rage in Southern California, whites were 65% of the county. Fourteen years later, U.S. census figures showed they had become a minority in O.C. The latest stats put whites at just 37%. Nearly a third of residents are foreign-born, with immigrants living all across the county and occupying all rungs of the social ladder. It's harder to trash them when they're your neighbors, your children's friends, your in-laws or your co-workers, you know? Those changing demographics also led to the political purpling of the county. Few O.C. politicians outside of Huntington Beach's MAGA City Council have publicly praised Trump's promises to clamp down on immigration. Even O.C. Sheriff Don Barnes — who's about as liberal as a Winchester rifle and who has drastically increased the number of jail inmates his department turned over to immigration authorities — put out a news release this week asserting that his deputies "remain focused on the enforcement of state and local laws," rather than joining Trump's deportation posse. Most of all, it's the activists who have had enough of the old Orange County. There's always been pushback against anti-immigrant lunacy here. When I was a sophomore at Anaheim High, thousands of high school students walked out of class to protest Proposition 187. In 2006, there was a huge rally in Santa Ana — along with other marches in the rest of the country — to protest a congressional bill that would have made Proposition 187 seem as friendly as President Reagan's amnesty. But most of those efforts were haphazard, devolved into infighting among Chicanosauruses and didn't develop into a full-fledged movement. Read more: In Orange County, land of reinvention, even its conservative politics is changing Over the last 15 years, activists who grew up here — and not just Latinos — have organized rallies, staged sit-ins and formed nonprofits or community-based groups that coalesced into a multifront network standing up for people without papers. They campaigned to kick ICE out of local jails, aided various lawsuits seeking to change local policies and even helped pro-immigrant candidates populate school boards and city councils. If such a loud, successful resistance can happen in Orange County, it can happen anywhere. It's not easy, but it's possible — nay, necessary. One of the people fighting the good fight is Santa Ana native Sandra De Anda. She's a network coordinator for Orange County Rapid Response Network, which connects immigrants to legal help and runs a hotline to report ICE sightings. The 31-year-old grew up on Minnie Street in a historically Cambodian and Latino neighborhood where migra detained residents 'all the time." When she returned to her hometown from Portland, Ore., in 2017, De Anda began to volunteer for pro-immigrant groups 'and never looked back.' She's proud of how far Orange County has come and is more committed than ever to her cause. Friends and family worry for her safety, but De Anda remains undeterred. 'There's such a nasty conservative tradition here, but our folks have still been here just as long,' she told me in a matter-of-fact tone after a long day of work. 'We deserve to stay here. We're going to have to fight together through any means necessary for the next four years." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
